TRAVEL STORIES

While traveling from Iraq into Turkey squeezed into the back seat of a Ford Focus with two very large Turks (one sweating profusely with food poisoning), I was stopped by the Turkish military police. Suspicious of the Kurdish business man in the front seat, he ordered us all out, instructed us to empty our bags, and immediately grew puzzled by all of the African collectibles on my person. He asked where I “was coming from,” and I responded by rattling off 8 countries through Africa and the Middle East, ending with “Iraqi Kurdistan.” “There’s no such place as Kurdistan” came the reply, to which I protested, earning the reproach of this heavily armed officer and his supervisor. We managed to slip away unscathed, but I earned the esteem of my Kurdish traveling companion, who paid for my hotel room for the night in Diyarbakir, Turkey.

On my third day in China, I vowed I would find a way to watch the Iron Bowl football contest between Alabama and Auburn back home. Unfortunately, a regional blackout of Asia stymied me from making the 4am local time kickoff, so I stormed out of my friend’s apartment, seeking an expatriate sports bar I’d found on Google maps. Given my utter lack of Mandarin skill, I quickly became lost on the equivalent of a Chinese intestate highway while pantomiming my way down the road. Lost, freezing in the November Beijing wind, and without much hope for making it back to my home base before morning, much less to the Beijing expat bar, I came across a guardian angel in the form of a couple walking through the night. They directed the cab driver where to take me, and I made it just in time to see Alabama’s collapse against Auburn. I was witness to a crushing defeat, but happy my mix of determination and fortuitous luck allowed me to connect with home from the other side of the world.

While studying Kurdish separatism in Iraq, I entered a Facebook contest to interview George W. Bush about his memoirs. Given my Fellowship focus on democratic institution building, I thought I might have a credible shot at being selected…but I was still utterly shocked when it happened! While back in the U.S. in February for a Vanderbilt Board of Trust meeting, Bush’s staff flew me to Dallas for an interview with the former president. HE spoke for 35 minutes about global issues, domestic changes, and he even agreed to call my dad to say hello.