Now that everyone in our group has had a chance to get to know each other, I will have them introduced to you; I’d do it myself, but Hampton does a much better job of depicting them than I would ever have come up with by myself. Thank you, Hampton, for letting me quote you (and for your kind words :-P). And now, ladies and gentlemen, the introductions (from http://hamptoncokeley.wordpress.com/):
The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations sends students to Middle Eastern countries in order to promote understanding between cultures. From a pool of about 60 applicants, ten are selected to travel to Lebanon with the stipulation that they have a post-fellowship plan for spreading the knowledge that they learned from the interviews. My fellowship year involves organizing a speaker series on the Middle East in the spring and writing a scholarly paper on an issue of importance to Lebanon in addition to writing this blog about the trip, Lebanese, and Middle Eastern issues.
Klevis was born in Albania and lived there until he was ten years old. He then moved to Massachusetts where he remained and he decided to attend Northeastern University in Boston. He is majoring in International Relations and a smattering of minors. Klevis is the youngest in the group at 20 years old. The oddest fact is that I have known his roommate from college for four or five years.
Juan is a 38-year-old grad student who has done it all. He is one of the funniest guys on the trip. We sat and talked about his booming comic book store, the time he lived with his trust fund buddy, and his $300,000 share in a startup tequila company. I think that we were all shocked to hear the disparity between his personality and his age. He stands as a true testament to my mom’s saying:
“Hey! I’m not old…I’ve just been here longer!”
Aubrey is from Michigan. I give that poor girl hell about her accent. She is very bright and speaks the best Arabic in the group. I am pretty sure that she wants to go into the Foreign Service. She turned 22 while we were on the trip and we semi-celebrated by going to the Najwa Karam concert that Saturday night.
Peter is a second year masters student at Georgetown University, concentrating on Foreign Service. Before going to graduate school, he worked in commodities training for four years. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about Peter. I do know that he is a good guy and likes to chew gum.
Laura goes to John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. She gives it back as hard as she gets it. She keeps calling me fat…
Michelle is a graduate student from Johns Hopkins CIES in Washington, D.C. She has been all over the world and also wants to work in the Foreign Service. One of the older group members, she is 27 but like the others, doesn’t seem like it. Michelle has been all over the world. She had to get more pages added to her passport before she came here. She studied abroad in Spain for a year and taught English in Turkey for a few months. She did her undergraduate work at Williams College and was born in Australia.
Robby loves history. A blue dog democrat from Pennsylvania and self-proclaimed Marxist, Robby is the first to smile and always in a good mood. He attends Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and is studying Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies in addition to History.
Jordan is an adorable southerner from Shreveport, Louisiana. She spent a month or so in Bosnia studying the effects of the war and the cultural divisions of the people. She wants to rehabilitate child soldiers in Africa for a living. That is a far cry from my greedy aspirations to be an international pop star like Ricky Martin…just kidding…
…But seriously…
Holly just got married. I can’t imagine subjecting myself to that kind of purgatory at such a young age, but to each his own I guess. She is a second year PhD student at Virginia Tech and also one of the older people in the program. She is doing her dissertation on something involving religion and culture or something. I am doing all of these profiles from memory, so bear with me.
Linda is a woman of the world. If I had to compare her to movie character, it would be a combination between the worldliness of Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld and all the class of a much kinder Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada. She is returning to Lebanon after being away for 35 years. She lived here for three years working with an NGO before leaving due to the Civil War in the 70s. She really is a pleasure to be around and a lot of fun. I can learn a lot from her.
Josh is my roommate and the “Deputy Escort” of the program. He is a tall, jovial guy who heads the student programs at the National Council and isn’t much older than many of us are. He commands our respect but still manages to be seen as one of the guys.
Melkhar is our guide. He gets his own blog post later on. He is a character and deserves nothing less.
And then there is Hampton Cokeley himself, who will be a senior this year at The Military College of South Carolina, The Citadel. He is a really good writer (I highly suggest a few reads of his blog) but he does a horrible Michigan accent.
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