ABOUT ME

Born in the late 80s, I was raised in New Jersey, the eldest of my parents' 5 children. My mother was an Turkish investment banker and my father was a Greek born-again ascetic monk. I enjoyed doodling ying-yangs when I was a young child. Looking back, that may have been significant.

After reading a book about the Spartans, my parents told me I lacked character and decided to expose me to elements. Fortunately, having taught myself to read earlier that year, I was able to internalize 78% of the Eagle Scout training curriculum before setting out.

A couple of Danish tourists(I recall having correctly identified the North Germanic accent at the time, but for whatever reason went out on a limb and mistakenly greeted them in Norwegian), who had taken a wrong turn on their way to Manhattan, found me inside my hand-dug snow cave in the foothills of Kittatinny Mountain. Having just realized the anachronism I had committed earlier that day when I concluded 40 hours of chiseling for my creation of the replica Parthenon facade of my ice cave, I was in the process of converting the structure's columns from Ionic style to Doric when Lucas and Sofie approached.

Fast forwarding 10 years...

"Farvel mor og far," I yelled out to Lucas and Sofie as their Saab pulled away from the Lufthansa terminal at Copenhagen International Airport. As far as stepparents go, I couldn't have been more fortunate. Our home was comfortable, the pickled herring and potatoes were plentiful, and in short, I wanted for nothing. Yet, at the age of 14 it was again my time to set out. I was off to Cambridge, Massachusetts for my first year of medical school.

It was the summer of 2002, the year that would see the end of the Civil War in Sierra Leone. I had flown to west Africa to volunteer as a triage specialist, but on my third day in-country was kidnapped by Kosnatu, a bald, broad shouldered, tall, dark, generally good natured man who had recently turned to okra farming in order to supplement the income he earned as a cassava bread baker. (I should add that countless times, even while in captivity, I extolled the virtues of instituting a multiple crop rotation system, but Kosnatu was always as shortsighted as he was industrious.)

The kidnapping was largely the result of a misunderstanding. I had been walking the streets of Freetown all day, just trying to get my bearings, and although I wasn't too tired, when I came across a canopy covered street market I thought it'd be nice to duck out of the heat for a bit.

Kosnatu was the first stall owner to call me over, so I squatted down onto one of his short legged stools and ordered a drink. Now, having had the chance to play back the scenario in my head thousands of times, I'm certain that the exact words I spoke were, "Wooo, this ginger beer is making me burpy!"

But what I didn't know at the time was that "berpi" (pronounced buhr-pee), to a subculture of street vendors in the northeast section of Freetown, Sierra Leone means: "wealthy, by way of inheritance or swindling rather than hard work."

Presumably, Kosnatu mistook me for a foreign ginger beer magnate on a market research trip to his country, and the rest followed.

For the record, I was never treated poorly during the 3 months I spent in captivity. I won't get into the details of my escape here (suffice to say, I remembered my Eagle Scout training, did a lot of digging, and had an opportunity to use the dental floss zip line I finished braiding on the 76th day), but I was eventually picked up by a cargo ship carrying strip mined Bauxite en route to an aluminum can production facility in Russia.

I jumped ship in the Mediterranean, swam (based on my estimates) 75 km to an island in the Cyclades, caught a flight to Athens, then Athens to NYC and back to Cambridge in time for the first day of my second year of classes.

I hope we get a chance to meet so I can tell you how the next year, my 15th, played out.

Interests

I think the only thing I love, other than friends and family, is great food.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

• books
• dining
• beer
• walking
• drinking
• reading
• volunteering

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The long evening car trip I made with my buddy Derek through stormy, tornado ravaged Missouri.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Israel, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Greece, Malaysia, Spain, United States