What is your favorite travel destination?
My favorite travel destination is updated every time I travel to someplace new. Recently I was lucky enough to travel to Western Turkiye to see for myself its rich and unique architectural heritage, from the numerous mosques (both old and new) that dot its landscape, to its ancient ruins, to its underground cities and dwellings carved directly out of rock, not to mention sites from its neolithic past. I found the country to be a very welcoming place, not only in the amazing city of Istanbul, but also its smaller, lesser-known cities. Tremendous hospitality was offered everywhere, from its tourist-filled Mediterranean towns as well as some of its very remote villages. The spirit of the country and the generosity of its people really made a fine impression.
What physical activity do you like best?
Swimming. I am, in fact, a terrible swimmer. I learned this fact while swimming in the Mediterranean (on my trip to Turkiye) with a group of people who were much better swimmers than I. We all jumped off the boat, anchored about twenty feet from shore, and swam toward deeper waters. A few yards into my swim, I realized that I was getting exhausted and had to swim back to the safety, barely able to make it back to the boat. I was exhausted and devastated, thinking I was a much stronger swimmer than I was. Now, I intend to practice my swimming over the next few months and perhaps taking a few lessons to be better prepared next time I’m out in the water. It is my hope that someday swimming would be an activity that I would eventually be good at and enjoy.
