Born in Washington, DC but raised in Georgia, I graduated from UGA with a major in Political Science and minors in Russian and Global Policy Studies. Intent on a career in diplomacy or intelligence, I had a brief stint in the State Department before all-very-logically deciding to chuck that career to study art history. I started teaching English in South Korea, then came to Hungary for a friend's wedding and in Budapest received qualifications and a job offer. After working for several years teaching executives, diplomats and the occasional minister, I became fascinated with subjects like emotional intelligence and the ideas in Malcolm Gladwell's works. And I leveraged my skills and experience to enter the world of corporate learning and development.

My wife is Hungarian, we have a half-Hungarian, half-American toddler daughter, and friends from countries too many to name.

1. When did you arrive in Hungary and what brought you here?
I arrived in Hungary back in 1997. I came to Hungary for the wedding of a friend in Szeged, as my first stop on an extended - read permanent - trip to Europe. I was drawn to Budapest for a training course, was then offered a job by the same people, later met my future wife and ended up staying.

2. Have you ever been an expatriate elsewhere?
I lived for two years in Kwang-ju, South Korea. And I still get cravings for kim-chi.

3. What surprised you most about Hungary?
Pleasantly, that stuffed cabbage is a traditional meal here. It was my first home-cooked meal in Hungary, served by my host on the night I arrived. It also happens to be my family's traditional New Year's meal (though with much less paprika), and so I felt right at home. On the down side, I am still frequently surprised, though I should be inured by now, at how deep and pervasive are the pessimism and negativity, and I start thinking of self-fulfilling prophesies and chicken and egg conundrums.

4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend - what must they absolutely see and do?
Get to one of the 'kerts' in the city, like Szimpla, because you don't really find them elsewhere, far as I know. If it's Autumn and they're lucky, the wine festival in the castle. If spring, the Spring Festival. A Hungarian garden party, complete with bogrács, at a private home. Hungarians are extremely gracious, generous hosts, and you see a completely different side than the gruffness on the sidewalks and the aggression on the streets. And if it's August, a quick trip to Balatonfüred for the wine festival. The wine isn't spectacular, the atmosphere is.

5. What is your favourite Hungarian food?
Hard to say. Stuffed cabbage, of course. Anything made in a bogrács. Lecso, as we make it when down at Balaton and were taught by my wife's mother. Over-salted, fried hekk that sticks to your fingers, along with the napkin, and needs the juice from the pickles to get off, but only at the lake - would be horrible anywhere else.

6. What is never missing from your refrigerator?
Organic rice drink for my daughter, wine for her parents, and at least one or two expired products.

7. What is your favourite Hungarian word?
Ügyes. When my wife says it to my daughter who has just managed some new feat, it is so much more appropriate than saying, 'How clever.' And saying, 'Oh, you are so skilful' would just sound ridiculous.

8. What do you miss the most from home?
Besides my family ? Optimism and the can-do attitude. Friendly cashiers in supermarkets (at least in the South), actually quality supermarkets in general. New York, or at least the knowledge that it's right there and easy to fly off to (that said, would be worse to be Stateside and know that Paris was far away.) But I am quite happily institutionalised and don't miss so very much.

9. What career other than yours would you love to pursue?
Wine-making. Farming mixed with art, and the grand villa perched among vineyards wouldn't be so bad.

10. What's a job you would definitely never want?
Police officer in Chihuahua, Mexico. Member of the Russian Duma.

11. Where did you spend your last vacation?
In the US, visiting family.

12. Where do you hope to spend your next one?
At Baltonfüred.

13. What was your favourite band, film, or hobby as a teen?
Favourite band: REM. Favourite film: Casablanca, though I had a brief and embarrassing fixation on wanting to be like Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Favourite hobby: sailing.

14. What can't you resist?
Temptation, and plagiarism.

15. Red wine or white?
Yes, please.

16. Book or movie?
Definitely book.

17. Morning person or night person?
Morning, especially on weekends when my daughter wanders in to wake me up.

18. Which social issue do you feel most strongly about?
Single issue fixation idiocy. But I can tend towards that when it comes to child trafficking, or generally anything to do with the abuse or mistreatment of children.

19. Buda side or Pest side?
Buda for living, Pest for an evening out, as I am sure many have said.

20. What would you say is your personal motto?
Aspiration more than motto: I like the Maya Angelou take on the old Irish prayer: "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." Kinda like Covey's habit of Pro-activity.