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For nearly 30 years, I dedicated my life to the dead. After changing my major twice in college, I finally settled on anthropology with the intention of going to law school. In one of my first anthropology courses,  Dr William Maples , a forensic anthropologist, gave a guest lecture. He spoke for 50 minutes. I was awestruck. I wanted to be him. After convincing Dr Maples to let me volunteer in his lab as an undergrad, and then convincing him to take me as a grad student, I sta

From 2005 to 2008, I lived in Tbilisi, Georgia. It’s about 6,300 miles outside of Atlanta. Nestled in the Caucasus Mountains along the Black Sea, the Republic of Georgia is a foodie’s paradise, a wine lover’s dream, and the unofficial global headquarters of dinner parties that last longer than your average relationship. Georgia’s food is the kind of soul-hugging fare that makes you unbutton your jeans and whisper, “I regret nothing.” Georgians do carbs better than anyone. Tak

In July of 2010, I was sent on mission to  Nepal . I was living in Switzerland at the time, and I had layovers in Munich and Doha. I knew I was in for a long flight. But I had no idea just how long my “welcome” to Kathmandu would take. I was scheduled to land at 8:30 in the morning. As we neared our destination, the pilot came over the comms to tell us we’d be delayed due to heavy rain over Kathmandu. We flew around for a while. Then the pilot told us we were diverting to nor