Richard Hoagland, the United States Ambassador to Kazakhstan, was recently interviewed by the Kazakhstan GAZETA.
Ambassador Hoagland gave this response to one of the questions:
Thank you very much for your personal interest. I was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I studied at the University of Virginia and the University of Grenoble, France. Before joining the Foreign Service, I taught English as a foreign language in Zaire (which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and African literature at the University of Virginia's Carter-Woodson Institute of African and Afro-American Studies.
Before coming to Kazakhstan, I served previously as U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan 2003-2006, as Charge d'affaires to Turkmenistan July 2007-July 2008, and in the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan 1993-1995. And so, I know this region pretty well.
Was I ever a hippie and did I ever do the standard "hippie things"? Let's just say, like almost all university students, I fully enjoyed life.
Music? My favorite music is chamber music from all historical periods, from before Johann Sebastian Bach to after Sergei Prokofiev. I also very much like traditional American folk music from the Appalachian Mountains, especially those recordings our Library of Congress made in the 1930s.
One other detail few people know - I am a passionate gardener. Finally, I love good food and very much enjoy shopping at "Green Bazaars" and cooking for myself and my friends.
That's really cool. My favorite part was when they asked if he ever smoked weed. Did not realize that was a major concern that the average Kazakhstan wanted to know.
The other interesting thing is that he was more open to answering whether he smoked weed than he was about his political and religious leanings.
Posted by: Andy Borgmann | December 29, 2008 at 12:51 PM