I was born in California but spent my growing up for the most part in the Middle East, where my family lived in Beirut, Lebanon and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for a total of 16 years. I attended high school in the U.S. and Switzerland and college at the University of Illinois and Cal Sate San Jose, and did a semester abroad at Oxford University.I later worked in Japan for six years for The Japan Times and Japan National Broadcasting (NHK). I worked for three different newspapers and magazines in t
