Gradventure Turkey – Part 1

Field work is easily my favorite part about being an academic. Even though academia has slowly moved away from the good old fashioned field work for the most part (while focusing on data analysis and building data sets), those of us studying Comparative Politics and International Relations are still expected to do field work. Fortunately for my dissertation project, I am relying on heavy field work spread across three countries to prove my hypothesis about the influence of bureaucracy on democratization efforts. My cases are Turkey, Pakistan, and Taiwan. Currently, I am working on Turkey and Pakistan. As a Taiwan Fellow for 2017, I will begin work on Taiwan in Fall 2017 after I move there as part of the fellowship for a semester.

Adnanventure 3: Pittsburgh

I am proud to announce that #Adnanventure is back again and this time around it is Pittsburgh. As I write this, I am waiting on the airport for my flight to Pittsburgh. This #Adnanventure is slightly different from others as this time around I will be attending work events most of the time and will be bring you the awesome experiences I have. As this is an election year, Adnanventure 3 will be heavy on political news and events. But as always, I will be trying to explore as much of the city as I can.

So far these are the places I have been told to definitely visit –

• Andy Warhol Museum
• Primantis Sandwich
• De Luca’s
• Beehive Coffee

I would love to get more suggestions. Leave them in the comments section

Stay tuned for updates.

Adnanventure 2015 – Ola Miami

MIAMI – I am coming (hehehe)

Finally the semester is over and it is time for Adnanventure 2015. This year the adventure is bigger, better and awesomer or at least that is what I keep telling myself. The plan is to not have a plan and just take thing as they come. I will be there between 11th and 16th of May.

Adnanventure – Wonderful Washington Part 2

World War 2 Memorial

The first two days were ultra hectic. I had been constantly travelling, hardly getting any sleep and trying to see as much of everything as I could. So on Day 3 I made it a point to slow down a bit and kind of enjoy what was around me. Woke up relatively late around 9 and ventured down to the lobby restaurant for my free breakfast. At this point I would like to take the time and thank Best Western for easily having one of the best breakfast menus of any hotel in their category. Great breakfast that was thoroughly enjoyed as the sun was finally out.

Having already seen the Air and Space Museum, Congress and the White House, my agenda was to finally go through rest of the Smithsonian museums and basically just walk around for a bit getting the feel of the city. So on advice of my Americanist friends (These are my friends who specialize in American Politics as part of their Grad Studies) I started the day at the American History Museum. History in general fascinates me but recently American History has become my area of interest. I feel that we can see the future based on the past and that our personalities are built up on our shared history. Add to this the fact that I live Atlanta, Georgia… which is one of the largest cities in the South; I have developed a special interest in the North South divide as well as the Civil War.

AdnanVenture – Walking Washington DC

Capitol Selfie… Hazards of Travelling Alone

I travel not because I have to, for me it is something more. I took this trip/vacation not because I needed one; well I needed one, but because it is when you travel you get to know yourself better. I always saw travel as a means of improving yourself because it gives you testing conditions that your normal life does not. So from where I am sitting, travel is a great way to do a self evaluation and find stuff that can be better addressed in your life to improve the overall quality of your life. You throw yourself out there and make as many mistakes as it takes to get through a finite amount of period while trying to have fun and take things easy. It is a balance that you try to maintain throughout the period of time you are travelling. This Adnanevnture, as I like to call it, has been amazing from this point of view. I have learned so much about myself, about the places I have been visiting and the people I have been seeing.

Adnanventure – Doing Durham

The last 24 hours have gone something like this; I started out from Atlanta on MegaBus. Honestly I just chose that instead of flying or Amtrak because the ticket was 1 dollar. The bus took about 8 hours to get to Durham having made a stopover in Columbia, South Carolina. If you have the liberty of time, always take MegaBus. It is comfortable, it is cheap and the buses are in great condition.