My Lunch With Michael Leigh

Mom told me to pack my ties and a blazer.  "I don't wear that stuff," I whined.  "They're more formal in Europe," she insisted.  She was right.  Last Friday I was wearing tie and blazer and wishing for the first time that I owned a suit.

As part of a free contest at school, I won a lunch (along with another student) with Michael Leigh, the Director-General of Enlargement for the European Union Commission.  For those of you not familiar with the EU, the shorthand for Director-General is "highroller."  In fact, if you Google "Michael Leigh" and click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, the first thing that pops up is his resume, all splattered with Oxfords and MITs.  I learned all of this approximately one hour before I met him, wondering what kind of shitty prize a business lunch is.

So "Miami" Phil Martinez and I headed out to meet him and my Bulgarian revolutionary teacher Albana Azmanova, who knew Michael personally having worked for him in the Commission before.  Lunch was at a classy EU watering hole around the corner from the Commission downtown. We made our introductions, and he gave us a spiel about EU enlargement, basically the process of integrating prospective additions into the EU fold.  We talked Iceland and Croatia, asking a few questions here and there but letting him lead the way.  

Things were going well with the easy countries, on to Turkey.  "So how about Turkey?" I ventured confidently.  "They're pretty Eastern."

"Actually, they consider themselves Western and in fact act as a liaison between East and West while....".  I zoned out trying to regroup.  He finished.

"But they don't have a lot of interaction with the West," I said authoritively, for reasons I don't fully understand.

"They are a member of NATO.   Are you studying Turkey?"  He glanced at Albana.

Hmm, the ABORT sign was flashing.  I needed to quit while I was ahead.  I resisted that impulse.  "Yeah but there's a lot of people there," I pushed on.  "Like, 400 million?"

"About 80 million," he corrected.  

I thought for a second.  "Do you like beer?"  Please God don't let him be Mormon.  But his eyes lit up and we talked beer in Belgium, England and Portland, yeast strains and bacterial variations.  It was his lunch, we'd made him talk about work for a half hour.  The rest of the lunch went well, talking about government and Brussels and why Brussels doesn't have a government.  The food itself was of excellent quality and perfect portions, which made me want to be rich or at least have a job that would reimburse me for lunches like these.

At the end of the lunch, I offered him my business card and he accepted.  He fumbled around for one of his before saying (truthfully or not) that he didn't have one.  I don't expect to get a job or even a phone call out of it, but this is what you're supposed to do at functions like these.  And if I can get in way over my head with a highroller and still pull it out in the end, then I think this networking thing just got a whole lot easier.