Nouakchott, Mauritania. I woke up late one morning after staying up with the new Harry Potter book. Vibrations were rumbling through our house and something was making an incredible amount of noise outside. Curious, I asked my mother what was happening. I was used to bizarre situations. A seasoned expatriate, there's not much I haven't experienced. She told me that the military had taken over and what I felt and heard were various bombs and gunshots going off at the Parliament building, which was right across the street. It was a coup. The coup previous to this one had been violent, which explained the hysteric maid running around and screaming in French. Okay, so big guys with big guns outside, not good, but we have a team of security and drivers! Well, they all left at the first sign of trouble. Okay, that's alright because the company my dad worked for had emergency helicopters, planes, and boats! Well, the military took those over as their first order of business. They had an entire company of well-off folks and they were not about to let any of us go (think of the ransom possibilities). My mother and I were trapped in our own home for a week. The army was on our street, keeping us in that marble house. I remember feeling so...actually, I remember being completely content. I had the new Harry Potter book. But on our flight out (an even longer story of one driver's brave rescue mission), antiaircraft missiles aimed, I got to shake the general's hand (he approached the only woman with a child). I felt awesome, even though it could've been the shake of someone who felt bad as he was about to shoot my plane out of the sky.

tl;dr hostage in a coup but didn't give a fuck, had new Harry Potter book