A few weeks ago our class took a field trip to Orvieto. We arrived in the late afternoon after a day full of sightseeing, so I changed into a t-shirt as soon as we checked into the hotel. Soon after, a group of five of us was wandering around the streets looking for a place to eat dinner. We stopped outside a restaurant with an outdoor patio to look at the menu when a man sitting with his family yelled, “War Eagle!” at us; he had seen the small emblem on my shirt. We talked to the family at length and discovered that the husband and wife were both Auburn graduates and now lived in Arkansas. We were so surprised at the odds of running into Auburn fans in this small Italian town that our night was made.
We decided to eat at the same restaurant as the family and when they left they gave us a parting, “War Eagle” and wished us well on the rest of our trip. About an hour later when we asked for the check the waiter informed us that the family had paid for our meal and instead of a check brought us a note from them. We were all so enchanted by their generosity; it was such an exemplary instance of “the human touch” at work. This small act of kindness proved to all of us how strong the Auburn family is, even across generations and oceans. On the walk home that night we all decided that one day we would have to return the favor if we encountered Auburn students in our future travels.
Mizna Kanafani

The note from our new Auburn friends