U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Tea ceremony and speeches

Showing off our calligraphy - my teacher made me work on the character that means "togetherness" because I am the only fellow that is married

I meant to write about finishing up the summer Japanese program but that occurred while I was moving house and blogging fell by the wayside. One of the many benefits of going abroad with an organization like Rotary is that they create personalized events and programs just for the Peace Fellows. One such program was the intensive Japanese class that we participated in during the month of August. Though the class was very little reading or writing and mostly just "survival" spoken Japanese, it is helping me out now not only just getting around but also staying afloat in the university's language class. The class also provided extracurricular programs like flower arranging, drumming, lectures and calligraphy.

Learning how to make and serve tea correctly

During our final class, our teacher dressed us in summer kimonos and taught us how to do a tea ceremony. We also showed off the calligraphy we had done during one of our classes. We continued to practice our speeches in preparation for the afternoon closing ceremony during which we would perform the tea ceremony for Rotarians and present our memorized essays. I talked about my family and Sean - not exactly riveting but it was all I could manage given my limited vocabulary. Others talked about their hobbies or their hometowns. We were all very happy to get it over with as everything was very formal and just made us more nervous.

It was really fun to wear the yukatta/summer kimono and slippers!

What was most interesting was the emphasis (at times it seemed like obsession) that our Japanese teachers put on absolute perfection. We rehearsed our two minute speeches over and over again - for hours. We practiced one by one with the teachers and they helped us with our pronunciation, breathing and flow. We worked on our posture, voice, eye contact and volume along with absolute memorization - we weren't allowed to have a cheat sheet. The adage "practice makes perfect" took on an entirely new meaning. Let's just say that we all slept a lot better when it was all over and the cold celebratory beers never tasted so good. Kanpai!

All of the yukattas laid out ready for putting on

Madeleine from Australia

Shook from Malaysia and Rashmi from India

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Wanderlust

In Mandarin: 旅遊癮 (lǚyóu yǐn)

According to my Mandarin teacher, the term 'wanderlust' can best be translated as 'a travel addiction or craving'. In the above translation, 'yǐn' has several meanings such as 'a strong impulse', 'a longing', or 'a desire'.

U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

Tea ceremony and speeches

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