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.

CIEE video

A couple of weeks ago Matt Redman, the marketing manager for the CIEE Teach Abroad Programs, emailed me and asked if it would be all right if he came and videotaped Sean and I going about our normal life teaching and living in Changzhou. We said it wasn't a problem at all and gave him the emails of the other teachers here who are also from CIEE so they could talk to them too.

Matt and Morgan (film guy) arrived on Thursday morning and after checking in they started taping right away. Matt's goal is to create a short video to promote the teach abroad program in China to other Americans looking to do something different. Currently, the most popular teach abroad program is Spain and Matt wants to show how attractive and adventurous of a choice China is. Morgan filmed us walking all over campus, my apartment, me teaching, Sean teaching, eating lunch at the cafeteria . . . pretty much everything that we do on a day to day on a day to day basis.

One afternoon they interviewed us about why we came to China, our thoughts about living and teaching here and why we decided to come back for another year. I don't think our interview was that exciting but I think it will be fun to see what the final video is and if any of our clips were even used. They also interviewed Peter and came to the world cup pizza party at Ken's place later that night.

I've had a really positive experience with both CIEE study abroad and CIEE teach abroad and would recommend checking them out if you want some guidance in studying or working abroad.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

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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

CIEE video

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