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.

Summer afternoons and evenings in Holland

"Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language." - Henry James

Summers at home in Michigan are delightful. I'm currently sitting in the screen porch with Mom and Dad who are watching one of their favorite programs called Antiques Road Show. Mom's working on sewing a bib for a newly born baby and Dad's doing the crossword puzzle from the local paper. It's raining lightly, the birds are happy and we're all drinking tea. Thunderstorms are predicted for tonight which is making our dog, Uno, visibly anxious already. These are the kind of moments that come to mind when I think about summer evenings at home.

One of the other things that I enjoy doing while I am at home is reading the local paper, the Holland Sentinel, and doing the crossword. Doing the crossword puzzle is quite the process in our house. First, Dad does it lightly in pencil and also writes the level of difficulty in his opinion and sometimes the time it took him to complete it at the bottom of the puzzle. Then he erases it and Mom does the puzzle and after she completes it she erases it for me for do. I have proposed alternative methods like borrowing the neighbors' puzzles or making copies on the printer, but they prefer to just use an eraser.

Besides reading the paper I also like checking out the fridge and cupboards to see what kind of goodies my parents are eating nowadays. Current exciting finds include: grape soda, peanut m&m's, Nilla wafers, corn beef, donut holes and fresh-picked blueberries. Yum! I also found some beer which was kind of surprising since my parents aren't really drinkers. This mystery was soon solved, however, when my mom came to me bearing a small saucer filled with Budweiser and . . . slugs. Apparently, if you want to grow healthy tomato plants in Michigan you should put dishes of beer at the base so the greedy and beer-thirsty slugs drink themselves to death instead of gorging themselves on your tomatoes. Live and learn, I guess.

Screen porches, crossword puzzles and slugs . . . just another summer afternoon in West Michigan - it's good to be home!

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

2 comments

mary deenik on July 20, 2010 at 5:59 PM

Those models look just like REAL parents!
Chen on July 21, 2010 at 9:17 AM

It's good to know that you're quite happy now.

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

Summer afternoons and evenings in Holland

2 comments