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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.

Where's my bike?

If you know me you know that I am kind of spacey, a little disorganized and kind of forgetful. These traits tend to cause me some problems especially if I am tired or in a hurry. One thing that I am constantly forgetting in China is where I parked my bike. There are several bike corrals on campus and hundreds of bikes in each one.

The other night I had just got off work from my second job down town and had gone to the supermarket to pick up some eggs and flour. It was late when I finally got off the bus and arrived on campus. I was cold because it was freezing and rainy out, tired, grumpy, had heavy bags and hungry because I hadn't eaten dinner yet. I walked over to the bike corral and started looking for where I left my bike. Since the campus is not well lit and there are no lights in the outside corral finding you bike is never an easy task for me. I looked and looked but I couldn't find it. Finally I put my bags down and started really looking (this kind of thing always happened to me at OSU in the parking garages as well).

After about 15 minutes of looking I realized that my bike had been stolen and I was totally sad and furious. Bike theft is common campus but I am always careful to lock mine with two separate locks. I was really mad because I love my bike and had spent a considerable amount of money on it. I also share it with Sean so I knew he would be upset as well. Disappointed, angry and frustrated with the Chinese and China in general, I called Sean in tears. He picked up the phone and after explaining the situation told me to calm down because the bike was at his place - he reminded me that I didn't use it that day, he did.

Oops. I felt immediately relieved and then ridiculous. It's crazy how a habit can make you so convinced that you did something even when you didn't. It's also a little nuts how a little tiredness, stress, emotion, grumpiness, hormones and frustration can produce these little snafus that happen pretty often for me. Fortunately, Sean knows how to calm me down and he rode the bike to where I was to pick me up. He was also nice enough to switch toothpastes with me - I wasn't very careful and accidentally had bought some kind of cantaloupe/bubblegum flavor (gag) instead of mint.
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    Sarah Sanderson
    I am currently in Mandarin language training as a new diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. Sean and I depart for Wuhan, China in November 2019 for my first tour in consular affairs.
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    Grateful for my very tolerant, supportive and easygoing husband who's always game for a new adventure

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