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.

Singapore zoo

One of the places that was highly recommended to visit in Singapore was the zoo. I love zoos and after the awesome night safari I was sure we wouldn't be disappointed with the quality of the zoo.

We spent the whole day at the zoo and there was still a lot we didn't have time to do. The neat thing about the Singapore zoo was that there were no cages - all the animal habitats were open air and there were even free roaming monkeys and orangutangs in tree-top exhibits all over the park.

Another cool thing was the amount of shows. There were marine shows, shows for kids, elephant demonstrations and a rainforest show. They were all really good and included lots of animals as well as audience participation.

My absolute favorite thing about the park was the amount of animal feedings that you could do. This cost extra ($5 for two people per feeding) but it was totally worth it. You could feed a variety of animals by yourself with a guide next to you, and Sean and I decided that out of all the choices we wanted to hang out with the manatees for a bit. It was so much fun! After paying our money, we picked up our bucket of apple, potato and carrot pieces and headed over to where the three huge manatees were chilling in their tank.

I have never really seen a manatee up close before, so it was really fun to be able to touch them and feed them their snacks. They were very gentle and had big soft noses and huge leathery mouths. They were very excited about the food and our feeding session was done all too soon. After that we got our picture taken next to a group of orangutangs.

My other favorite visit at the zoo was the miniature horses and the giant rabbits. Sean started sneezing as soon as we got near the "farm" area and we could only stay for a little bit, but I had a blast petting the tiny ponies - they were so stinkin' cute!

In the evening, after we made it back from the zoo, we joined Daniel for one last dinner together before he left in the morning for his trip to the U.S. We decided to eat in Little India and the food was awesome. We had spicy eggplant, lamb and lots of different flavors of nan - delicious!

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

1 Comment

Unknown on September 10, 2014 at 4:53 PM

Wow , This is beautiful . Thanks for sharing these amazing pictures . Mauritius Tour packages

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

Singapore zoo

1 Comment