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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.

Forbidden City




On Thursday night, the night of our overnight train trip to Beijing, Qin Chen arrived home from work with a huge bag of food for the road - it looked like she had bought enough food for a week. In the bag were bowls of instant noodles (or "convenient noodles" as my students call them), three cucumbers, strange pastries for the morning, bottles of water and lots of snacks. Alas, there were no spicy chicken feet. Seeing giant food bags are a very common sight in Chinese train stations because the food served on board is expensive (and not very good) and also because many people will genuinely be on the train for more than 30 hours straight. Fortunately, our trip was only 12 hours long.


Once we got to the hard sleeper section of our train we enjoyed many games of Chinese poker (which I have come to love and Qin Chen is really good at) before turning in for the night. It's a fun feeling to fall asleep in one city and wake up entirely in another. We reached Beijing at around 11:30 in the morning and immediately headed off in the direction of Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.


Once we checked our bags at the handy (and free) luggage storage area at the gate and paid our 60 RMB entrance fee, we set out to explore the impossibly huge and very touristy historic Chinese attraction. The Forbidden City is called as such because it was off limits for over 500 years. It's famous because it's one of the largest and well-preserved group of ancient Chinese buildings. The Forbidden City was where two dynasties of emperors lived - the Ming and the Qing. There are loads of halls, gates, rooms and gardens to explore which could potentially take all day. We opted to walk around on our own and check out areas that looked interesting. Don't get me wrong, it was really cool, but after about 3 hours all the temples and gates start to look the same.


My favorite place was the Imperial garden which was very picturesque with small pagodas, lots of flowers and trees and bridges over streams. It was a nice change from the "Hall of Mental Cultivation", "Divine Military Genius Gate", "Gate of Supreme Harmony", Hall of Middle Harmony", "Hall of Preserving Harmony", "Palace of Heavenly Purity", "Hall of Joyful Longevity", "Hall of Character Cultivation" etc., etc. You get my drift.


In typical Chinese fashion we took many, many pictures. Qin Chen was worried the whole trip about being the "third wheel". But we told her that if anyone asked, we would just tell them that she was our adopted Chinese child. This did not seem to appease her worries.


After touring around, we headed for a nearby mall for some food and shopping before taking the subway to meet Daniel's dad, Bob Davis. I was super excited to meet Bob for three reasons: 1) it's always fun to meet friends' parents and see how they are alike or different 2) Bob has been a journalist for the Wall Street Journal for over 30 years and I was curious what it was like to be a writer living abroad and 3) We didn't know a whole lot about Beijing and were eager to learn tips and information from a local living there.


Hanging out with Bob turned out to be a blast. After meeting up near his office we got dinner and then walked to his place which was amazing. Sean, Qin Chen and I all agreed that he was like Daniel in so many ways - his way of speaking, eyes, gestures . . . everything. Bob was particularly busy that day as he was covering the big IMF story. He actually had to do an interview online and on camera as soon as we got home from dinner. I was impressed, to say the least. The life of a journalist living abroad, though filled with a lot of hard work, seems to be also a little glamorous.


We all turned in early that night as we had to be up at an insanely early hour to catch the bus to run the Great Wall Marathon the next day. It was a fun but tiring Friday!
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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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