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.

Life in the big city

We went from seeing only a few people a day to the most populated city in New Zealand, Auckland, in a matter of just a few hours. After enjoying the beaches and the remote beauty of Coromandel peninsula, we drove to Auckland late Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, we arrived just at the peak of rush hour traffic and had to navigate the busiest roads we had seen in months in order to reach our youth hostel right in the center of the city. Much to our dismay, it cost more to park our car for the weekend than it did for us to stay in the hostel!

The first thing we noticed about Auckland, besides the abundance of people and the lack of sheep, was the incredible diversity. There were shops and restaurants featuring cuisine from all over the world available just around the corner. While we were there, there was an Indian "Festival of Lights" celebration taking place and the party was in full swing.

The spring weather didn't cooperate fully while we were in Auckland and we experienced a lot of high winds and heavy rains. For a short time on Saturday afternoon we got lucky enough to spend some time in Auckland's Sky Tower while meeting up with some of our friends from Queenstown, Steve and Devyn.

Steve and Devyn are a Canadian couple that were part of the staff that opened the hotel in Queenstown but had decided it was time to move on and had trasferred to the hotel in Auckland. After hanging out in the Sky Tower we all headed back to their apartment for dinner and for lots of catching up. Devyn called our rendezvous the "meeting of the minds" as we shared stories about work since we all came from different departments in the hotel: housekeeping, food and beverage, front desk and concierge. There were lots of memories shared and lots of laughs at the absurdly impossible task of keeping every guest happy in the field of hospitality. We looked forward to our next visit to Auckland and to hanging out with some friends from Michigan, Ken and Sarah.

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

1 Comment

bob davis on November 1, 2012 at 1:10 AM

why is the sky always blue where you are?

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

Life in the big city

1 Comment