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.

Transitions

Our hostel in Chrishtchurch

One of the hardest and most tiring parts of traveling is the transition time - the period in-between living abroad and living at home. Usually this time is filled with frantic packing, planning, organizing and lots of random paperwork to finish to get ready for 'real' life back in the States. When you throw in trying to sell a car into this already busy mix, your days in transition time become "chocka-block" as they say here in New Zealand.

Cleaning and drying out all our camping stuff - it got soaked in Milford Sound

After spending two weeks road-tripping around the South Island with my sister and after finishing our last backpacking trip in Milford Sound, Sean and I are in our final week in Christchurch where we are preparing to fly home on Monday, December 10 and attempting to sell our car. This last item was made slightly more difficult in that we were side-swiped by a semi-truck only about 15 minutes from our hostel in Christchurch and a day before we were looking to sell the car. Rotten luck and even worse timing, but these things happen, it could have been a lot worse, and we are moving on.

Giving "Rosie" a good wash

We managed to get some cash from a settlement from the trucking company and are using some of this money to repair the car just enough to try and sell it (cross your fingers). These days, Sean spends his time at the Backpackers Car Market hoping to find a buyer and I head to the library to work on visa applications, NZ tax back and insurance stuff (and the occasional blog post of course). The transition time is a very necessary part of traveling but definitely not the most fun part, that's for sure.

Our car - post accident

I still have plenty of posts and pictures to put up about adventures in New Zealand and Australia in the meantime, however, so stay tuned if you're interested in what we were up to. It would be more fun to see you in person though and we look forward to re-connecting with friends and family while we are in Holland. See you soon!

Packing up a year's worth of possessions - always a good time!

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

1 Comment

Shelly on December 6, 2012 at 8:01 AM

Can't wait to see you guys!

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

Transitions

1 Comment