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.

American food

The other weekend, Loni and I had our first taste of genuine American food in over a month. Though our small city does have a Subway, we hadn't been able to find it yet and thus traveled about an hour to the neighboring and much larger city of Itabuna which has a shopping mall with a McDonalds. We were dropped off in the middle of the city and eventually found the mall by asking everyone we could find where o shopping was (that's how you say the mall in Portuguese).

The food court was hopping and McDonalds was packed with hungry Brazilians. I didn't notice anything too different about the restaurant except that you could get corn with everything and that it was a little more expensive than the McDonalds in the States. There were also quite a few additional flurry and shake varieties with unfamiliar flavors and candy. Loni got a Big Mac meal and I got a quarter pounder meal; we both devoured them a little too quickly and definitely paid the price for that later.

Shopping mall entrance

Though I probably wouldn't go to the mall in the U.S. to eat at McDonalds, when you are far away from home anything familiar tends to taste fantastic and much better than normal whether it be a cold can of Coke, a Hershey's chocolate bar or a burger and fries from Mickey D's.

Yum

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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

American food

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