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.

Feliz Halloween

Halloween is by far my most favorite holiday to teach and talk about outside of the States. Here in Brazil, Halloween isn't celebrated at all but the students know a little bit about it from American media. This week, classes were a blast as Sean and I talked about our traditions (costumes, pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating etc.) and played some games. The games that worked the best were a jack o' lantern drawing game in which students had to describe the faces of their pumpkins to their partners who then had to listen and draw by following directions. The second game that was wildly successful was "Halloween Pictionary" which included words like vampire, ghost, graveyard, bat, wizard, zombie etc. The students got really into it and I was glad that Sean was there to help keep things fair and under control as things quickly turned heated.

Sean and I bought a Brazilian pumpkin and carved it and then roasted the seeds which turned out great. We brought them to UESC for students to try and they thought it was both hilarious and ridiculous that we eat pumpkin seeds (though they thought they were very tasty indeed). Sean also labored quite a bit over some pumpkin apple muffins which also turned out well despite the fact that we couldn't locate allspice and barely managed to find some nutmeg. Though we won't be having any trick-or-treaters tonight, I, for one, am definitely going to rustle up some candy. Happy Halloween!

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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

Feliz Halloween

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