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.

Language Week

Loni, Sean and I along with our student monitors are gearing up for our biggest event of the year - Language Week. The theme of this year's LW is Brazil and the U.S.A. - Sharing our Similarities and Celebrating our Differences. LW is going to happen on Monday and Tuesday, November 4 and 5 at UESC. It's an opportunity for university students to engage in lingusitic and cultural immersion and will include panels and presentations from UESC students and professors along with several guest speakers outside of the university. Loni is going to do a presentation on "How to become Fluent in English" and Sean and I are going to do an interactive presentation on little-known cultural facts about the U.S.

There will be additional presentations and panels on teaching English, tips for studying abroad in the U.S., how to work as a professional in the U.S., how to learn and study English on your own along with a session of playing some common and popular American board/card games. The two ETAs last year were the first to do Language Week at UESC so we have some framework in place to go on, but other than that Loni and I have to do everyhing on our own and I am finding that planning and executing an event in Brazil is an incredible amount of work.

Some of the things that have been keeping us busy are: finding and confirming presenters, reserving rooms and projectors, designing the posters/shirts, advertising, organizing the schedule, working on our own presentations and encouraging as many people as we can to participate and attend. I'm quite nervous about how it's all going to go and this event planning has given me a whole new appreciation for all of the planners of the seminars and conferences that I've attended in the past.

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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

Language Week

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