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.

Learning to dance like a Brazilian and other failures

One of the goals that Sean and I have this year in Brazil is to learn to dance. This is proving to be more difficult than was originally expected but it has also been a lot of fun. There are a lot of different possibilities if one wants to learn to dance in Brazil: Samba, Reggae, Carimbó, Forró etc. Sean and I chose to learn how to dance Forró which is kind of a traditional folk dance for couples but which can also be sped up to dance to pretty much any kind of popular music.

Forró is pronounced "Fough - hough" and is thought to have come from the words "For All" in English. It's a type of dance that is particularly popular during the São João festival which celebrates the harvest, the working class and family/friends. It's one of the most popular styles of music and dance in Brazil and is definitely one that is for everyone.

My host dad organized a group Forró 101 class for all of the Fulbrighters in the city. It was held on the porch of my host family and we attracted quite a few neighborhood spectators who hung around to watch the Americans make fools of themselves. They were not disappointed. We had an actual Forró teacher who was very patient and started with the basics. He said that we all needed to move our bodies more, relax and just feel the music. We assured him that it's much easier said than done.

These days, Sean and I go to dance class every Saturday night with our same original instructor. The studio is within walking distance of our house and the class lasts for about two and a half hours by the end of which we are both physically and mentally exhausted.

Last week we decided we might be good enough to try our hand at some real Forró dancing at a club. This turned out to be a very humbling experience as we weren't even good enough to make it out on the dance floor. We stayed in a dark corner and tried as best we could to remember moves from class and keep up with the complicated music while staying out of the way of everyone else. Watching everyone else (who appeared to be professional dancers) was inspiring, however, and now we are fired up for our next class on Saturday night.

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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

Learning to dance like a Brazilian and other failures

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