Another one bites the dust!

Cable #4 - Falls Church, VA

As another week falls to the wayside, I can only look forward with enthusiasm. With what seemed impossible (learn everything you can about being an American diplomat in just five weeks), it actually seems feasible. It doesn't go without saying the days are long and the nights, a bit sleepless, but the plan is coming together.

Ok, we are certainly not going to learn "everything" about being a U.S. Diplomat, but we are making great headway. This past week had us learning everything from writing official cables ("reports" in layman's terms), working with the local staff, to learning about the history of diplomacy. Thoughts of my highschool history class and Ms. Mitchell lecturing on neoliberal democracy dance in my head.

Most importantly this past week, we submitted our official bid lists. For those of you I have not chatted with, this is basically all of the "posts" (Consulates/Embassies/Missions) that are available for our class to bid on going to. There were many great posts to chose from, as I had noted previously. We had a lot of time to chat with our CDOs (Career Development Officers) to get a good feel on what might fit best with our career goals, language skills, and general knowledge. Of course, I bidded all Spanish-speaking posts high, as well as Portuguese-speaking posts, as this is probably the next language I look to learn. The posts I bidded high included: Mexico (Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Hermosillo, Guadalajara, Mexico City), Honduras, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Brazil (Sao Paulo, Recife, and Brasilia). There were some others here and there in Africa and Canada that were English-speaking posts that I bidded, but these were the main posts of note. Nevertheless, the most important thing to remember, is that I am world-wide available, and so I could get just about anywhere. Keep those fingers crossed, and I will make sure to let everyone know on Aug. 31st what I get. Wherever it is, it will be extremely exciting. And, as we have been reminded, this first tour is only two years long and by the time we are there and getting settled in, it will be time to start bidding all over again for our next tour.

Furthermore, the agenda is kept busy with after-hours events. The MAP committee (in charge of after-hour inclusion events) has done a great job to scout out concerts, shows, as well as organize upcoming outtings such as white water rafting, schooner trips on the Patomac River, and cavern tours. And for those of you wondering, yes, I am going white water rafting! I hope to have some great pictures from that. Today we had an awesome barbeque with much of the class attending (roughly 70 out of the 95) with their families. We had everything from burgers and brauts to couscous and fresh mozzerella. Betty Crocker and I decided to grace the event with some brownies with cream cheese icing. It was a great event and opportunity to get to meet some of the families.

Final preparations are being made for "flag day"on August 31st when we will get our assignments and "swearing-in day" on September 4th, when we will be sworn in as diplomats in front of our familes. The latter is mostly pomp and circumstance since we have already officially been sworn in, but this is a great items for the families to come and take part in. We are hoping Secretary Clinton will be able to be present and swear out class in, but as usual, it all depends...mainly on her schedule. Right now is the busy portion of the year since most of the U.S. diplomats around the world are taking advantage of summer rotations (moving from one post to their next). It looks like mom and dad are planning on coming to D.C. for the swearing in ceremony, which should be great since they have never been here before. I plan on taking full advantage of those few days to take them to do some touring. I would really like to stop by Senator Bayh's or Senator Lugar's office and get pictures with them, but we will see.

Well, as this week's cable comes to an end, I send my best wishes to everyone back in Hoosier-land. I have received many emails from you all, and I wish I could take advantage of the many items going on back home. Make sure to grill one up for me, and set it aside for my return.