criplomats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucky shamrock from Pete and Ginger

We’re just plugging away in Hebrew. We pretty much are just going to class and coming home to study for several more hours. Not fun! But we do have our moments of respite.

On Wednesday, we went on a field trip with our instructors to the Holocaust Museum - John and I had not been there before. It’s a wonderful museum – great architecture and presentation of an unbelievable time in history. We were lucky enough to be there on a day when they had a Holocaust survivor speak, a series called “First Person.” The woman we heard was incredible – in her 90s and fascinating. She was a young mother when she was sent to Auschwitz.

The nice thing about our Hebrew department is that it’s small – there are probably only 10-12 of us, so it has a cozy feeling to it. (There is only one other person in class with John and me.)

We watched “Gran Torino” this week – it’s an excellent Clint Eastwood movie (and he is not usually one of my favorites). And we caught up on some Law & Order episodes we had taped.

Saturday we literally studied all day, then we celebrated with a nice dinner out at Harry’s.

We’ve started calling Flavia the vampire cat. She stays under the bed all day, then comes out at night for limited visits. I’m not sure if she is scared, or what – she has always slept all day anyway, but sometimes she doesn’t even come out for breakfast. Hopefully she will get more comfortable. Last week, the maid came and scared her to death. After literally turning the apartment (including beds and sofas) upside-down, John found her behind the refrigerator. We’ve asked housekeeping not to vacuum in hopes they won’t scare her so much; we can do it ourselves with less trauma to her, I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Gil and Lee

I got so caught up in learning Hebrew that I completely forgot to blog yesterday! There just aren’t enough hours in a day.

We’re happy being back in DC! Last Sunday, our sweet friend Jim hosted a dinner party for us. We got to visit with Jim, Sarah, Richard and Cathy – so nice! And, Jim’s a great cook!

We eased into Hebrew class – Monday was an orientation day, so we just took “what’s your learning style” tests, met the instructors, etc. It’s fun to see so many familiar faces in the hallways at FSI (Foreign Service Institute) – folks from A-100 and from Juarez – it’s great! That night, we went to a friend’s apartment upstairs to meet her new husband -  we were in A-100 with her, and she married a man she met on her first tour.

Every Tuesday morning, we have an area studies class where we learn about the Middle East (and the Fertile Crescent, as “we” are called). This week we had two interesting speakers on Iran. I thought the first one was very interesting – he talked about the Iran perspective and why they may feel like they do about the outside world.

Tuesday night, John took me to Harry’s (our favorite restaurant) for an early anniversary dinner – 14 years! (Wednesday was our actual anniversary.)

We continued easing into Hebrew on Wednesday, since it was an “admin” day – which for us means the usual one hour of lab, but only two hours of class (as opposed to four). We were off the rest of the day, so we headed to Main State at Foggy Bottom to re-new our security badges…where we ran into more old friends while we waited.

So, Thursday was our first full day, and man, did it make my head hurt! Hebrew is…well, hard! When we (finally) got out of class, John and I moved into our permanent apartment – we wanted an upper floor apartment in our old building, and one became available – we love it! (Flavie wasn’t thrilled with getting in the carrier one more time, though!)

We ended the evening by running over to a local watering hole to say hi to my old Hot Springs buddies, Gilford and Lee. I never really knew Lee that well, but really enjoyed getting to know him. (He was a couple of years ahead of me in high school.) He’s been in DC for years, primarily working for USA Today – a really neat guy. And it was a treat to see Gil again after -  what? 25 years? – he hasn’t changed a bit, as you can see from the picture above.

Friday was another full day of class, but we celebrated the end of the week by having dinner with our old Juarez friends Beth and Tom at a nearby Lebanese restaurant. It was great to catch up with her – Beth left Juarez last summer, so we had lots to talk about.

It was nice to sleep in on Saturday, but we still had studying to do during the day. That night, we headed downtown with our A-100 friend Cathy (who lives in our apartment complex) to a very festive party.

Sunday was…well, more studying (you can see a pattern here). We did take a long break to watch the US-Canada gold medal hockey game (who knew hockey was so fun?), and we started watching a good Clint Eastwood movie, “Gran Torino.”

So, it was back to classes today, but at least I remembered to blog!

With Ann and Pam at Madeleine Albright’s event

Here we are, back in DC! We arrived yesterday, after leaving Hot Springs early Friday morning. We had great sunny weather and Flavia did fine on the ride. I saw a lot of deer, 40+ hawks and a pileated woodpecker on the way.

We had a great time during our last week of home leave. Last Sunday, we went to Little Rock to visit with John’s former co-worker Leland and his family. He grilled us some yummy venison while we yakked. Great to see him, Cathy and the kids, and nice to meet Cathy’s parents, too.

Afterward, we went to see “David and the Divas.” David is John’s former director of the River City Men’s Chorus. He played piano for three lovely divas, one of whom is Alison’s good friend Diane. We really enjoyed the concert, and also loved seeing many familiar faces from the chorus.

Tuesday, John and I met Pam and Ann at the Clinton Presidential Library to hear former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and to see her collection of pins. She is a wonderful speaker and we were happy to get to see her.

After the talk, we went to a local bar to hear John’s good friend Hooper and his band – they’re very good and fun to listen to. We also got to see his wife Ruth, and old friends Claire and Dave. What a fun evening!

Otherwise during the week, I picked up my new glasses, finally tracked down a bird bath for Mom (hard to find in the winter) and did a lot of last-minute stuff we’d been putting off. And, of course, we watched a lot of Olympic coverage. Mom took us back to KJ’s Grill for an early anniversary dinner (14 years coming up!).

Then we hit the road early Friday morning! Home leave was really fun and restful – which I needed before tackling Hebrew on Monday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bald eagles on the way to Mountain Home

Unfortunately, we are coming to the end of home leave…by this time next week, I’ll be writing from DC. We sure have had fun!

The first part of the week was relatively quiet – we had a surprise snow on Monday, so John and I settled in with another British mini-series all day, and I took care of Aunt Bonnie’s leg so Ann and Sue didn’t have to get out in the snow.

John spent time with some of his friends on Tuesday and Wednesday while I held down the fort in Hot Springs. I went to one of Mom’s doctor’s appointments with her, cooked for her and Aunt Bonnie and ran errands.

On Thursday, John and I drove up to Mountain Home where we saw the bald eagles – they were just gorgeous! We had a good visit with Pete and Ginger (Pete is recovering nicely from his knee surgery).

We left the next morning and met Pam at the new Hendrix cafeteria for lunch – they have a beautiful new facility. Nothing like it was when I was in school there! She took us on a tour of the other new buildings on campus. We saw a couple of familiar faces, including Dr. Guthrie and Pete the security guard (yes, he is still working!). Click to see photos of the campus.

After our Hendrix tour, we had a meeting in downtown Little Rock, then met Dail and Nancy for dinner. It’s been so nice to get to spend time with them!

Yesterday, Mom turned 85 – hard to believe. We took her to dinner at KJ’s Grill for a delicious steak, then settled in to watch some of the Olympics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pamela and John in the new Hendrix cafeteria

 

 

 

 

 

 

On campus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the golf girls

This was a fun-filled week – I got to see a lot of friends. Last Sunday night, I met my good friend Holly in Benton – we talked non-stop for a couple of hours, getting caught up on all of our old Dillard’s friends.

On Thursday, John and I toured the Arkansas Passport Center here in Hot Springs, where they print about 90% of all of the U.S. passport books. We gave presentations to both shifts of employees (about 200) about the Foreign Service. We had so much fun! The staff was incredibly welcoming and really gave us the VIP treatment.

Friday night we met my golf girlfriends at a restaurant in Maumelle, then went to Camille’s house afterwards to continue the party. It was so wonderful to see everyone!!!

It was back to Little Rock on Saturday. We visited with our wonderful friends Julia and Marilyn, and met the newest member of the family, their baby, Lucy Jane. She is just beautiful!

Afterward, we headed to Mary’s house for dinner with her, Deb and Doug. While Doug and John solved the world’s intellectual problems, we girls hung out in the kitchen and yakked for hours – lots of fun!

We spent the night with Mary Saturday night, so we could leave from there to go to Fayetteville. We met Phillip and the twins for lunch (yummy omelettes), then went to see his electric car - he’s in the process of converting a car to all-electric. From there, we went for a tour of their new house – lots of acreage and (!) alpacas next door! Andrew and Alise are very enjoyable and getting all grown up at age 10 and 1/2.

We planned to drive on over to Mountain Home, but a winter storm warning turned us back down south to Hot Springs instead. We’ll have to reschedule and hope for better weather!

Click to see more home leave photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John, Phillip, Alise and Andrew

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proud moms, Julia and Marilyn wth Lucy Jane

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Doug, Deb and Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Arkansas Passport Center