In costume at ConGen graduation on Halloween, with Kristin (Liberia, usually a blonde) and Leslie (Guatemala)
This was a busy week. School-wise, I finished ConGen (no purple robe for me, whaaa) and went on to begin Spanish classes on Thursday. At ConGen graduation, your class is expected to do a skit of some kind, so our class sang “Monster Mash” with the words re-written for consular work – very cute, since we were graduating on Halloween!
I thoroughly enjoyed my day and a half of Spanish class – I really like the teacher and the 3 other students. We have class for 4 hours each day – my schedule is 10-12 and 2-4. I think I’m going to enjoy it.
On Thursday night, the gentleman who’ll be our boss in Ciudad Juarez was in town, so John and I threw a party for him. It was a good opportunity for him to meet or re-acquaint himself with most of the new entry-level officers going to CJ.
Friday night, we visited with John’s former co-worker Lucien at a happy hour downtown. Lucien worked in Lima with ALLTEL and came to see us several times in Costa Rica; he, his wife and baby live here now.
Saturday afternoon we were back in hosting mode – John did a coffee roasting/tasting demo for several folks from our A-100 class. Last night, we went to a going-away party for our friends Leslie and Trey who are heading off to Guatemala soon.
Some of you may have heard about the announcement of directed assignments for foreign service officers to Iraq. John and I are not affected; it’s really geared toward more upper-level officers.
The biggest news of the week is that it looks like Mom will be moving into a garden home in Hot Springs. I’m thrilled because it means a nice, level lot on a quiet street – I really think she’ll be happy there, and she is very excited about it (believe it or not!). If all goes well, she’ll move later this month.
John talking about coffee with Richard, Marcy, Jimmi and Joe