My classes started this week at FSI – it was a lot of fun to be back on campus, meeting new folks and running into old friends.<\/p>\n
This week I had a course called “Pakistan Familiarization,” a series of speakers who addressed different topics related to Pakistan. The neat thing about class was meeting people who I will be working with in Islamabad. My friend Michael from Juarez was in my class, and we’ll be working closely together in the Consular section.<\/p>\n
Monday night \u00a0I met Pamela B. and Laura D. for dinner in Clarendon – so good to see them both. Pam and I made a stop in Trader Joe’s, then sat outside and had another glass of wine and yakked some more.<\/p>\n
Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I went out with Miguel G., who was in from Prague for a few days (Miguel and TFran were our neighbors and co-workers in Juarez). The weather in DC has been beautiful this week, so we sat outside Wednesday night and had a drink. It was great to see him.<\/p>\n
Friday after class, I ran into our good friend Richard S., so we caught the shuttle together, then took the Metro to Foggy Bottom. We sat outside at a nice Indian restaurant and had dinner and a glass of wine. He’ll be in Karachi, so hopefully we’ll get to see a lot of him in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Saturday I went over to Pentagon City to do some shopping, then came home and watched a movie and got caught up on episodes of “Mad Men.”<\/p>\n
I’m very happy to report that Flavia is doing very well. I was a little worried about her when we first arrived because she just stayed under the bed, but the last few days, she has been very social and even playful!<\/p>\n
John sent a link to a video of Islamabad – it’s about five minutes long and shows some local scenery – take a look if you are interested<\/a>.<\/p>\n