criplomats

This week we were rocking out in addition to rocking along. John took me to see Karla Bonoff, one of my very favorite singers, at the Birchmere Music Hall. I used to play her albums (vinyl) at KHDX, our college radio station – she is a beautiful singer and it was a great concert. She was the opening act for Christopher Cross, (yes, “Sailing”) who was surprisingly good. He has a great band with an excellent sax player, David Mann.

The Birchmere has open seating, and we were lucky enough to find a table right in the center with a perfect view. There was a very nice woman holding the table for friends and she let us take two of the seats – she had gotten there four hours early to get in line. It was definitely my lucky day!

DC is just gorgeous right now – everything is blooming: tulips, iris, etc. We went down to the Eastern Market this morning with our friends Cathy and Justin – we poked around for a couple of hours, then had a nice brunch. I bought some organic, free range eggs – yum.

Tuesday night we went out to dinner with two of the newbies going to Juarez – it was fun to yak with them and answer their questions.

The rest of the week was pretty low key with a lot of studying. Hebrew is going fine.

I haven’t talked much about FSI, but it is a fascinating place. It’s fun for us right now because we have so many friends there – people we were in A-100 with or folks we knew in Juarez or have met along the way. There’s always someone to eat lunch with, or say hi to in the hall. It’s very interesting because the teachers there are native speakers from their home countries – I think there are about 70 languages taught there in all. Just walking down the hallways, you hear snippets of conversations in all kinds of languages and see all manner of dress, from a bald man in an orange monk’s robe and sandals to colorful embroidered tunics and trousers from Pakistan. I never know what I’ll see coming around the corner. It’s fun.

We watched a couple of movies this week: “Flame and Citron,” “The Informant,” and “An Education” – all very good. I especially liked a supporting actress in “An Education” – Rosamund Pike.

Yesterday we got up really early and, along with our good friend Cathy, drove down to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. We got there while it was still dark and got to watch the light change over the Basin and the Jefferson Memorial. Very pretty, and we were happy to beat the crowds. We have an old friend of John’s from Mountain Home to thank for inviting us down, and John got to visit with her, too. Click here for more photos.

There wasn’t a lot going on this week, other than studying. It was rainy and colder earlier in the week, but now the weather is perfect.

Last Sunday afternoon at a “meet and greet”, we met several officers who just got their assignments to Ciudad Juarez. It was a treat to see our Consular Chief from CJ, Laura, and our friend Dean, who will be going to CJ as Principal Officer this summer.

Friday night, we went to Woolly Mammoth Theatre to see a magician, Rich Bloch. It was a lot of fun – he’s an older fellow and his act is old-school and funnny. I was happy to see the theatre itself – it’s modern and fun, and it made me want to go to more theatre.

People often say that learning a new language is a marathon, not a sprint and I sure believe it!

I took a needed break yesterday from Hebrew study and went shopping with my good friend Cathy for formal dresses. We had so much fun! We were primarily shopping for her, since she’ll be leaving in a couple of months. We found several beautiful things for her, and I found a cute cocktail dress for me.

Then last night, John and I met a man from our A-100 class and his wife for dinner at a great Cajun place. It was fun to catch up with them. And, the food was great. I had the best soup I’ve ever had in my life!

This week in our area studies class, three Middle Eastern journalists spoke, including the director of Al Jazeera. Very interesting!

Two local staff from Juarez, Miriam and Katy, were here for a class, so we took them to a happy hour on Tuesday for Elise’s going-away. On Wednesday afternoon, I took them on an outing to Main State’s gift shop for souvenirs. They had a lot of fun, and I think it was a good break from the unsettling times in Juarez.

Friday was a light day because one of our teachers was absent. That afternoon we stayed at school to study, then caught the shuttle downtown to another going-away happy hour.

Other than that, the week was filled with studying and more studying…the marathon that it is!

The week started out great. Last Sunday morning we drove over to Richard’s apartment for bruch with a small group of friends – good food, good conversation (Richard is an outstanding host). Then John got an email about the murder of a Consulate employee in Juarez. We immediately commandeered Richard’s computer to find details.

To our horror, the woman who was killed, Lesley, was a dear co-worker of mine in the American Citizen Services section – we had just been emailing the week before. I wish I could convey what a wonderful, beautiful person she was, inside and out.

Needless to say, all of us associated with Juarez are in shock and still trying to understand what happened…and why.

The rest of the week seems sort of irrelevant after that news. We studied a lot. Wednesday, our Hebrew class had an interesting trip to the Israeli Embassy here in DC, where we met and listened to their diplomats.

Thursday we went to two different happy hours. The first one, in Chinatown, was to meet one of the local staff from the Embassy in Tel Aviv. He seemed like a great guy, and I look forward to working with him later this year. The second one was with our A-100 classmates – it was good to laugh with them.

We also managed to squeeze in a few movies. “Stolen,” a documentary about the Gardner art heist; “The Lemon Tree,” with our favorite Middle Eastern actress; and “A Serious Man,” the Coen Brothers’ new movie, which we really enjoyed (mostly we appreciated the scenes of the boy in Hebrew class, as Pam predicted!).

Flavie continues to come out a bit more, and has even started to play again and sit in our laps some!

With Lesley at the Consulate Christmas party last December

Tom, Justin, Ale, Mikey and Beth

It was a treat to see Ale and Mikey, from ACS in Ciudad Juarez! They were here for a training class at FSI, so we organized a Juarez happy hour at Harry’s. I think the hardest part about leaving Juarez was leaving the local staff (like Ale and Mike), so it was great to see them again!

In our Area Studies class this week, we heard a very interesting expert on the Arab Peninsula  – this gentleman has been studying that area for 47 years. He talked for three hours without notes! Very engaging, and his Southern drawl added to his charm. We also had a Purim party on Thursday afternoon with our fellow Hebrew students and instructors, as a way to learn about the Jewish holidays.

We had a few social outings this week that eased the pain of studying so much. We had dinner with Richard on Sunday night (at Harry’s…um, do you see a pattern?), and went to a small dinner party last night at Cathy’s apartment – great food and interesting conversation.

We also watched “Up  in the Air,” which we really enjoyed (it brought back fond memories for John of being on the road and hitting “platinum” status). I finished a very good book, “The Elegance of the Hedgehog,” by Muriel Barbery, loaned to me by my friend Jim. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s been a nice rainy weekend here in DC…makes it a little easier to stay inside and study. On the Flavia front, I bought a plug-in that emits feline pheromones – it’s supposed to be calming to cats. I’m not sure if it’s just my imagination, but it does seem like she is coming out more and even playing a bit.