Foreign Service Post #2!!!!

Just a quick post, to announce that (although I have another year in Caracas), I got my next assignment today: Vienna, Austria in August 2012! I'll leave Caracas around November 2011, then I'll be in DC for German language training until August 2012. Super excited, it will be another consular job, which is just what I wanted, in a safe and very visitable place, which is also just what I wanted! So remember what Billy Joel told you all those years ago, Vienna Waits For You. Come and visit! (Just remember, not till 2012 :)

No Title Tonight

But just wanted to say that I was able to watch the annual LDS Relief Society General Broadcast, and it was great! President Monson spoke (I'll post a link to it once it's up) about how we view others -- he told a great story about a husband and wife who moved into a new neighborhood. Every week, the wife would watch her neighbor hanging up her laundry outside. "Look how dirty her laundry is!" she would comment to her husband. "She has no idea how to properly wash her clothes!" Then one week, she looked outside, and her neighbor's laundry was clean. "Hey, do you see that!?" she asked her husband. "How do you think she learned to clean her clothes right?" "Well," said the husband (and I thought Pres. Monson was going to talk about helping others and maybe the husband taught the neighbor how to wash her clothes instead of judging her)....."Well," said the husband, "I got up extra early this morning and washed our windows." Awesome! I laughed so hard, well done President Monson. He talked a lot more about how quick we are to judge other people, and how we really should take the time to get to know people first before judging them. As dear old Scout learned from Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird, you can't judge someone till you've walked around in their skin for a bit (or at least have stood on their porch). OK, the TKAM quote is mine, but Pres. Monson also quoted Mother Teresa, who said "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." Good stuff. True true true.

In other unrelated news, the Venezuelan legislative elections are tomorrow. No commentary here, but watch the news and we'll see what happens. It's pretty much Chavez's first litmus test of his presidency, even though it's legislative and he's not running. Oh, and I wanted to show you my milk carton. Ciao from Venezuela!

100th post!

So, that's kind of cool, right?

I was flipping through some of my posts since I started this blog in 2007, and I realized that I haven't blogged about anything really of substance in a long time.....or maybe ever......well, don't get too excited, 'cause I'm not going to do it now. I love my blog because I finally have a forum where I can spout off my random thoughts and keep in touch with people. But if you want to know how I'm REALLY doing......you'll probably have to call or e-mail me.

OK, so I'll give you at least a LITTLE teaser of how I'm really doing, but only because A) I'm really impressed that you're reading my blog! Thank you!!! and B) Because I feel bad that I don't post more often, and there are folks out there who I think actually want to know how I'm doing, and are interested in my life in Venezuela!

Which to me is like, go figure, I mean, I think God could plunk you down in any corner of the world, and it would become hum-drum in your eyes. Life has finally "normalized" here for me, which probably explains the lack of blogging. I go to work, I go to church, I cook, I hang out with friends, I grocery shop, I call home, I go to work again, and so on. And I'm doing GREAT! In case you were wondering. This is definitely an adventurous place to live, in a word, but I'm having a great time and learning a lot. I'm mainly learning 2 things:

1) How to cook: This is a relative phrase, but I have made some pretty tasty dishes lately -- it's nice to be able to come home and have time to put together a whole meal. For my birthday dinner (the first time I've had more than a handful of people over for dinner.....like ever......) I made Eastern NC style barbecue (that's pork). And it turned out! Like, people ate all of it! I used my Grandpa's recipe and didn't even mess it up. Yum. I'm also learning:

2) To be a grownup. I've had a lot of growing up to do the past several months -- I've been working in the American Citizen Services section (yes, we're the people you call when you're overseas and your passport was stolen). But we get called about a lot of other things too -- arrests, natural disasters, estate disputes, international parental child abduction, fraudulent citizenship claims, plane crashes, you name it. So these crises arise, and I'm expected to take action. To solve a problem. To provide a service, and be mature about it and do it well. I am very grateful to my parents (especially when I'm dealing with custody issues and parents who are......I have no words to describe them). Sure, we're not a perfect family, but seeing the full spectrum sure makes you appreciate what you have. In fact, I'd say we're doing pretty dang good. Well, I mean. Anyway, my mom calls me a kind-of-social worker, which is sort of true, except we don't really provide any social services.....which sometimes upsets people. A lot. Which is why you have to be mature. *Deep breath*

So the moral of the story is, when you get yourself into trouble overseas, be kind to the consular officer when they are just doing the best they can. And then call me and ask if your story can beat out any of the ones I've got in my back pocket.....I'll bet it can't :)

Clouds-Upon-Avon

Hello friends, I'm sorry for the lack of blogging, this has been one of the craziest months of my life. Or two months. I can't even remember the last time I blogged. So here goes. (To be told in various blog posts).

In August, I took my first R&R, and went with my family to the Outer Banks! We went to Avon (just north of Cape Hatteras), and it was heavenly. The waves were much better this year than last year's "lame waves," we went to the traditional Saturday night fish fry at the firehouse, made homemade ice cream, did puzzles, played games, watched movies (and sang ALL the songs in Muppet Treasure Island, and quoted ALL of Princess Bride), and pretty much had a great time.....

Except for the clouds. I was in such a blissful state of being-in-North-Carolina that I didn't really notice, and when I did notice, I thought it was pretty hilarious. You see, we would wake up, and there would be clouds-upon-Avon. And so we thought "Ah, today would be a good day to go to the museum/go shopping/eat out/do something inside." So we would drive half an hour/an hour/10 minutes away, and as soon as we got wherever we were going, the sun would come out. Praise Be! So we would rush home, put on our suits, and run out to the beach where it was......cloudy. One time it even rained, and all of a sudden lightning struck the ocean WHILE WE WERE IN THE OCEAN, and, yeah, we went home. I'm serious, this happened every day (not the lightning, thank heavens), but we would be driving back home to Avon, and there would be that little cloud, hovering there waiting for us. I even got a picture from the Hatteras lighthouse to prove it: (Avon is just past that narrow stretch of land).


At any rate, we still had a lovely time, and our last day the sun was SHINING! And far-away Hurricane Danielle decided to stir up the ocean for a bit, and the waves were huge! So huge, in fact that I (and I consider myself a very adept ocean swimmer and body surfer) got "tumbled" every time I tried to get past where they were breaking. We all got "tumbled" a lot ("tumbled" is a euphemism one of my sisters created to try to lessen the horror of getting smashed head first into the sand, getting salt water up your nose, sand in your ears, and then getting tumbled again because you can't stand up straight). But it was also so fun to be back in the ocean. Maybe I'm out of practice, because Michael and Rachel had a lot more sucess than I did, at getting out past the breakers:

And here is more proof that the weather was beautiful while we were there, despite the clouds:


So, sorry there aren't more photos (especially one of the whole family, I think they're on mom's camera). So more later! But first, check out this great National Geographic quality photo I got of a tree frog on our deck! (I know, I'm such a dork :)