We're here!

Haha, the only picture we have of us so far is one the pet expediter took for us when he dropped off the cat.  Yeah, he's alive!

Well, we made it to Buenos Aires.  It was an overnight flight, and we only had to go an hour east in time-zones, so we weren't too exhausted when we arrived.  Oh, and some of you have probably not met Mike's cat -- his name is Kyska, and he's really more like a dog than a cat (runs up to meet you when you come home, follows you from room to room, weighs 23 pounds).  We love him.

Mike and I are both working in the Consular Section in the embassy here in Buenos Aires.  We've had several people ask if we like working together in the same office, and we say "heck, we worked together in Caracas, when we were secretly dating.....it's a lot nicer to have everyone know you're officially in love and married! :)"  And really, we spent so long being good friends and co-workers in Caracas before we even started dating, that we've kind of fallen back into that pattern, swapping visa interview stories at lunch and such.

I think the section here is glad to have us -- with our experience in the consular section in Caracas, and our Spanish language skills, we were able to jump right in.  Not to brag, but Mike did 225 visa interviews before lunch on his first day (I only did 162).  So yes, we're fitting right in!

Buenos Aires is such a great city -- we live in a great part of town with lots of restaurants and parks that we can walk to.  We're getting a lot of exercise, which is great because we're eating a lot!

People LOVE dogs here -- we've seen professional dog walkers walking more than 10 dogs at a time.  Then they go let them loose in the park, where it just turns into a dog barking frenzy.  We've never seen anything like it, I swear I saw over 100 pooches at a park the other day. 

What else.....hm, my brain is dead, we're at work right now......more later!  Just wanted to send out a first update!

Buenos Aires, here we come!

Well, it's official! Mike and I have both officially been assigned to consular officer positions at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires. We are very excited. Buenos Aires is an incredible city, and we're very lucky to have both been assigned there. In fact, it was nothing short of a miracle: we had been trying for months to be reassigned (my original assignment as some of you may recall, was Vienna). But in the end, the State Department was unable to assign us together.

I was a couple hours away from quitting when we got word that a position for me may have opened up. It turns out that someone else assigned to BA was no longer able to go, and I would be able to serve in that position. The job starts at the same time as Mike's, so we'll both arrive May 30th and work there for 2 years.

We view it as a complete miracle that we are both able to go to such a wonderful city when we were begging to get sent to much worse places (Juarez, Iraq) in order to get reassigned together. Also, now that I don't have to quit, I am eligible for "tenure" this year, which means I can take LWOP and could even quit and re-enter the service if I wanted, without starting the process from the beginning again. My not-having-to-quit also means we won't owe the Department a substantial amount of money to pay back my training, per diem, and leave. VERY lucky.

The prospect of having to quit much sooner than I had anticipated also made me realize we had no plan B for what I would do if I weren't working and we didn't have kids (or even if we did have kids, and I decided to take a break or quit). For weeks I couldn't come up with the answer to my own question: what am I interested in? What would I want to get a Masters in? And then, coincidentally the day I almost quit, I came up with what I thought was a pretty awesome plan (Mike thinks I had to come to terms with it all and come up with a plan B before the miracle could happen :).

I had been thinking about how much I had enjoyed the 5 months of German training I had received (for my Vienna assignment), and how fascinated I especially was with the grammar (finding common Latin roots between German and Spanish, noticing how Biblical or old English sentence structure is very similar to German,and shouting out things in class like "Is that a gerund?!). And I thought, perhaps, I would love to get a Masters in linguistics. And I think I will. I also had been looking that day into jobs for FS spouses in Buenos Aires, and I found opportunities to work at the international school there, or to get a TESOL certification and teach English as a second language. These were all options that I could do in combination or one at a time, short term or long term, on and off again, in any country in the world. It sounded fantastic (I was, after all, originally an elementary education major in college) and I was so convinced that's what I was supposed to do, I was a little baffled when a couple hours later, I got a call from the Department, asking me to please not quit.

Well, needless to say, when I got the call asking me to stay on as an officer, I said yes. After 6 months of long distance, which included an engagement, marriage, and getting ready to move to another country, Mike and I are just glad to be back together and to not be heavily indebted to the Department. What happened really was a miracle, we're convinced of that, just like us meeting in the first place was. I mean, meeting the love of my life in Venezuela, who'd have thought?

We're SUPER excited about BA, we have heard it is just a fabulous place to live, and I really enjoyed my visit there last year. Please come visit!

The Hunger Games Movie -- A Few Thoughts

I just got back from the Hunger Games movie and had a few striking thoughts.  Don't worry, no spoilers (I don't think).

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the 3 books are set in a post-apocalyptic-type North America.  We've got "The Capitol" in the Rockies, the center of power brimming with technology, out-of-this-world gourmet food, and a rich and self-obsessed population.  The rest of the land is divided up into 12 "Districts."  The 13th District was destroyed by the Capitol after they crushed an uprising, 74 years ago.  Each year, the Capitol orchestrates The Hunger Games: entertainment for the Capitol dwellers, and broadcasted to the rest of the population to remind them who is in charge.  2 "tributes" are selected at random from each District, and thrown somewhere together in the middle of nowhere with one purpose: they are forced to kill each other off, until only one tribute is left.  Oh, one more thing.  The tributes are all children, between 12 and 18 years old.

I just finished the first book last week, and enjoyed it (apart from the 1st person/present narrative style, very......different). This is far from my favorite series ever, but it was exciting, and I felt the author was trying to get a message out.  Maybe I'll need to read books 2 and 3 to get the whole message, but I thought it was something like this: the people from the Districts are all constantly threatened, even terrorized, their own land's natural resources being stripped from them to be enjoyed by others, and they feel powerless to do anything about it.  Or, another interpretation (as one of my friends pointed out to me): modern society is obsessed with reality TV shows and violence.

I expected the movie to be much like the book, which it was, except........it wasn't.  First of all, as soon as the "competition" part of the movie started, I was horrified to watch children killing children.  Even though I knew it was coming, it was very different seeing it reenacted on the big screen.  (Which is probably one of the author's points -- this. is. wrong.).  But then to look around me at the hundreds of kids in the theater (I'd say the average age of the kids was 12 or 13), and to watch the children watching children killing children, THAT was nightmarish.  And it only got worse.

One friend in my group said that the author wrote the books so that children would understand the brutality of war.  To try to give them perspective without them actually having to live through a war.  Well, I think after the first few children were killed, the kids in the theater were a little shocked.  But soon, they started to cheer, as each of the "bad kids" were taken down.  Cheering and cheering and "yes!" and then settling back down to watch more.  My friends and I were taken aback.  Our theater had become "The Capitol."

Only.....there was a little girl sitting next to me.  Maybe 7 or 8 years old.  And when little Rue from District 11 died, this little girl started crying.  And she couldn't stop.  She understood.  Her parents just patted her leg and kept watching the movie, but I knew how she felt.  So I gave her a tissue (she definitely needed it).

The other kids in the theater probably just didn't know how to deal with the gravity of the movie, so they got excited and cheered.  But if the author's purpose really was to teach children, I don't think the opportunity was necessarily lost tonight.  But those kids are going to need parents that do more than just pat them on the leg.  After all the cheering dies down, the kids will need:

To talk.  Children are sharp.  They would understand an explanation of the real-life parallels the movie/and/or book introduces.  And they'll need parents who know when they're ready for such movies/books/and talks.

They'll also need examples of adults who aren't obsessed with reality shows and violence.  (Do a little soul-searching -- as you're watching March Madness, would you rather see a jerk of a player get an elbow in his face that had it coming to him, or see a player help his opponent up?)

Or these kids might just need a hug, and another tissue.

Wedding Photos

Well, these are too amazing not to post. The supposed snow/ice/sleet/wintry mix that was supposed to rule the day fell apart the morning of, and just left us with a beautiful dusting of snow.  The rest of the day was nothing short of magical.

The Wedding - 1/21/2012

Our photographer was my dear college roommate and longtime friend, Lauren Moss.  You can check out her website here:  http://www.rmossphoto.com.

Thanks again, Lauren!!!!

JUST MARRIED!!!

 Mike and I were married in the Washington D.C. LDS Temple last Saturday!  It was the perfect day, I don't think things could have gone better.  We were a little worried about the weather (the forecasts were calling for a "wintry mix" which usually = "wintry disaster" in D.C., but it just snowed a few inches the night before.  The morning of, before the wintry mix of rain and grossness could wash the snow away and ruin out pictures, the storm system split in two and went around D.C.  Just for us!!!

We were married in the D.C. LDS Temple, which Mike's grandfather designed.  Mike's grandfather (Keith Wilcox) passed away right before Christmas, and we were both lucky enough to attend his funeral in Utah.  He was a great man with a great vision for such a landmark of a building, and it was a very special day for us.  If you're not familiar with LDS (Mormon) weddings, it was a small religious ceremony, in a beautiful white room with mirrors on opposite sides, reflecting eternity. 

Then, we had our wedding reception at Woodend Mansion in Maryland, which was designed by the same architect who designed the Jefferson Memorial!  It a historical site now owned by the National Audubon Society, and it was just beautiful (see above).  After spending the past two years overseas, it was so fun to catch up with family and friends I hadn't seen, and introduce them to Mike!  Mike's family is mostly out west, so we will have an open house out there in a few months, which we're also looking forward to.  His parents and brother's family were able to come to D.C. though, and they are great! 

We went to New York City for a few days for a quick (but wonderful) honeymoon, where we saw a taping of the Jon Stewart Daily Show, the Broadway musical Wicked (Mike got us AMAZING seats!), and we ate.  A lot.  New York was great.

Mike is back in Venezuela now, finishing out his tour, and I am still in German training for the time being.  However, we hope to soon be able to tell you where and when our onward assignment will be!  Stay tuned!!! (And more pictures are on their way!  Didn't my college roommate Lauren do a great job!?)

Well......

Life is crazy.  I don't think people should make so much fun of Franck from Father of the Bride, because planning a wedding is VERY difficult :) 

Franck Eggelhoffer: Uh-oh, I bring the wrong color thread. I assumed you'd be wearing a black tuxado.
George: It IS a black "tuxado."
Franck Eggelhoffer: I don't think so, babe. This tux is "nuffy" blue. No doubt about it.
George: What're you talking about? Armani doesn't make a blue tuxedo.

I don't think we'll have any blue tuxado problems, but you never know.  I love Martin Short and Steve Martin, by the way.

45 days left until the wedding (January 21st, 2012).  Some cool things about this are: it is my parents' wedding anniversary, who also got married in the DC Temple, and.....the DC Temple was designed by Mike's grandfather.  How neat is that?

In the meantime, I am in full-time German training, preparing for my alleged onward assignment to Austria (which, by the way, will probably change after we get married, seeing as how Mike is assigned to go to Argentina next, and they aren't exactly next-door to each other).  So stay tuned to see what corner of the world we end up in next!

(We'll just be happy to be back together again. Going cold turkey -- from spending every day for a year together, to 3 months apart before your wedding and possibly three more months apart after -- is pretty tough.) 

Some news......

Well, now you will all finally discover why I have been such a slacker at blogging for nearly the past year......I was busy falling in love!

I met Michael Keith Ritchie (Mike) during training in July 2009 in DC. We had both been assigned to work at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. We got to know each other a little bit during our first year in Venezuela (though not too much, because I decided my best course of action was ignoring him at work, so nobody could corner me and ask me if I liked him, which I did :) We started dating almost a year ago (so glad he had the gumption to ask me out), and tried to keep it on the down-low as best we could, though I think towards the end pretty much everyone at the embassy knew.

My 2 year tour in Venezuela ended on October 1st, and Mike took his R&R to coincide with my trip home. We visited New Mexico (the land of my birth!), and met up with his family in Albuquerque for the annual hot air balloon festival. We spent a day in Santa Fe, then flew to Phoenix (where Mike is from) to spend time with his family and see the sights! Mike is an ASU grad, so we spent some time in Tempe, ate way too much good American (and Mexican) food, saw downtown Phoenix, the Capitol, a desert botanical garden, and lots more. Then we drove up to Sedona and saw more beautiful desert scenery.

Then we headed to Utah. The original plan was to go to DC for him to be able to meet my family, but my parents were out in Utah for BYU's homecoming events (of course!). We went to the homecoming football game, and Mike pulled my Dad aside to ask his permission to marry me.......I think I was more nervous than Mike! But they had a good chat while Mom and I waited in the stands. Our schedule was so packed in Utah, meeting siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on both sides, that the only time available for a proposal was Sunday morning (I told Mike I'd set aside a few hours for him).

So.......we were both so exhausted from all of our travels, that when Mike kept saying at the football game "I'm about ready to go," I didn't think anything of it (even though we were only up by 10 at that point, and I shouldn't have felt comfortable leaving with so small a difference in scores). Even though we left a little early, we got up to his brother's place in Salt Lake pretty late. I worked on getting my giant duffel bag out of the trunk while Mike was fumbling around in his backpack (he says he dropped the ring box, but luckily I was too tired to notice). We get to the front door, and he drops my bag and starts fumbling around in his jacket pocket. I think he's getting his phone out to call his brother, so as not to wake his niece up. But then he says "go ahead, I think it's open." So I open the door, knock a little, call out "hello?" Hm, no one's there. But there were candles lit on the table, and Frank Sinatra playing.....what a nice home! Haha, Mike calls out "turn around...." So I turn around, and there he is on one knee, and he proposed to me right there on the doorstep. I said yes! And then about passed out from the shock. Not from saying yes, that was a given. But I was SO SURE it was going to be the next day. There just wasn't any other time that would have worked! Mike's brother and sister in law had, under Mike's direction, set up this beautiful romantic scene that I only saw after saying yes (I was pretty oblivious). They made our favorite dessert from Venezuela, an amazing butterscotch pudding, and had out lots of other favorites of mine, like hot chocolate, and bread and cheese, and raspberries (and lots of flowers! And rose petals scattered all over the ground!). Amazing. Not to mention the ring, that's probably another reason why I almost passed out. The proof, below:


I love you Mike!

Wow, that was a long blog post. Just trying to catch up :) Will be back with more soon!

Oh, and we're getting married in January, in the Washington D.C. LDS Temple!