Wow - what a year!

One year ago today (1/13/11), I took a 15 minute phone test that proved I had learned enough Russian to get into the Foreign Service. Since then, we’ve moved to DC, met tons of wonderful people, started learning Lithuanian, and found out we’re also going to Moscow as our second post. I’ve also managed to forget 95% of the Russian I learned, although I continue to believe that it’s somewhere in my brain, just tucked behind Lithuanian for the time being.

January 13^th is also an important but sad day in Lithuania’s history (in 1991, to be exact). That day was the beginning of the end of Soviet occupation in the country. Lithuanians declared independence about 10 months earlier, but the Soviets largely ignored it and few countries recognized their independence. In fact, it took the US another 9 months after January 13^th to formally recognize them.  So, back to January 13^th: Lithuanian leaders took full advantage of Glasnost in 1990, declaring independence and electing their own leaders. By the end of 1990, Gorbachev had had enough of this “anti-Soviet agenda,” and ordered tanks and military to go into Vilnius.  On the night of January 12^th, 1991, the Soviet military tried to cut off Lithuanian ties to the outside world (and to audiences at home) by taking down the Vilnius TV tower.  Soldiers also fired shots into crowds of thousands gathered in public squares and near the parliament building. Fourteen non-violent protesters were killed and over 1,000 were injured, but the Soviet aggression backfired and only served to garner international support for Lithuania, the Baltics, and the rest of the former Soviet republics. If you want to see footage (with English subtitles) of the night, you can watch this YouTube video.

While you may be thinking that I’m just late in reflecting on 2011, it seems to me that January 13^th of last year was a much bigger turning point for us, and really the start of this adventure that we embarked on just a year ago. Only two short months before we take on the world! I really do intend to be better about posting this year, and I think I’ll have more interesting things to write about. Stay tuned!

Halloween and Lietuviškai

For the first time in seven years, J and I decided to celebrate Halloween by dressing up.  We had an invite to a friend's party, and needed to put together a last minute costume.  I went to the internets for some inspiration, and we came up with this: I was the lady-in-curlers lucky winner of $10,000,000!!!  And J put on a suit and tie for the occasion. ;)  You can't quite see his name tag here, but he was moonlighting as Ed McMahon. We had fun!  Before we left the party, other folks insisted that I take the curlers out to see what it did to my hair.  In case you were wondering... here's the proof that my hair isn't always straight as a pin.


Lietuviškai:  For the past nine weeks, I have been studying Lithuanian in class, five hours a day, five days a week. It is exhausting! And then, of course, there's homework. I'm about one-third of the way through this course. J also took a shorter version of the course so that he will be able to get around Vilnius and handle day-to-day interactions in the native language. Boy, is he glad to be done with the intense language learning, although he's going to study on his own and talk with me to keep up what he has learned.

So, about the Lithuanian language itself: I've been surprised at how similar the language is structured to Russian. Both Russian and Lithuanian also have the concept of process verbs versus completed action verbs (a.k.a. perfective and imperfective). Both languages have five cases of nouns (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental) that decline in masculine, feminine, singular and plural. The reason this is so hard is because the endings on nouns keep changing, depending if the noun is the subject, object, indirect object, etc of the sentence. Before I can say a sentence, I have to remember whether the nouns in the sentence are masculine or feminine, and then think about what case they should be in, and what ending that type of noun takes in the case I want it to be in, and then maybe I can speak, although I've probably messed something up somewhere. So... I bet none of this makes sense, but all I really wanted to say is that they call it a "hard language" with good reason!

I have trouble hearing the differences between vowel sounds.  For instance, last week I was reading part of a dialogue out loud on giving directions.  I was supposed to say "pereikite" which is an instruction to cross the street, but instead I said "perekite," which is a command to lay eggs! Who knew?

My favorite phrase in Lithuanian is "va" (sounds like "vah"). This is the best all-purpose phrase ever!  Basically, it means "there you go." Want dinner? Va. Looking for your other sock? Va. Huh, I never knew that! Well... va.

In addition to language training, we get three hours a week of area studies instruction. While I knew that Lithuania was a Soviet Republic, I didn't have a good understanding of the atrocities that Stalin and other Soviet leaders committed against Lithuanians. They conducted mass deportations during World War II, sending politicians, the educated, and anyone considered a threat to the new communist regime to Siberia before Hitler invaded. The Soviets conducted more deportations after WWII when they declared Lithuania a Soviet republic. Lithuanian was banned from schools and no books could be written in Lithuanian. Lithuania kept up one of the strongest resistance movements, and they were the first to declare independence in 1991.

Lithuanians were pretty creative in the peaceful protests and demonstrations that took place before independence. They showed solidarity with the other Baltic states (Latvia and Estonia) by forming a human chain of people holding hands all the way from the tip of northern Estonia down to Vilnius in southern Lithuania. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union was not always peaceful in its response, and in January 1991, tanks attempted to put down the uprising and killed 13 Lithuanians. In the end, the Soviet violence spurred the Baltic states towards independence and the fall of the Soviet Union. Both of our instructors have first-hand accounts of these events, including deportation to Siberia and being part of the human chain.

As I learn more, I'll share more details of their history. The more I learn, the more excited I am about going to live in this little European country. Can't wait to get there!

The Big Apple

Hello again!  Sorry for the long silence - I guess language class has taken up most of our free time.  Not all of it, though, as you'll see below.  Stay tuned for my next posting: on the trials and tribulations of language training.

 

Last week I reminded J that we get Columbus Day off from class, so we decided to make last minute plans to go to New York City.  Priceline gave us a smashing deal (4 star hotel on Wall Street!), TripperBus made the trip at a relatively low rate, and so we were set.  Saturday morning started off with a (false) fire alarm and climbing down 10 flights of stairs to get out of the building, then our 5 hour bus ride.  But after that, things were great – we saw the sunset over Manhattan from the Top of the Rock, window shopped in the Lego Store, and then strolled down Times Square. 

I feel compelled to mention that we actually "occupied" Wall Street for two nights, unlike the protesters, who were actually several blocks northwest of Wall Street in a small park. We walked through the protest area one night - it was full of sleeping bags and also tables set up with the various causes that protesters are championing... you know, stuff like sustainable agriculture.  And of course people had signs against income inequality and the "big, evil" bankers, and beat drums while chanting slogans.  It seemed like a pretty tame protest to me.  So, back to Wall Street: it's actually quite a short, narrow one-way street.  I always pictured something more like Broadway, but this street is tiny - you can't see anything but the walls of skyscrapers all crowded in around you. Go figure.  All weekend, as we walked down Wall Street to get to the subway, we saw nothing but temporary barricades and about a million policemen standing around or on horseback.  I guess they were serious about protecting Wall Street.

Sunday we had a leisurely morning with brunch in the West Village, and then walked through the High Line Park. It’s amazing to me, a rural Midwestern girl, how much a place can be in need of greenery.  The park is really unique and I would recommend it as a nice break from some of the traditional sightseeing spots.  (I loved the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, too!).  After that we caught the last sail of the year with a ‘green’ ship out of Chelsea Piers.  The weather was amazing – truly one of the last dog days of summer. We sailed past the Statue of Liberty and over to the Brooklyn Bridge before returning to land.  While sailing, we saw a plane writing in sky smoke.  I had to look up the story later, since we sort of lost interest after a while and didn’t catch all the words.  We thought that it was a lovesick pilot, writing things like “Lost our love” and “last chance.”  Evidently, these ominous messages were actually “Lost our lease,” “Last chance,” and “Now open” and were supposed to be art by the High Line Park. According to this article, some New Yorkers didn't particularly take a liking to the “Last Chance” sign in the sky.

Finally, we rounded out the day by walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the US, and grabbing some dinner in Brooklyn.  We walked over to Grimaldi’s pizza, but that line was at least 40 people long waiting to get a table, and at 8:30 at night, that was too much of a wait for us. Maybe next time…  I should note here that J particularly enjoyed the taxi ride back home (the only one we took this weekend!), because the taxi comes equipped with it’s own TV screen in the back seat, where you can watch your route on GPS and also catch the local news.  In the end, that ride took us door to door, and only cost twice as much as two subway tickets home.  I think the convenience was definitely worth it!

Monday we were back on a boat, this time to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Lady Liberty is beautiful!  We enjoyed going through the Ellis Island Museum.  They do a great job of illustrating the process that immigrants had to go through, including medical and legal inspections, to the hospital (still on the island), where children with infectious diseases were kept until they got better.  Over 12 million people came through Ellis Island in the late 1800’s until the 1920’s.  I was surprised to find out that Ellis Island fell into disrepair from the 1950’s until the 1980’s, when restoration began.  It really is an amazing national park and I’m glad we got to see it. 

 

That was our "New York in three days" experience - we loved it! 

Earthquake!!

Today's 5.8 magnitude earthquake was my first (at least the first that I have been aware of).  I was sitting in my office at work and at first I thought that the maintenance guys were just making a lot of noise.  But when I realized they had been working on the ceiling, and yet my floor was shaking, I knew something was up.  Then someone else in the office who had lived in California said it was an earthquake.  You should be proud to know that I immediately got in a door frame away from windows (thanks to those elementary school earthquake drills!).  There hasn't been a lot of news yet, but it sounds like most of DC is just fine.  Evidently the National Cathedral sustained some damage, hopefully it won't take too long to repair.  The only noticeable difference for me was the slow metro ride home, a precautionary measure.

My job has been going well - at least, I don't think I've made any mistakes big enough to damage relations between the U.S. and the Benelux region (I set myself a high bar once I found out all that I would be responsible for on my bridge assignment!).  Whatever I may have believed in the past, I have NEVER worked in a bureaucracy as big as this.  I've spent the last couple days (in between responding to and forwarding a couple hundred emails) trying to figure out how to request appointments.  So far, I have deduced that I must draft a memo, ask roughly 10 people to 'clear' it, and then send it off to the higher ups and hope that someone gets back to me sometime.  Luckily, many of the folks around me are happy to give advice and suggestions on how best to craft these things.  Also, since I'm only working here until Labor Day, I can only give it my best shot and leave it to the next guy to make sure that we get an answer.  While I may sound like I'm complaining, this has been a great experience for me and I think that I'll do a better job at post now that I understand some of what goes on back here.

Speaking of post - we start language training in two weeks!  J also gets to take language, and lucky for us both, there is a good chance that we will not be in the same class! ;) 

Outside of work, we've been enjoying the milder weather the last week or two, going on long bike rides and playing volleyball with classmates when it's not raining.  We're looking forward to welcoming some of J's family next month and showing them around the city. 

Belgian National Day

I have the coolest job ever.  Well, if you'd asked me 5 hours ago, I would have told you about IT frustrations, but since then, I was honored to attend the Belgian National Day celebration at the Ambassador's residence.  It was a-mazing!  Okay, I'd better back up a bit.  Most of the past month has been spent in training, but as of last week, I moved to a temporary position covering the Benelux desk.  "What's Benelux?" you ask.  Well, that is BElgium, the NEtherlands and LUXembourg.  Until the beginning of September when I start language training, I will be coordinating our contact with the embassies here and our posts in those countries.  Wish me luck (and them, too, because this is usually handled by two people with much more experience than me!).

(It's now two days later... but let's pretend that it's still Thursday night)  Back to the festivities:  One of the big events that each embassy has overseas is a celebration on their Independence Day (or the equivalent, i.e. the Qween's birthday for Britain).  That's the day to invite citizens of your country that live near the embassy, as well as fellow diplomats and contacts in the State Department.  So, I got to meet most of our Belgian contacts at that embassy, and also drink a variety of Belgian beers, and eat frites, Belgian waffles, and chocolate! The only downside was the heat, and that I didn't get to bring J with me to try the beers... ;)  There will be plenty such opportunities when we get to Lithuania.

Today we decided to beat the heat (over 100 degrees again today) and head over to the Newseum.  This has been on our to-do list for a while, but we just haven't taken the time to go.  It's basically a six story tribute to news and the history of news in the US and around the world.  It's really well put together, with a number of exhibits on how major events were reported, such as Katrina or September 11th.  They also have some nice touches, like the front page of paper from every state displayed outside, which is updated every day.  Some of my favorite exhibits were the Pulitzer Prize photography and the memorial for reporters who have been killed around the world.  They also have a couple of studios, one of which houses the Sunday morning talk show, ABC This Week with Cristiane Amanpour.  I also liked the exhibit on White House photographers.  (I like photography, I guess you could say.)  Evidently they change the exhibits pretty frequently, so I think we will be back to visit sometime.  Sidenote: There are some cool exhibits for kids, like the 10 "studios" where you can stand up and give your own reporting in front of a green screen.  I'm assuming that you then get to take that video home with you.  Pretty neat!

Now that I'm back in my suits, work seems to be going well.  I'm a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of paper that gets sent around the Department, and mostly afraid that I will not send all the things I'm supposed to pass on to the right people.  It's a good learning experience, though, and I look forward to making the most of it!

Second tour: Moscow!

Just a quick note to let you know that I got word of my next post.  I will be an economics officer in Moscow starting in 2014! J and I are very excited and look forward to getting there three years from now. ;)  In all seriousness, I think it will be a good experience to work in a small post on the first tour and a relatively large one on the second tour. Economics work should be interesting; I suppose I should start paying closer attention to economic issues in Russia. 

They make a big deal of saying that you must pick your "cone" (political, economic, consular, management or public diplomacy) at the beginning of the application process and that you can never change it, but at this point, I am starting to wonder when I will get the chance to work completely within my cone.  Actually, it's not that critical right now, and I'm lucky to be able to work in something very close to my cone for three of the four years that I will be nontenured (I need to be tenured by 2016, or else I will have to find a new career...).  The Powers That Be tell us that nothing is as important for tenure as doing a good job in whatever position we are assigned, and also earning a good "corridor reputation" (a.k.a. working well with colleagues).  I think I can handle that!

One last tidbit: As a Foreign Service Officer, my name is submitted by the President for official Senate conformation.  Doesn't that sound formal?!  On May 12th, I was listed in the Congressional Record (Volume 157, Issue 65), and I think you should go check out the link to find me!

Still in training

Sorry folks, it has been a while since I posted.  On one level, I feel like I've been doing pretty much the same thing for the last 10 or so weeks, so I don't have a lot to report.  But that's not really true; I've had visitors, started different trainings, seen some things here in DC, so I'll try to catch up.  And again, I promise to get better at posting.

First off, we had our first visitors - R (friend from high school) and S (friend from college) over Memorial Day weekend.  We had a blast!  (Well, J. didn't have much to do with the girls' weekend, but the girls had a good time!)  We went all over the metro, including the Library of Congress, a couple Smithsonian museums, some of the monuments, a little of Alexandria, a boat ride to Georgetown, and some tasty ethnic cuisine.  My feet hurt by the end of their visit. For those of you on facebook, check out our pictures (R & S did all the photos, I'm not much of a camera person...). S & R: I missed you girls - so glad you could make it!!

Last week I also started a new training - Consular General or ConGen for short.  This course is Congressionally mandated and includes required tests. Consular work is bound by a ton of regulations (over 13,000 pages), to make sure that we apply the law fairly across the world.  Looking at the bigger picture, we're protecting U.S. interests abroad, particularly national security interests.  The training also includes relatively lifelike scenarios, such as visa windows and even a fake jail cell, where we will be doing a number of role play scenarios.  As a consular officer, I'll be working on mostly immigrant and non-immigrant visas, but I will also spend some time helping with American Citizen Services.  Anytime Americans need help overseas, they can contact the embassy, and we consular officers will help as much as we can within the perimeters of the law.  A common line I hear in training is that "Consular officers have the best stories."  I'm starting to understand why that's true.  People come up with the craziest (both factual and fraudulent) stories, and we have to get them to provide us with solid evidence, then apply the law fairly and accurately. I spent at least an hour yesterday with a conception calculator open on my computer, trying to figure out if the alleged father in a given scenario was in the same country as the mother when conception should have occurred ("So you're telling me that your pregnancy lasted 13 months??") Oh, and we're expected to provide good customer service, too, no matter what.

Today I took a test on how to determine citizenship, as well as passport issues and something called the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (aptly named, I think, since it is the official document establishing American citizenship for U.S. children born, you guessed it, outside the U.S.).  Happy to report that I didn't miss a single question on the test.  "Who is an American citizen" can be a very complicated question when looking at people that are not born in the U.S.  (Some day that may be our children, you know).  A lot has to do with what law was in effect when someone was born, but it also changes based on whether the parents are married and if one or both are American citizens. Fascinating stuff.