It’s one of those eternal questions: what’s a good day trip from Washington DC? In my opinion, there’s not a whole lot of choice. Yes,...

A lot of people ask me how many diplomats the State Department is hiring at the moment. I thought the question was moot because the 2017...

Sometimes I wonder if I’m successfully settling into a nice, slower pace of life, or if I’m just slowly losing my mind. One minute I feel...

I’ve written a whole bunch of blog posts on how to enter the Foreign Service and more generally on how to kick-start a career in...

This Saturday saw the biggest Black Lives Matter protests so far in Washington DC. Figuring this is an important event, and being mindful...

When am I moving to Berlin? I don’t know! But I have to be prepared for it anyway, because it could happen any time. Or, more...

I’ve been writing this blog more or less consistently for two and a half years. But I tried blogging before—four times, actually—and it...

Brief update: I took an antibody test at LabCorp last week and got a positive result. I wasn’t surprised. Although I never had a fever or...

On the first day Maryland relaxed its COVID-related restrictions we found ourselves in Ocean City. It’s a three-hour drive from DC, but...

German language training is over! Just like that—no dreaded test, no fretting over scores—I was told I “met the required level” and that...

Writing is an important part of the Foreign Service exam because it’s an important part of being a diplomat. I would argue that, if...

It’s been quite a month! Staying home with my husband and two kids while continuing to work “full-time” has been a challenge. Especially...

I try to speak Dutch with my kids, while my husband usually sticks to English. That way we both speak our native languages and,...

There are a bunch of massive, amazing, free museums in Washington DC called the "Smithsonian." There's one for American History, Art, Air...

It never occurred to me to recap a calendar year. I think a lot about my past—especially about how it influences the present, but...

I recently wrote in a post that I never liked living in or around DC. But when I moved here in June, I decided this was going to change....

We had to switch apartments last month. No big deal. I just got a few boxes from the supermarket, borrowed a luggage cart, and the whole...

This week I did something pretty interesting: I was part of a small group of diplomats testing out new materials for the Foreign Service...

The past month has been all about bidding—in other words, we’ve been looking for jobs. Not for me, obviously, because I’ll be assigned to...

What’s diplomatic life like when working domestically? Well, when we’re back, we’re not really diplomats. We don’t have immunity, or talk...