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...

How to learn a foreign language? It’s a question everyone has probably asked at least once—and some many, many times. Yet there’s no...

I’ve been in fulltime German language training for three weeks now, and I’m having fun. Yet I feel like I should stop telling people...

Now that I'm assigned to a year of language training, it’s time to settle in. I live in North Virginia, within the DC Metropolitan Area,...

So, now that the orientation period (aka A-100) is over, what does my life look like? Well, I wake up at 6:45 every morning to go through...

I could hardly contain myself as the announcer, speaking to a room filled with newly minted diplomats and 300 of their closest friends...

You may have noticed that I haven’t written a word on this blog since I joined A-100. Because I’m too busy, right? Well, there’s actually...

When I first moved to Yerevan two years ago, I didn’t really like my house (too big) or my neighborhood (lots of stray dogs, trash, no...

I started working in Human Resources (part of the management section) two months ago, and I'm leaving my position next week, so please...

I just completed my first cruise! In only 10 days, our little family visited Rome, Crete, Mikonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Athens, and Naples....

A few weeks ago I went on my first-ever cruise: a 10-day voyage in Italy and Greece on the Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Sea, with my...

And so the journey ends! It’s been two years and two months since I applied for the Foreign Service, and last week the process finally...

In some countries you get only one shot at being a diplomat—if you're rejected you’re done. You can't apply for the job again because, I...

Diplomats interview people all the time. As managers, they're often involved in hiring permanent staff and interns. They may also...