She Said: So much to be thankful for!

Well, as Brian said in his post, we've had a wonderful last few months (Yes Mr. Flynn I know that it has been a ridiculously long time since I last posted...thanks for keeping me honest). I did start working in July and I have to say I have really enjoyed the consular section. Aside from gaining a deep understanding and appreciation for what Brian is doing, I have learned a lot of new things, gotten to know people at the embassy on a much more personal level and had a great time over the past few months. In addition, it has helped me take my focus off of how difficult things can sometimes be in this country. While I have really learned a lot in the section and enjoyed my colleagues, I've decided that the actual job that I'm doing at the embassy is simply not a good fit for me. I have made a decision to leave the consular section at the end of the year and will be starting a new position at the embassy in January.

With all that's been going on, here we are with just under a year left in Venezuela. The first few months really seemed to creep by, but now we find the time flying and asking ourselves where it has gone. As we chatted the other day, Brian and I both realized that most of the places we wanted to see while we were here have since been checked off our list (Angle Falls, Panama, the beaches here, Chile) and we only have a few "must dos in Venezuela" left. I used Shutterfly to create a volume of pictures from our first year here and as we looked back we were astonished at all we've been able to do. Despite some of the difficulties we've faced, we wouldn't change it for the world!

While we love foreign service life and the privileges it brings, you all know how hard some of our days in Venezuela have been. As we approach the new year, I think Brian and I are both thinking about the new year and our onward assignment to DC. It's funny in the foreign service....often times people look at you like you're crazy when you say you're going back to DC or they say "I'm sorry" when you tell them where you're going. They see it as a disappointment, perhaps because we're all so used to the privilege of traveling and living overseas. For us, that is not the case at all. We are both EXTREMELY EXCITED to be going back to DC for a post and think the timing is right for us. For Brian's career, the job is an excellent fit and now that I've been out for a tour I have a better idea of what experiences and contacts will be good for me to get in DC before heading overseas again. There are a lot of things we missed about the states being here and we plan to take full advantage of them while we're home (watch out Starbucks, Trader Joe's, Target...here we come!)

I don't have much to add beyond that at this point. I feel like I could write so many blog posts right now to share with you all the great travel adventures we've had since I last wrote. I guess working really did consume me. For now, I'll keep it simple and say happy holidays to you and loved ones around the world. As we are surrounded by so many wonderful friends here, our wonderful friends at home who are so patient with us and so committed to our friendship and our loving family who is always there for us no matter what, I am constantly reminded of how lucky we are to be where we are and to have what we have. Wishing you all exciting adventures in the new year to come. Merry Christmas!

He Said: Catching Up

I'm making a promise that I no longer am going to start posts with, "I know this has been a long time coming..." In a conversation with my mom the other night she asked about the blog and posting and she made a good comment. She said that the lack of posts simply show that we've settled into life here in Caracas and that things now are fairly normal. I'm happy to report that Steph and I continue with our positive attitude efforts and feeling as though we've made a life for ourselves here.

Since our last post in July, (ugh!) we've definitely had a lot going on. Steph started work in the Consular section back in July. She's conducting visa interviews, the same as I am. I think it was a big change for her, but we've been able to put the extra income to work. This summer we received our onward assignment. We'll be heading back to Washington, DC around September/October, 2011. I'll be doing a two year tour as the Public Diplomacy Desk Officer for the Baltic and Nordic Regions. Basically, I'll be working with the Embassies in: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Greenland. From DC I'll be advocating on behalf of my region for cultural grant money and support. Additionally, I'll be the person in Washington who sends out press guidance to the region. I'm really looking forward to getting both press and cultural experience, and living in DC should provide some great opportunities for Steph as well. I'll let her comment more on what she may or may not be doing. Since we're heading back to DC we've been thinking more and more about purchasing some sort of property there. With Steph working we've been able to really start working on putting something together for our future, which is extremely exciting for us.

In addition to looking forward, we've had a couple of great moments over the past few months. Over Labor Day, my cousin Renee and her husband came to visit us. We had a lot of fun catching up and showing them around Venezuela. I think they were impressed by the natural beauty of this place, but at the same time understood many of the disappointments we experience because of how badly things are going in this country. Also, in October we met up with our friends Justin and Rebecca in Panama. It was great to get out of Venezuela for a while. We enjoyed having Taco Bell and Dairy Queen all in the same day at the mall. We also had a blast seeing our old friends and sharing a new country with them. After they headed back to the States, we continued on to San Blas, on the Atlantic side of Panama. We spent two days on the islands, relaxing and reading. We've posted pictures of the place we stayed and the natural beauty there.

We're getting ready for the holidays coming up and will be looking forward to spending some time in Minnesota over Christmas. We'll be working on some more posts and hope to hear from you all soon.

He Said: (Well over) 1 Year

So I have to be honest, I started this post 4 months ago when I had reached my 1 year anniversary of being in the Foreign Service. It's funny to look back and realize that I was in such a different place back then than I am in now. To get things started, I'll include what I originally wrote:

"Well, it has been quite a while since I last posted. I could take up time and space to explain all the reasons why, but instead I'll try to be as concise and honest as possible. There are two reasons why I haven't blogged in a while. First, I've been busy. I know, I know, it's so cliche and isn't everyone in the world busy with something. To be honest I'm still just adjusting to all the things that are new in my life and that take extra time. Additionally, visa demand is so high here in Caracas, that by the end of the day I'm just exhausted from head to toe. The second reason is that lately I have felt like I haven't had many good things to blog about and I really didn't want to share my frustrations with all you readers. Venezuela can be a very frustrating place and people simply live in a bubble where they only worry about themselves.

The post ended there because I had to run and get something else done that evening with Steph. I never came back to it and I'm glad I didn't finish my own little rant/tantrum. It's interesting to look as see where I was only three months ago. Additionally, as hindsight is always 20/20, I find it fascinating and a little funny to reflect on my very own personal culture shock. I commented to Steph just yesterday on how I've been feeling life here in Caracas for us feels so normal. After coming back from our first of two R&Rs in Minnesota in May, it was a really hard adjustment to come back to our life here because it's just so different. Now, it feels as though we have our own life and the things that seemed to consume us are just a part of that life we share. Now, I still don't understand why it's okay to make a left turn on a red light, but not when there's only a green light (where in the US you can yield and turn), but at least now I can laugh about it (most of the time). There are definitely some things that I really don't like about the culture here, and some things I'll never get used to, but as I was explaining to Steph, I feel as though the things we have in our life simply overpower that now.

We really do have wonderful friends and a great community here. More than that, I feel as though Steph and I have found our niches in so many ways. I've already brewed three batches of beer here at home. The beer here is weak and not very tasty, so this is a great thing to share. The latest batch is called "Culture Shock Ale" as a tip of the hat to end my own little pity party. Also, Steph and I have had the chance to get out and see more of Venezuela. We recently returned from a 5 day trip to Canaima
National Park where Angel Falls (the worlds tallest waterfall) is located. I think she's planning to post about that soon. I know she's promised pictures to many people as well. Finally, Steph recently started working in the Consular section with me conducting visa interviews. It's been an adjustment for us to work together in the same office, but more so for her to return to work and have it be such a change from what she did in the past. It will take time, but I think we'll enjoy the extra income, and I think she likes having a little more routine in her day.

Another thing coming down the pipeline is the move we will be doing soon. I know, I know, another move... I think we've become famous for the number of moves we conducted. We'll still be here in Caracas, and still in the neighborhood, but we had been dealing with some major mold and maintenance issues in our current apartment for over 3 months, so we're being moved into a cleaner, healthier apartment down the street. We'll be losing our killer view of Caracas, but it's a small price to pay to have a healthy home. We're excited to get into our new place and are looking forward to getting settled in and making that "normal."

Well, that's about all I have for now. I'm going to try to put more posts up more frequently now that life is what it is. We'll be bidding on our next assignment in late August/early September, so I at least need to post something about that once we're assigned.

Until next time...

The Sweet Taste of Victory...Carmenere, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc

Well, the first order of business is obviously a final report on the bugs. I seriously doubt this will be the "final" report on bugs, but it's final for now. Here it is:
Steph: 3 Bugs: 1

A solid win for me! I am happy to report that we have not had any moths in our kitchen for probably 3 weeks. The ants have been completely eliminated with my Terro traps (a plug for them) and I have only found 1 roach since my last report and he was dead, meaning the poison is working. Hooray!!! It's much better not to have to greet my little friends each morning.

To celebrate (and also because we have been dreaming about it for a long time), Brian and I took a trip to Chile. Many of you know that I studied there for about 6 months during my undergraduate studies and that Brian came to visit me during that time and saw part of Chile. We both loved it and have wanted to go back ever since, particularly to see my host family and to do wine country. This trip was about a 10 day trip and was centered on seeing the things we saw when I was there as a student but Brian didn't have a chance to experience, visiting my host family, checking out Santiago and seeing the vineyards. It was amazing!!! Here are the highlights:

Santiago-What a wonderful city.....we enjoyed a lot of time just metroing from neighborhood to neighborhood and walking around to enjoy the parks, get a feel for the city and enjoy a pisco sour or cafe here and there. We had some wonderful food and met up with a colleague of Brian's who works there. We had a great time and returned for a day on the back end of our trip before flying out. I think Fuente Alemana was Brian's favorite part (I'm hoping he might have time to write this week and share a bit with you).

Vina del Mar/Valparaiso-Not even sure where to begin. Obviously in Vina we spent time with my host family. We had such a great time catching up and they were blown away by Brian's Spanish, so that was fun. Chilean hospitality always amazes me. Before we left lunch with my host family, they presented us with the hand crocheted table centerpiece that my host mom had made almost 6 years ago when Brian and I were married and she has been saving for us ever since. Along with that came 2 boxes of artisan alfajores and a bottle of pisco (Note: Alfajores are an incredibly indulgent and wonderful Chilean treat. They consist of two pastries sandwiched together with manjar and covered in chocolate. Pisco is the traditional Chilean liquor. They mix it with lemon juice and sugar to make a pisco sour or with coca cola to make Piscola. If you want to see a Chilean get angry, just mention that you heard the Peruvians actually invented Pisco.) So very Chilean and so much hospitality I don't even have words. In Valparaiso we spent time wandering the hills. We walked up to Pablo Neruda's house on the top of one of the highest Valpo. hills and took some pictures and enjoyed the huge murals that are part of the open air museum on our walk down. It was really fun and we got a great day for it.

Wine country-Here again, so many highlights...We tried to see a variety of vineyards and wineries while we were there and really feel like we did that and still had time to relax. We saw an organic, biodynamic winery owned by one of the largest wine producers in Chile (Emiliana), one of the most modern facilities for producing premium wine in the region (Lapostolle), a smaller boutique vineyard where we talked with an 86 year old man who was the owner and founder of the brand (Laura Hartwig), enjoyed a four course tasting lunch with wine pairings at House of Morande and stayed at a luxury hotel at one of the vineyards that was absolutely beautiful (Matetic). We are looking forward to hopefully being able to find some of our favorites from these wineries when we're home and sharing our enjoyment of them with you.

So, as you can tell, we had a wonderful trip. We're missing Chile a little bit, but more than anything it made us look forward to planning more adventures there. I think it is a country we will return to many times...so much to see.

I'm finally getting around to getting pictures organized and posted on a site accessible for everyone. Chile pictures and some Venezuela stuff's available at www.beckmannsabroad.myphotoalbum.com. For some things you will need a password and we're only making it available to people we know (such as our apartment). If that's you and you want to see the password protected stuff, just send me an email (steph_beckmann@yahoo.com) and I'll set you up. Looking forward to hearing from some of you soon!

Hugs,
Steph

She Said: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Well, you can probably guess what this post is going to be about....that's right folks, we've got bugs. Now I'm happy to report, unlike some other parts of the world, that ours are relatively small and harmless and I have waged an all out war on them.

Ants: Ants are a pretty common thing here. I think the ones that we have came in on a bag of sugar and quickly made themselves at home. They are little sugar ants and they do little more than drive me crazy building their highway across the kitchen. Unfortunately for them, when the first HHE shipment arrived (last Friday), my Terro ant traps also arrived. Within a day I had them under control.

Bugs: 0 Steph: 1

Cockroaches: Yes, it's disgusting, but cockroaches pretty much come with the territory here. I did have to laugh when our housekeeper asked if they were big ones or small ones that we had. I said big ones and she was relieved. She said those are the kind you just kill and throw out. The little ones get into everything according to her. So, GSO helped me out by putting some goo down on the drains and I put down some traps with a lovely snack that they can take to their nest so that if we find them at all, they will be dead.

Bugs: 0 Steph: 2

Indian Meal Moths: Well, I saved the best for last. These, quite frankly, are making me absolutely crazy. They are a kind of moth that comes in on flour or grains (probably some beans or flour from the grocery store) and they feed and breed in those things and in your cupboards. We have thrown away so much food it makes me sick and I have cleaned the cupboards inside and out at least three times. Every morning we come into the kitchen to find at least one of these little guys perched on the ceiling. I curse them, kill them and wait for the next day to see how many I will find. At this point we have no idea where they're coming from. There's nothing left for them to live on. We have cleaned everything and have not found anything that looks like the webbing they makes, etc. All of my rice, pasta, flour, sugar, anything they might like is now in the freezer. The cupboards are bare with only tin cans remaining. I did talk to a friend who had these in Guyana and she said it takes a while to get rid of them, so I'm hoping we're still winning. In the meantime, I ordered traps for these little guys on Amazon. The good news is...every day there are less of them. The last two days we have only found 1 or 2. The bad news is...I'm still finding 1 or 2 a day.

Bugs:1 Steph: 2

As you can see from the scoreboard, I'm still winning. I hope to be reporting the final score along with victory in my next blog post

Single handedly keeping the do it yourself pest control industry in business from Venezuela!
S

She Said: Work in Quito

Greetings from Quito! At this point I know many of you are thinking, "what...Quito"? What's goings on? Let me take a second to explain. This is a great update for any FS spouses who might be reading this wondering if I will ever find work as "fsowannabe" posted in the comments under my last blog. I hope you are inspired!

As you all know, I have really been looking hard to find something that would be fulfilling, interesting work for me in Caracas that would allow me to utilize my skills. I do not want to demean embassy jobs for spouses in any way, because for many they provide a good option. The problem has been that the opportunities that have been options for me have just not been a good match for me. A couple of weeks ago, a friend mentioned a development project proposal in Ecuador and told me they were looking for someone to help them translate their proposal and fit it to the formats requested by the funding organization, etc. She asked if I'd be interested. Those of you who know me well already know the answer to that question is obvious. About a week later they contacted me and decided they wanted to hire me on a short term contract. After speaking on skype a few times, they also thought it would be a good idea for me to come to Quito for 10 days or so to work on the proposal with them. So, that's how I got to Quito...without Brian :-(.

I have to say that Quito is absolutely fantastic. Although I have been working from about 8:00-8:00 nearly every day, what I have seen of the city is wonderful. It's modern, they have lots of green space and the prices are shockingly cheap compared to Caracas. It was cold and rainy today (something I haven't seen in a really long time) so I needed to buy something to keep warm. I bought a hand knit wool sweater at the artisan market for $12. Incredible! Aside from that, the people that I have interacted with here are outstanding, "chevere" as we say in Venezuela. They are very warm, patient and welcoming people. In addition to the people and the place that are so great here I am also loving my work. I have found that even though I have been working so much and arrive at the hotel absolutely exhausted at the end of the day, I am enthralled by my work. It is one of the most intriguing projects I have ever worked on and I feel privileged to be included in the discussions I have been a part of here. This could be the catalyst I needed to go ahead an launch my own consulting business.

As I said when I opened this post, I hope any FS spouses who might be discouraged or willing to give in because they haven't found interesting work are energized by my post and that it gives them some hope that something's out there. For me it just took talking to a lot of people about my interests, time and patience with finding the right thing.

Tomorrow I'm planning to get up early and go to Mitad del Mundo which I'll have to write more about once I've seen it, but I heard it's pretty cool. Hope all is well wherever you are reading this (especially you in Caracas Bri)!

Abrazos!

She Said: Fireworks

Happy new year everyone! Wow...absurd, I know. It has been way too long since we've written. I don't know what happened exactly, I guess the holidays. We spent a lot of our time over the last several weeks preparing for and enjoying the Christmas season. It was really great. We were able to skype with family so that we could watch each other open gifts and almost felt like we were together for a celebration. It was really fun! Brian and I also hosted a Christmas day dinner in our apartment. I ordered Christmas dishes, got everything ready, prepped the food, etc. and we really enjoyed the day with friends.

I've been thinking about the blog and there are several things that I'd like to share that I haven't had a chance to share with you yet. In an attempt to not overwhelm you with everything in one post, I think I'll try and do several posts over the next couple of weeks to catch up and then once again resolve to post more often.

When I think of fireworks in the states, some very fond memories come to mind from 4th of July and other big celebrations where family and friends would gather to watch well orchestrated fireworks displays set off by organizations or officials. Since we arrived, but particularly since the holiday season started, we have discovered that fireworks in Venezuela are very different. Here, almost anybody can purchase commercial style fireworks to set off at home and they are relatively cheap. They purchase and set them off for children's birthdays, anniversary celebrations, "let's have friends over and show them how much money we have parties", etc. Apologies for the sarcasm, but people definitely do use fireworks to see who can display that they have more money to buy better fireworks here. One thing Venezuelans love to do is party and even birthday parties for 3 year olds here involve chair covers, jumping castles and fireworks.

From about December 15th -January 5th there were fireworks nearly every night. Sometimes they were close, for example on the 23rd there was a fire behind our building caused by 8-11 year old CHILDREN setting off fireworks on the patio, and sometimes they were far away and beautiful. We spent many nights sleeping with our earplugs in as we adjusted to a somewhat barbaric tradition. It was definitely a cultural adjustment. On Christmas eve, Brian and I found ourselves feeling very angry that our neighbors' children were once again on the back patio shooting off fireworks after we had just had a fire in the back yard the day before and it took the fire department 40 minutes to respond with a truck that didn't have a hose long enough to reach the fire. While I'm still not happy about it and would hope that it'll be different next year (or we'll be out of town for Christmas), but by New Year's eve we realized that we are never going to change the Venezuelans. Seeing how fireworks safety is managed here gave us a greater appreciation of some of the protections we do have in the states (what?!?!? 7 year olds shouldn't be responsible for putting on the fireworks show for the adults?!?!?!?!)

The culmination of the fireworks was on New Year's Eve. The tradition here is to set off fireworks at midnight. Here's a short video taken by our friend to give you an idea of what it was like:



It felt a bit like a war zone, but it was pretty amazing to see from way up on the hill. So, that's fireworks in Venezuela. Can't wait to see what they're like for independence day here. Hoping you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a happy new year!