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.