At this time of year, just about every employee in the Foreign Service is required to write up and submit an EER, short for Employee Evaluation Report. In simpler terms, every year we are all required to write a one page evaluation of ourselves, which in reality is an essay contest to see how good
Happy New Year!!! Wow, 2022 was a whirlwind of a year. Thinking back on my entire life, I don’t think there has been a single year that had as much excitement and movement as 2022 did. I entered 2022 working as a hospitalist in Southern New Mexico, my wife had just had our youngest daughter
I want to first start by saying thank you to my wife Angeli for her awesome trip report on Senegal during the short Thanksgiving break. It was a wonderful trip and she captured our thoughts on it perfectly. Thank you Angeli! This week I want to start a new series of posts where I discuss
I am often asked through this website or through friends and family if there have been any negatives to the job, lifestyle, or in general since joining the Foreign Service. I am a positive guy by nature, and I definitely try to keep things light and positive here (mostly because I don’t want to offend
I was recently sitting across from a foreign ambassador at a dinner event, hearing some of the most fascinating stories of their careers, when I realized I was living in a fascinating story myself, right then and there. Later that evening, while I was replaying the night in my head, I found my mind wandering
Orientation has come to an end, and with it closes the prologue of my Foreign Service career. Even now, after all this time, from getting invited to orientation in January, to now, about to embark on my first assignment, it all still feels so surreal. I really hope the feeling never goes away. I’m sure
Time marches along with a steady beat, and the move to Mauritania draws ever closer. As I mentioned in my previous post, relocating overseas for a diplomatic assignment is no small feat, and it involves a lot of moving parts. Making sure you get it all set up by the time you are expected to
Woof. In one months time I will be in Mauritania, settling into our new home, and starting my first assignment. I’m so excited to get there, but it feels like between now and then I have a million things to do, and not enough time. Let me try and explain what a PCS (permanent change
Not much to report on over the last week. I completed counter threat training, which was almost like an awesome summer camp where you get taught life saving skills and how to drive a car in a ton of really fun scenarios. As someone who loves to drive, it was an absolute blast being able
This week marked the end of orientation, and boy was it a productive one. As mentioned in the previous post, I learned my first assignment will be taking me to Nouakchott, Mauritania. I remain incredibly excited about the assignment, and perhaps more importantly, my family is too. My eldest daughter couldn’t be happier to be
