Today marks our 16th anniversary of joining the Foreign Service – hard to believe! It was rather fitting, then, that we were able to see an old friend (and my old boss) from Tel Aviv – Juan was in town for a (non-Foreign Service) work trip and came for dinner Friday night. We were joined by Jenae, who we all worked with on our first tours in Juarez (although Juan left Juarez right before we arrived…then we met him on our second tour). We had a great time catching up and hearing about his life in London, where he settled down after Tel Aviv. We were just delighted to get to see him!
Saturday night, we had dinner at Jamie & Kat’s, along with Rachel. Another fitting occasion, since we first met Jamie 16 years ago when he was with us in orientation into the Foreign Service! We had a great time chatting, eating great food (I got the recipe for roasted carrots with cumin seed, yummers), and solving all the world’s problems.
Last Monday I went back to work, made easier by an “off-campus” lunch with Lea to catch up. Thursday night, John and I attended the Netherland’s “Day of the King” celebration after work.
We finished Season One of “The Diplomat” – completely over the top but lots of fun. I read “Carrie Soto is Back,” by the same author of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” an easy read about a former tennis champion. I tried to get into Amor Towles’ “Lincoln Highway,” but just couldn’t, even after enjoying his other books.
After almost 19 years, Flavia has decided John is pretty OK and has taken to sitting on his lap!
And now that cherry season is over, I’ve taken to grapes – these are from Chile and are just amazing! Look how huge they are – and so sweet!