The Girl in Ipanema

 

My mother's birthday was yesterday, so as a present I figured I'd update my blog which has been idle for a few months.  Not much to comment on work wise.  For six months, I was the acting NIV (Non-Immigrant Visa) Chief, filling in for a senior officer who had not yet arrived at post. At first , the assignment was overwhelming, but after a few weeks, I learned how to run the embassy's visa line, leading a staff of 10 American officers, 5 family members, and a staff of over 30 local hires.  I really enjoyed the work, and got a taste of what future managerial assignments will be like, which I am really looking forward to.  Nonetheless, the assignment was only temporary, and when the actual NIV Chief arrived, I got reassigned back to the visa line.  The assignment was a blessing and a curse in that I got to lead one of the busiest visa sections in the works, handling over 1000 applicants a day, and learn how to be a manager, including all the bureaucratic ins and outs of working for the Department, something few second tours officers get to experience.  The flip side is I'm now back to my entry level assignment, which at times I find pretty tame.  I have just over a year left here, and will have to find a way to bide my time to get into a more prominent position again.  Regardless, I am thankful for the opportunity. Shannon's stint as the Immigrant visa chief also came to an end, so the Consular power couple is no more.  Our boss is trying to keep us busy, using an analogy of us a German Sheppards.  When they get bored, they start to dig holes in the back yard.  Evidently, he doesn't want us digging "holes" in his section. We're trying not to, but we now understand the analogy.  

Meanwhile, we've been busy traveling like always.  Its now summertime here in the Southern Hemisphere, so we've been taking the opportunity to explore not only the country, but the city we have been living in for the past 8 months. We arrived at the beginning of winter, so exploring the city on the weekends was a chilly affair.  Now its on the hot side, but we've been getting out as often as possible.  A few weeks back several of us went to a polo match.  Polo is a very popular sport here, second only to soccer.  Before the match, a group of us watched an  instruction video about the rules of the game, produced by "Nacho,"  a world famous polo player who is also the spokes model for Ralph Lauren (essentially he is the guy on the little insignia on RL polo shirts, who I have now actually met in person, which is another story). After learning the rules, we went to match which was quite fun, except the seats were metal bleachers that had been exposed to the hot sun for several hours and were scalding hot.  We sat on stacks of event rograms, but still managed to burn our backsides.  (Shannon examined me after and can attest, I actually burned myself). 

 The other pictures are of a building sporting the image of Eva Peron, and the Congress building.

For Thanksgiving, we traveled back to Phoenix and Rocky Point to celebrate with my parent, and then for Christmas, we went to the Outer Banks to celebrate with Shannon's family.  Both trips with equally pleasant, but involved long flights.  We racked up almost 12,000 miles each trip, with almost 15 hours in the air each way.  I still marvel at air travel, but as I get older, my backside marvels less.  

Last week, Shannon and I had our first wedding anniversary(with an asterisk though.  We got married January 21st, but I had to go back to Venezuela for two and half months after, so we didn't actually start living together as man and wife until early April 2012.)  Either way,  so far so good!  To celebrate, we took a few days off and went to Rio.  We had a great time, but discovered that January is not the best time to go to Rio.  January is in the dead of summer, which is hot and humid, and it rains every day.  Nonetheless, we managed to deal with the discomforts and have a good time.  We explored Copacabana, Ipanema, the downtown area, Botanical Gardens, saw the Christ Redeemer statue, which is now listed as a modern wonder of the world, ate great food, visited with a Brazilian family that is a family friend of Shannon's family, as well as took a cable car up Sugar Loaf mountain which offers spectacular views over the city.  I would love to go back, and even live and work there some day, though hopefully my next trip is during a more temperate season.  Portuguese is a trip though.  Its nearly identical to Spanish, yet nearly impossible to understand.  In order to communicate, we relied heavily on English which was more widely understood that Spanish.  Crazy!

M