Ambassadors and FSO

Almost two years ago the Arab Spring started in Tunisia when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest of harassment.  Just one month later the government was overthrown. Countries across northern Africa and the Middle East quickly followed suit.  Small and large protests happened in eighteen different countries lead to changes and overthrow of several governments.

For the past year, many of these countries have disappeared from the news.  Unfortunately, late last night and this morning, two of these countries hit the headlines again.  In Egypt, the walls of the US Embassy were breached and the US flag taken down by protestors.  In Libya, rocket propelled grenades were shot into the US Consulate in Benghazi.  In this attack, the US Ambassador to Libya and three other diplomatic officials were killed.  This is only the eighth ambassador, and first since 1988 to be killed in office.

You may be wondering why I'm writing about this, but it hit a little close to home for me.  I started the long road to joining the Foreign Service Office (FSO) this past summer with my first attempt at the FSO Test.  While I didn't pass (and didn't expect to), I am still eager to try again.  In order to get invited to the FSO I must first pass a test, then write five short essays, then go to DC for a day long interview with other FSO hopefuls, before spending months passing medical and security clearances only to sit on a register waiting to be asked.  I can only be on the register for eighteen months, so if my number doesn't come up I get to start the whole process from the beginning.  From taking the test to being invited to the FSO can be two years, assuming everything goes smoothly.

A Foreign Service Officer works in embassies and consulates around the world in a variety of capacities: facilitating adoptions, managing embassy operations, analyzing host country political events, and working with foreign governments on environmental, technological, and trade issues just to name a few.  When (hopefully) I am invited to join I would spend time in DC learning a language and learning more about FSO requirements.  I then get to spend one to three years at each post working with locals, experiencing a new cultural, and hopefully becoming at minimum conversations in a new language.

I knew there were risks since the US has embassies and consulates in places like Kabul and Tripoli, but the low frequency of deaths in the service can lull a person into a false sense of safety.  However, the deaths of these four officers only strengthens my resolve that when traveling it is important to work hard at understanding the local culture, being tolerant of others beliefs, and providing a positive and respectful image of America.  Hopefully I will get to do this as part of the FSO in the future.

Remembering

It was the first week of my senior year in a brand new high school.  I was sitting in French class, Monsieur at the front of class.  The lesson that day was about food, we were actually sitting in the back of the Spanish classroom in the kitchen.  All of a sudden, there is an announcement form the principal.  This is bizarre, we rarely hear from him.

It was September 11, 2001 and he was announcing the first of the two planes to hit the World Trade Center towers.  I honestly didn't quite know what to make of it.  It didn't really impact me personally because I didn't know anyone in New York, Washington DC, Pennsylvania or on the flights, but at the same time it was deeply troubling.  Since this was the first year in the new high school, there were still kinks being worked out - including the televisions.  So I didn't see any video or images until fifth period calculus when my teacher and another student jury rigged an antennae from a metal desk and a wire.  That's when it started to sink in - the destruction and chaos that was happening in New York City.

I have been to New York several times since the attacks and each time I have visited Ground Zero.  During each trip I have visited Ground Zero, watching the memorial being built and the new towers rising up into the skyline.  This last trip the first part of the memorial was opened to the public.  It is really amazing how powerful and peaceful the memorial is.  The reflecting pools sitting in the footprint of the original towers are impressive.  Not only for the size and sound, but to see the thousands of names around the pools.  I believe it truly shows the diversity of America - each name next to another regardless of ethnicity, gender, or beliefs; each person with their own story.

I can't wait to see the museum when it is completed.  I'm sure it will be a difficult journey through the halls - looking at photos and artifacts, watching video, hearing the sounds of the horrific day, but I still feel that it is important to visit at least once.  From what I have read, the 9/11 Memorial Museum is being built in a similar style to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. (perhaps the most powerful museum I have visited thus far).

All photos taken by me except the center photo

Space Pioneers

I've got stories from recent travels that I will post soon.

It is no secret that since Star Lab first arrived at McAuliffe when I was eight, I have wanted to be an astronaut.  Even when I left for middle school, I came back to McAuliffe to share the stories of the constellations with first graders.  I sat on the roof of a friends house to look at Hale Bop as it passed by in 1996-97 and drove out to the farm fields with my parents to watch a meteor shower.  The one summer I wasn't playing sports, I went to Space Camp in Alabama and was the co-pilot on our mission at the end of the week.  I took at stab at that path for the first three semesters of college when I declared my major as Aeronautics Engineering with an emphasis in Astronautics.  On February 1, 2003 I received phone calls from my brother and my parents early in the morning (well, early college time) telling me to turn on the television, the shuttle Columbia had exploded.  Most recently, I was going through shelves in my old bedroom and discovered four different folders full of information on space and colleges to get degrees for engineering.  To say the least, I have been obsessed with space for quite some time.

While I ended up with a degree in communication, I still stare at the stars whenever possible and I am in awe of the unknown.  I imagine paddling down the river of stars in the Milky Way or floating between galaxies.  I SCUBA dive to get the sense of weightlessness, but I can only stay under water for so long.  Living in zero gravity for days on end would be a whole other amazing adventure.  I still think about what it would be like to be an astronaut.  With the shuttles retired however, it seems my best option to get into space is to strike it rich and fly as a paying customer on SpaceX or Virgin Galactic.

I was prompted to write this post because of the recent deaths of two influential astronauts - Neil Armstrong (died August 25, 2012) and Sally Ride (died July 23, 2012).

Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon surface.  He is in a small, elite group of astronauts, only twelve men have walked on the moon.  He was a pioneer for the astronaut corps, first as a test pilot and flying in both the Gemini and Apollo programs.  Read more about his life and career here.

Of course I went to Christa McAuliffe Elementary School, so I knew about her, but Sally Ride was even more of a role model being the first American woman in space.  She paved the way for many Christa McAuliffe and other women to become pilots, payload specialists and live on space stations.  According to wikipedia, there have been 523 astronauts from 38 countries, 56 of them being women from eight countries.¹  She flew on two different missions and continued to promote science and space exploration for all kids, especially girls.  Read more about her life and career here.

As new shuttles and rockets are built, there will be more pioneers.  But there is something special about the firsts that Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride achieved.

Check ID

I've been back from China for almost two months but this is a story I have to share.

This last time in China, I discovered that there are some hotels that are now accepting major credit cards, even Amex.  Great news for me - I don't have to front the cash for the hotel now, which is especially nice when you're spending two weeks in hotels even in China.  So, now that I know credit cards are accepted (I dont know about Amex yet), I'm at the front counter checking-in.  The front desk hands me the receipt for my room and I sign it.  Then I hand him my personal credit card.  He takes it and swipes for the deposit.  I get the receipt and sign it.  The next thing I know I'm getting a confused look from the front desk and he starts rapidly talking to my colleague in Chinese.

After much back and forth it gets communicated to me that my signature doesn't match my card.  My first thought is - "Well, duh.". The back of my card says Check ID.  I hand them my passport and try to explain this concept through my colleague, except it's not working real well.  Eventually, I get heads nodding but they are obviously not satisfied.  So what's the solution? Sign my name again on the first room receipt - only now my name is Check ID.

Finally, that is all sorted out and I get to my room.  I stay in the hotel for five nights.  During my one free day on the trip, I am enjoying the air conditioning and looking at the random information from the hotel.  This is when I find out that they take American Express.  Awesome!  I don't have to figure out reimbursement.  When checking out, I slowly communicate that I don't want anything on the Check ID card, but on my Amex.  I get it swiped, they hand me the receipt, and I sign it.  Only now we have another problem.  My signature doesn't match again.  On the back of the card I signed C Spinelli-Moore since that's what is on the front of the card.  But on the room receipt I have my full signature and Check ID.  So I have to sign sign the room receipt for a third time. Oy.

Lesson learned ... always use the exact same signature regardless of what you think is most secure (Check ID) or what it says on the front of the card (your full name or just the first initial and your last name).

Two Countries in China

Last post, I know I mentioned "across the border to mainland China".  Even though Hong Kong became part of China in 1997, there is still an immigration border between Hong Kong and China.  I don't need a visa to enter Hong Kong but I do to enter China.  Accordingly, my passport gets stamped when I leave the Hong Kong airport and get in my taxi to China.  It then gets stamped as I leave Hong Kong and again when I enter China, and in reverse when I return to Hong Kong for my flight.  All together I end up with about five stamps each time I fly to Hong Kong and take the train or taxi to China.

The number of stamps isn't the only thing that differentiates Hong Kong from mainland China.  When visiting the two "countries", there are definitely developed and developing country differences.  In Hong Kong I can use my credit cards from the US, the city is cleaner, and it has the feel of a western city - at least most of it.  Perhaps Beijing and Shanghai have the same feel, but since I haven't visited them I can't say.  The amenities are more consistently western, especially the toilets.  English is all over.  Nearly every restaurant has English language menus, the signs are in Cantonese and English, and more people speak English.

However Guangzhou and Shenzhen (where I have spent most of my time) are definitely still building.  Construction is a constant sound throughout the city, there are still many people carrying construction supplies on bikes in the middle of the street, and the food isn't up to the same standard.  In the factories, the toilets are porcelain holes in the ground and a trash basket for the toilet paper.  In some factories there is a "VIP" toilet which is a western design.  Finally the language barrier is more significant.  Despite more people in China speaking English than in the US, the language barrier is still a big road block.  It takes a lot of gesturing, patience, and trying out synonyms until one word is understood (like soda, pop, cola, etc.)

It will be interesting to watch mainland China continue to develop over the next 10 years.  I hope I get to keep coming to watch the changes and explore more of the country.  At the rate I'm going with Bamko, I'll be here at least once every year.

China On Short Notice

My goal was to keep this blog going even after I returned from India.  Obviously that didn't happen.  So here is another attempt at blogging.  If you want to hear about trips since my last post let me know but I didn't want to back track so I'm starting off with my current trip: China.

Seventy-two hours to pack and organize for a four week trip to China sounds crazy right?  Well I thought so when I did that in October 2009 and August 2010.  But now I've got something to beat that - asked at 8:00am on Monday, June 4, booked ticket at 9:00am same day, and left at 1:00pm the next day.  Less than 30 hours notice this time.  If not for the first game of summer league for ultimate (we won) being Monday night I likely would have been on the Monday midnight flight (less than 24 hours notice if that happened).

Due to the last minute nature of my trip, no one from my office was able to make it to Hong Kong and meet me after my flight.  So, I was on my own to get from Hong Kong airport to my hotel in Shenzhen (across the border in mainland China).  I have traveled into Hong Kong by myself, but that was always on a direct train from Guangzhou so the difficult part of buying the tickets was already done for me.  This time I had to buy the ticket for the taxi to the border then get a taxi to the hotel.  The taxi to the border was easy, mainly because I was in Hong Kong so English is widely spoken.  However, once I got across the border and passed the illegal cabs trying to get my attention, it was not so easy.  The cab driver didn't know English and I don't know Mandarin.  So with emails from my colleagues and the use of my iPad I was able to show the driver where I wanted to go.  When it seemed like we were a bit lost, through the email on my iPad I was also able to communicate - "let's call for directions". 

Then once I got to the hotel I handed over my passport and got my registered for my room.  Again, no English spoken so thank goodness for my colleague, Leo, and our factory contact, Candy, for preparing the hotel for my arrival.  The hotel is small but comfortable, or will be comfortable once the AC starts working.  The bed is one of the better beds I've had in China, not quite like sleeping on a wooden board.  But, oh how good my bed is going to feel when I get back.

All in all the trek from Hong Kong to Shenzhen went smoothly.  I was definitely a bit nervous I would get completely ripped off as a white person, traveling alone in a cab, and not speaking Mandarin but I don't think I did too badly.  Traveling on my own, even just the short distance, has made me more confident I can get around China on my own.  Yes I had the help of my colleagues for the hotel but I think I could have found a hotel and the Mandarin information on it on my own if needed. One of these trips is going to happen with more notice and I'm going to be a tourist in China testing out my ability to find a hotel and travel by cab.