Yo Hablo Espanol!

Hey, everyone!  I thought I would provide you with a quick update on how my Foreign Service training is going.  Every week somebody asks me "How do you like working for the State Department?" or "What kind of work do they have you doing?"  Which is funny, because I still don't really know the answer to either of those questions, since I have been in training for the last five months.  But I'm sure I'll do some actual work at some point, right?

On the plus side, I have hit another milestone in my training schedule; I have passed my Spanish exam!  After 15 weeks of language training, I passed my final speaking and reading exam, which means I speak well enough to hand out and deny visas just south of the border.  So on to the next stage of training.  Next up, I have three days of training on security issues (I think the title of the class is "Don't Get Into Any Weird Vans and Other Tips for Surviving Life Outside the U.S.).  After that, I have six weeks of Consular training, where I learn how to process visas, get Americans out of jail, and spot fake documents.  After that, it's one more week of security training, and then we're on our way to Mexico.

Also, we now have an official departure date.  On Wednesday, April 24th, we will begin our sojourn down to Ciudad Juarez, arriving on Tuesday, April 30th.  So if you plan to talk us out of this whole adventure, you'll need to make your final arguments before then.  Thanks for reading!

P.S. Now that I speak Spanish, I can finally understand what Chris Farley was talking about here.