Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! I realize I have been putting a lot of mushy, sentimental stuff on the blog lately, so bear with me on this one. I just wanted to take a second to talk about the two greatest mothers in the world: my wife, Sarah, and my mother, Kathy.

Although Sarah had almost six years of experience taking care of a helpless human being (by being married to me), becoming a mother was still a challenge for her (as I am sure it is with all moms). Taking care of a baby is tough work, even with both parents involved. Sarah has handled it with remarkable grace and patience for the last nine months. El Senor is such a happy, smiley, well-rested kid, and that is entirely thanks to Sarah's tireless work making sure he has the best of everything.

If left to my own devices, El Senor would probably be wearing the same onesie he wore home from the hospital, would never get adequate rest, and would be eating Cheetos for dinner. To my son, if you are ever reading this years in the future, please recognize that you have turned into a functional, relatively normal adult entirely through your mother's tireless efforts, which also include constant monitoring to make sure not too many of my bad habits rubbed off on you. Thank you, Sarah! We both love you so much!

To my mom, you are the greatest mother (and grandmother) I could have ever hoped for. Although my father's bad habits did rub off on me (despite your best efforts, I'm sure), you always did everything you could to make sure I was happy and taken care of. You worked so hard to make everything special, and I will always appreciate that. As evidence, I present the "tower of treats."

The picture on the left is from Easter 2014. The picture on the right... Thanksgiving 2011. The so-called "tower of treats" has been a staple in my family for almost a decade, and it represents a lot of what makes my mom so special. Everyone loves the holidays, and my sisters and I are always impressed at the decorations and treats at my house at every holiday family event (Christmas, Halloween, birthdays, etc). For us kids (and I'm sure many of you readers can relate), sometimes we expect the holidays to just magically happen when we show up at our parents' house.

But this tower of treats represents countless hours of baking and preparation leading up to each and every family event. My mom organizes this tower for almost every family get-together, no small feat when you realize that each time she has a whole different set of amazing snacks. My mom is always working, behind the scenes, to make sure that these events are special for us. I know I don't say it enough, but thank you, Mom, for everything you have done for me, and for everything you do for me and my own family now. You're the best! I love you!

Easter in Arizona

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! We have the day off here in Mexico to commemorate the Battle of Puebla, which gives me a bit of time to update the blog.We went to Arizona to celebrate Easter with my family, since Mexico takes about half of the week off leading up to Easter.

El Senor was a champ on the flight, which was pretty easy considering the flight in only about 50 minutes. Much easier that our ten-hour sojourn to DC last Christmas.

It was great spending a week with my family. We got to stop and visit the new LDS temple that opened in Gilbert, AZ, which was pretty cool.

El Senor had a week of "firsts," including his first Easter Egg Hunt. He only found one egg (with the help of his mother), so, all in all, I would say it was a pretty poor showing. I'm sure he'll step his game up by next year.

He also got to sit on grass for the first time (grass is a rare commodity in Juarez). Although he seems a bit suspicious in this photo, he really did enjoy it.

He had a good time at Easter dinner with everyone, and was his usual charming self. All of his cousins (six in total) thought he was pretty cool.

Best of all, my parents are in the midst of spring cleaning, and asked me to clear out some of my old stuff, including these gems from my time as a missionary in Romania and Moldova. Don't knock the hat; that thing is cozy.

We had a great trip back to Arizona. Thanks to all my family members for making it such an awesome visit. We love you guys!

Three Generations of Good-Lookin' Petersons

Hey everyone, I have uploaded five blog posts today. I'm trying to space these out a bit more often, but I generally only have time to do them all at once. Anyway, I just wanted to let everybody know that there is basically no chance that El Senor was somehow switched at birth. Pretty sure he follows the tradition of good-looking Peterson men. If anything, I'm the outlier with the red hair...

 El Senor Peterson, Born 2013

Ryan Peterson (Father), Born 1983

 Larry Peterson (Grandfather), Born 1897

Cheers to the Consulate Community

Ciudad Juarez is an awesome city, as evidenced by the video above. Although we definitely viewed this assignment with trepidation, Sarah and I have really enjoyed it here. It's hard to believe our tour in CJ is already half over.

Despite being a fascinating city with wonderful people, Juarez is not without its challenges. There is not a lot to do in town (especially if you don't drink), it can take forever to get back and forth between Juarez and El Paso, more than half of the town is strictly off limits to FSOs for security reasons, and it is generally not recommended to stay out late at night.

So what makes Juarez such a great post? In short, the Consular community, meaning the people I work and live with. In the Foreign Service, people often talk about whether there is a good sense of "community" at a particular post. For example, London has a reputation for having a very low sense of community. You generally do not see your coworkers outside of work, primarily because there is so much to do in a city like London. You work with them, and that's about it.

The community in Juarez is the exact opposite of London (not surprisingly, London and Juarez seem to be quite different). Have you ever watched an episode of "The Office" and thought to yourself, "Wouldn't that be nice for all of your best friends to also be the people you work with?" This is the best way I can describe what it feels like to live and work in Juarez. There is a sense that "we are all in this together," and during the evening and on the weekends, you always spend time with one another.

Sarah and I have been fortunate enough to make some great friends during our first year in Juarez. People with whom we have shared birthdays, holidays, and BBQs. You are genuinely excited to see your coworkers on Monday, because they are some of your closest friends, and you really want to hear what they have been up to. Not to mention, my wife works in the same building as me, which is awesome!

I know this post is a bit sappy, but I just wanted to say thanks to all the great people I work with here in Juarez. I imagine that there are a few things that I will not miss the last time I drive my car north across the border, but I will definitely miss the sense of community that I have felt here.

El Senor Is Eight Months Old (Almost)

El Senor is thriving here in Ciudad Juarez. In a couple weeks, he will be eight months old! I can't believe it. He is sleeping really well (fingers crossed), and eating well. He can roll over from his stomach to back, but refuses to do the reverse. In fact, he basically refuses to do anything that requires him to be on his stomach, which doesn't bode well for learning how to crawl. I'm sure he'll get the hang of it someday. For now, he's just focusing on chowing down on solid foods, like avocados, carrots, apples, and bananas. 

His hair basically sticks straight up all the time, so I tried putting in some hair gel the other day. Looking pretty dapper, if I do say so myself.

Luckily, he has an assortment of awesome hats to cover up his head, including this sweet lid that Grandma Becky brought back from Istanbul.

He's also making friends with some of the other kids at post. Here he is working the room at a recent St. Patrick's Day party.

In short, El Senor is doing pretty well. Just wanted to give everyone a quick update to let you all know that the littlest Peterson is living the dream, along with his parents, here in Ciudad Juarez.

Movin' On Up to ACS

Every once in a while, here on the blog, I try to shed a little bit of light on the Foreign Service, and what it is exactly that we do all day. I have already talked about a lot of the other intricacies of this job, including how to get hired, Flag Day, and what it's like to move all around the world every couple of years. But in case any of the readers who stumble across this blog have more general questions, here are the basics:

The U.S. State Department is separated into two groups, the Civil Service and the Foreign Service. As the names suggest, the Civil Service employees mostly live and work in Washington, DC. The Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) live mostly overseas, spending generally 2-3 years in one post, before moving on to another in a different part of the world, occasionally returning for an assignment in DC as well. Currently, there are approximately 7,500 FSOs working throughout the world.

FSOs staff all of the embassies and consulates overseas. Embassies act as the official representative of the US in a particular country, and the ambassador is always located at the embassy. Consulates are generally a bit smaller, and are usually more focused on visas-related issues. Whether a nation has more than one US institution generally depends on the size of the nation and the amount of ties it has with the US. For example, Romania just has an embassy. Spain has an embassy with one consulate (Barcelona). Mexico has an embassy with nine consulates (Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Hermosillo, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Merida). 

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, FSOs must select one of five career tracks (or "cones") that will define their career. Although you can work in a job outside of your cone, it is generally expected that you will spend most of your overseas tours working in your cone. The cones are: Political, Economic, Management, Public Diplomacy, and Consular. Political officers focus on meeting with members of the local government and working on reports tied to political issues. Economic officers do the same thing, but with an emphasis on economics as opposed to politics. Management officers (which is a bit of misnomer), are not automatically managers of other officers. Instead, they keep an embassy running through human resources, housing, and facilities maintenance. Public Diplomacy officers organize events to help promote US interests and strengthen ties in the host country.

Which brings us to my own selected cone: Consular. Consular affairs consist of three major responsibilities: Non-Immigrant Visas (NIV), Immigrant Visas (IV), and American Citizen Services (ACS). NIV involves all people who want to travel to the US for reasons other than living there permanently. In Mexico, anybody who would like to come the US for shopping, tourism, study, work, etc., must first obtain a visa. I spent the first nine months of my time in CJ working on these. IV involves all people who are planning to immigrate to the US, usually because of some family relationship (e.g. they are married to a US citizen). I have spent the last three months in CJ working on these.

Finally, we have ACS. It involves some activities like issuing passports, replacing lost passports, and issuing birth certificates to US citizens born abroad. However, it also involves more unique responsibilities like visiting US citizen prisoners, searching for missing US citizens, providing death notifications, visiting hospitals, etc.

ACS is what inspired me to write this blog post in the first place. After a year at post, I have been selected to spend a six-month rotation in the ACS unit on the second floor of the Consulate. I am incredibly excited to be working in this unit, as I think it involves some of the most interesting work available in the Foreign Service. As cliche as it may sound, I joined the Foreign Service for many reasons, but first and foremost, I want to help people in trouble overseas. I am sure this opportunity will no doubt provide countless bizarre stories (as was the case in both IV and NIV), but hopefully, it will also allow me to do some good here in Mexico.

Anyway, for any FSOs who may be reading this post, I recognize that this is an incredibly simplified explanation of the work we do in the Foreign Service, but hopefully everybody else found it at least somewhat interesting. Hasta luego!

Chico's Tacos Is the Worst Thing I Have Ever Eaten

I'm trying my best to give you a bit of local culture while I live here in the Borderland. I'm sure a lot has been written about Chico's Tacos, which is a famous El Paso institution. It is perhaps the most divisive issue among El Pasoans; you either love it or you hate it. I figured I should give it a try at least once while living in the great metropolis that is Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, especially after it was recently selected as one of the top 35 places to get tacos in the entire United States.

I'm sure this will greatly upset my brother-in-law, but let me state unequivocally that this is one of the worst things I have ever eaten in my life. That photo above is literally the most appetizing image I was able to capture. Let me paint a picture for you. Take three corn torillas and fill them with some sort of weird, flavorless mystery meat. Roll up those tacos and deep-fry them. Then dip all three of them into some sort of boiling hot tomato water (not salsa, literally tomato water), and pour some crappy cheddar cheese on top.

Under the right circumstances, something like this could be delicious, but this is terrible. It tastes awful. Even worse, there is no effective way to eat these. They bring it to you (boiling water and all) in a paper tray, and give you wimpy plastic utensils that couldn't possibly cut through a deep-fried tortilla. So instead, you have to fish through the lava-hot tomato water with your fingers, and take a bite, immediately shooting the hot liquid all over yourself and the table. I thought, surely I'm not eating this correctly since I'm not a local, but I looked around and literally every other table/shirt in the restaurant is covered in steaming tomato water.

How can you live like this, El Paso? This taco is a crime against nature! Review: Negative three out of five stars.