The Education of a Diplomat

I have finally finished my Foreign Service Officer training! Last week I finished 12 weeks of intensive Spanish training, and am now officially able to communicate in Spanish at a "professional" level, which means I can effectively communicate U.S. policy in a number of topics, to include the economy, the environment, the education system, healthcare reform, immigration policy, and a few others.

The training I've been given is incredible. I had a weekly seminar on the region I'm going to -- The Andean Region of South America -- and am now fairly well-versed on the history and current political situation of the countries in that area of the world, and know something about the culture and hot current topics. In addition, I've completed classes on Combating Terrorist Financing; Intelligence & Foreign Policy; Outreach Diplomacy; and Interagency Planning for Conflict Transformation. I've had the opportunity to hear professors from Georgetown and George Washington University; former Ambassadors; lobbyists; Undersecretaries of State; a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist; experts from Washington-based think tanks, and others I can't recall off the top of my head.

At the Foreign Service Training Institute, on any given day there are 1000 students studying 70 languages. When I wasn't stressed out myself, it was sort of entertaining to see all the half-dazed, disheveled students wandering around muttering under their breath in a strange language. Lab time was interesting, but a few times I was a little distracted by someone in the next cubicle reciting dialogue in Urdu or Tamil or Albanian. My Spanish training was wonderful! I went in with a certain proficiency, but four hours of class time with 4-5 people plus two hours of lab work every day really polished up my fluency. Our instructors rotated every 4-5 weeks, and I had the great fortune of working with some really fascinating people from Spain, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Costa Rica.

So, I think I'm prepared now. In the next few weeks movers come and take all my worldly possessions and my car and hopefully get them to Lima without losing them in the ocean. Hopefully pirates won't be an issue, either.