The New Girl in Town

It's been just over a week since I arrived in Kathmandu. Moving to a new home in a new country while starting a new job is hectic no matter how prepared you are. But I'm off to a great start. Granted, my permanent house suffered water damage just a couple days before I arrived, so I'm in temporary housing for another week. But that's been the only blip. Knock on wood.

The first few days at the embassy were dedicated to getting checked in and making the rounds. I'm fortunate to have a great local staff, which made those first few days less painful than they could have been. Now that the administrative stuff is mostly done, I've been able to focus on actual public diplomacy work.

Which leads me to the best part - I love this job! I've already released a press statement about the Ambassador's meetings with the Prime Minister and the Maoist Chairman, prepared remarks for the DCM for a Combating Trafficking in Persons program, and have been invited to participate in the Ambassador's off-site retreat to review the Mission Strategic Plan. Not bad for my first week.

When I joined the Foreign Service, this is exactly the kind of work I envisioned myself doing. It's taken 5 years to get to this point. I plan on enjoying every minute of it.