What Are You Doing for the Holidays?

It's that time of year again. For solo FSOs who do not have family at post, holidays abroad offer a few options. Spend them with your colleagues and friends at post. Pretend they are just regular days off and don't do anything special. Or take advantage of the time off to do something cool. This Thanksgiving I'm doing the latter and traveling to Luxembourg to enjoy some only-affordable-in-the-off-season luxury and do a little family history exploration.

It can be hard for some solo FSOs to answer the dreaded question, "What are you doing for the holidays?" But I got over that a long time ago. Certainly I would love to be with my family this Thanksgiving, but rather than try to recreate the perfect American Thanksgiving here (and fail miserably), I'll be having Thanksgiving dinner in a Michelin star restaurant with the ghosts of my ancestors. Not very traditional, but cool in its own way.

Whether you are surrounded by family, fortunate to have good friends nearby, or on your own, I hope everyone finds a way to enjoy the holiday season and that you do something that makes you happy.

You Can’t Skype a Cheeseburger

I recently returned to post after an extended vacation in the States. It had been over a year since I had been home and seen my family. When people ask me what I miss about the U.S., one of the first things that comes to mind is food. What about my family and friends, you may ask. With modern communication I’m able to stay in touch with loved ones fairly easily. Between Facebook, email, Words with Friends, and Skype, I can maintain those relationships, even at a long distance. But you can’t Skype a cheeseburger. So when I arrived at the airport, as happy as I was to see my parents, I was a tiny bit happier at the thought of swallowing a double-double from In-n-Out.*

*It wasn’t until I moved from California to Washington, DC that I realized what a loaded subject this is. It is impossible for west coast Americans and east coast Americans to have a reasonable conversation about cheeseburgers. It gets real ugly real fast. As proof - anyone who attempts to post a comment suggesting Five Guys is comparable to In-n-Out will be blocked from this blog!

I honestly cannot fathom how Foreign Service Officers managed in the days before the internet. It must have felt very isolating to be so disconnected from home.