Trip to Lübeck, Germany

It's been a great weekend. We are halfway through the two-week Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-15) which is being held in Copenhagen. It's been such a busy time at the Embassy that Bongsu and I decided it would be good to enjoy the weekend as much as possible. We joined a group of people taking a day trip yesterday to Lübeck, Germany.

Which turned out to be a great idea.

We woke up early and went to the train station, found our group and got on the train for Germany. It was great watching the Danish countryside roll by, our first chance to see parts of Denmark outside of the Copenhagen metropolis. Then the train car went on a ferry and we crossed the Fehmarn Belt to Germany. A couple stations later we arrived in Lübeck, which is famous for its Brick Gothic architecture, marzipan, open-air Christmas markets, and being the hometown of Willy Brandt and Thomas Mann.

The picture above (which we didn't take; it's from Wikipedia) shows the town gate, a nice example of the Brick Gothic, built in 1478. We also enjoyed a lunch in nice authentic German restaurant, a thick snowfall, and walking around the old town until we were tired enough to sleep through much of the train ride home.

We were not too tired, though, to be up again this morning and walk around Copenhagen some more. Today we saw the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace, the Danish royal family's winter residence. We also found a nice coffeeshop, walked along the harbor, and went to a Christmas music choir concert in the Marmorkirken (the picture below is also from Wikipedia).

After such a great weekend, I am totally ready to get back into the slow-motion explosion of COP-15 tomorrow. Stay tuned for an update about that.

The First Two Months in Copenhagen

We've been here two months now. They've gone by so quickly!

We arrived on a cold, gray, rainy day. Copenhagen has a lot of those, and it's always nice to be inside and warm and dry, looking out the windows at the shivery rain on the cobblestone streets. Since we arrived the days have been getting shorter and now the sun is only out about eight hours a day. When I go to work around 8am the sky is just starting to cobalt, reflected in the pools of rain on the sidewalks in front of the dress stores, the bakeries, the antique shops.

It's a five-minute walk from our apartment to the Embassy. When I get there every morning I go through the little security outbuilding and into the main building, then down the hall to the Consular section. I have my own office, but I spend more time at the visa interview window. We see all kinds of different visa applicants. Although Danes can travel to the US for up to 90 days for tourism without a visa, they are still the most common nationality of our applicants, whether they want to stay longer or get a different type of visa for work, study, etc. I've also interviewed people from all over the world who happen to be in Denmark for one reason or another and want to go to America. It's important to understand, for each case, the type of visa that would be appropriate, what the qualifications are for that type of visa, and whether the applicant meets those qualifications. So it's very bureaucratic, but there's also a big element of detective work and, in the end, a lot of judgment calls. The wide variety of applicants keeps the work always interesting.

In addition to doing all the non-immigrant visa (NIV) interviews in Copenhagen, I'm in charge of running our NIV unit - updating our procedures and work flow, coordinating with Washington on unusual visa cases, and managing two Danish employees and two Americans who got jobs in the consular section while their spouses are assigned to the embassy. They all have their own roles in the visa process (communicating with the applicants to answer questions, managing the appointments schedule, data entry, printing the actual visas, and a wide range of other important parts), plus they continuously help me understand how to do my job. It's interesting being the "boss" of people who have been doing this far longer than me and know a lot of things I don't. I'm trying to share my own knowledge with them so that they can be as helpful to my successor as they have been to me. My own boss the Consul is probably my most important mentor. He's been a consular officer in Saudi Arabia, Honduras, Bangladesh and Iraq. The amount of immigration law and regulations he can retain in his head is almost scary. The consular section that he runs consists of me and my staff, another first-tour officer who is in charge of immigrant visas and services for American citizens in Denmark, his staff, and a couple other locally hired employees. It's a very fun team to work with; everyone is enthusiastic about doing a good job.

There's also a lot to do outside of work. We had Thanksgiving dinner with my boss, his family, the other vice-consul, and a few other guests from the Embassy and expat community. They had a great traditional American feast. We've also been enjoying walking around Copenhagen. There are lots of parks. We've been to the Danish National Gallery of Art and another famous art gallery that was founded by Carlsberg beer founder J. C. Jacobsen. We've visited Rosenborg Castle, previous residence of the royal family which is now a museum exhibiting the crown jewels of Denmark and other national treasures, with each room devoted to a different former monarch. We've gone to the top of the Round Tower, a 17th-century astronomical observatory. We've walked on Copenhagen's celebrated pedestrian shopping street and visited the symbol of the city, the statue of the Little Mermaid in the harbor. There is still a huge amount to see and do, but what we've already seen has been great so far.

Packout, Consultations, Moving

There's a lot of paperwork involved. The key document for transferring to a new post is something called the TM-4, or "travel orders". It takes the form of a cable and specifies who is going where for what job and for how long, how to get there, and what resources are available to take care of people and property before, during and after the transfer. Any time you try to tap into those resources, you need to fill out a form and provide a copy of the travel orders.

Our travel orders allowed us to have the movers come on September 18, pack up all of our stuff and put it in two categories: four huge boxes to send by airplane, and three giant shipping crates with the furniture and other things we can live without for a while, to send by boat. Then the orders let us stay in a hotel in DC for ten days, which was a mixed experience - I had reserved a room at a boutique hotel thinking it would be nicer than one of the big chains, but we were disappointed and ended up going through a lot of hassle to move to a Hilton. On the other hand, we did enjoy being right in the District with access to restaurants and things.

The next thing our orders allowed us to do was to spend two days in New York City, because we have "consultations" (State Department lingo for "meetings") with the Department of Homeland Security before going to a first tour as a consular officer. Those who go to Europe have the DHS consultations in the Big Apple. The meetings themselves didn't take up too much time, so it was a lovely trip for me and Bongsu. Then, finally, the magic travel orders had us board a flying machine in New York and get off the following day in Copenhagen, where we were met at the airport by our Embassy sponsor and driven through the rain to a hotel where we stayed for the first two weeks here.

After our own apartment was ready, we moved in and a couple days later received our UAB ("unaccompanied air baggage" - the four sarcophagi of air freight mentioned above), followed a few weeks later by the HHE ("household effects" - the sea freight). When the HHE arrived, the delivery truck had one of those elevator vehicles which they used to hoist everything up to our third-floor apartment. Luckily we have one large window that opens and everything was able to fit in there. And thus we arrive at the beginning of our adventure.

Bureau of Legislative Affairs

For my second five-week bridge assignment, I worked in the Legislative Reference Unit of the State Department's Bureau of Legislative Affairs (also known as H, for "[Capitol] Hill").


What with the timing of office turnover and work to be done, there were some days when they didn't really have much for me to do. On the one hand, that meant that I was occasionally underutilized; on the other hand, it gave me the opportunity to seek out assignments in various parts of the office and not get stuck in a routine. So I was able to help with a lot of aspects of the work that H does as liaison between State and the Congress: sifting through legislation to identify reports that Congress wants to receive from the Department, sending taskings to the varoius regional and functional bureaus that could prepare those reports or answer questions from Senators and Representative, maintaining databases, and so on.

Most excitingly, I even got a chance to help to prepare for a briefing on the current situation and future possibilities in Iraq by Amb. Christopher Hill before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chaired by Sen. John Kerry. I also got to attend the briefing and help take notes. Ambassador Hill is one of the most inspirational people in the State Department for me; before becoming the Obama administration's Ambassador to Iraq, he served as the principal U.S. negotiator in the Six-Party Talks with North Korea, having previously been a very successful Ambassador to South Korea. So that was definitely one of the coolest experiences of my time in DC.

Assisting Victims of Crime

It turns out I wasn't finished with FSI training after all - when arranging my arrival in Copenhagen with my future boss, he suggested that I add one more course onto my training schedule, and my boss in my second bridge assignment graciously allowed me to take a few days off for it.

The three-day course focused on what services the U.S. Embassy can provide to Americans who become the victim of a serious crime while abroad. A major part of it was on how to interview and talk to someone who might be a victim of domestic abuse, which unfortunately is something many consular officers will have to do on a regular basis. Although I may thankfully never have to be part of such cases, there's always the possibility that I will, and the course definitely made me feel a little bit more confident that I'd be able to muddle through. It would be a lot of responsibility, of course, but fortunately the embassy is not the principal resource for victims, as of course consular officers are not trained as social workers.

Some of the stories from the Victims Assistance course were pretty sobering, but I'm still excited about moving overseas again!

Office of Nordic and Baltic Affairs

My A-100 classmates and I are just a dozen days away from the milestone of six full months as Foreign Service Officers. Ever since May we've been saying goodbye as some of us headed off to various posts worldwide, and now quite a few of us are out there. It's been great to hear some of the experiences our friends are having in Niger, Korea, Canada, Italy, and so on and so forth.

We aren't the newest generation in the State Department anymore either. The 145th and the 146th have come and gone, some of them are even out at post by now, and the 147th is at FSI now, looking forward to their Flag Day on the 31st.

Meanwhile, I've had my chance to experience some changes as well. As reported in the previous update, I finished my classroom training over a month ago. Since then I have been keeping busy, moving on to my OJT (On-the-Job Training) at HST (the Harry S Truman Building, also known as Main State). Not all FSOs get OJT as part of their initial training, so I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity.

This was my desk for the past five weeks. As a matter of fact, it was the first time in my life that I've had my own office, with a door and everything. The office is in a suite of rooms in HST occupied by the Office of Nordic and Baltic Affairs, which is part of the Bureau of European Affairs. Working in EUR/NB was a great experience. I learned a lot (about how the building works, what Washington expects from us at our Embassies abroad, what a future DC tour might be like, and not least, how to write for the State Department). I met some great colleagues, with whom I hope I'll have other opportunities to work together in the future. And I felt again the satisfaction of being productive, making an actual contribution - you know... working!

For the first two weeks of my mini-tour, I filled in for the Denmark/Iceland Desk Officer. The previous incumbent had already left for his next post, and his replacement hadn't arrived yet. That was an incredible opportunity, and it was fascinating to follow the reporting coming out of Copenhagen - basically consuming the stuff that I will soon be producing. It was great timing, too, because I was able to help out with our new Ambassador's preparations for departure - she had just received Senate confirmation before I started, and she arrived in Denmark on July 29.

After the new desk officer started, I had three weeks of generally helping out with the EUR/NB portfolio of eight countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia). I contributed to all sorts of really fascinating projects, including some drafting, which was a great opportunity to learn first-hand about the writing style that this bureaucracy needs. Fortunately the people in the office are all great editors, and great at mentoring in general - people were continually finding interesting projects that I could work on, telling me about their own career paths, giving me advice about what to do once I get to Copenhagen, and generally getting me some exposure to an exciting side of real Foreign Service life.

It seems somewhat common for people in this career to look down on tours in Foggy Bottom. "I didn't join the FOREIGN service to stew in D.C.," they say, or they make snide remarks about ladder-climbers who keep coming back to domestic assignments just for the career-enhancing networking opportunities they provide. I do not subscribe at all to this view. In the admittedly limited exposure I've had to State Department HQ, I found it to be a great working environment, full of people totally committed to working with foreign diplomats, other US government agencies, our Embassies abroad, and the general public to advance our worldwide foreign policy goals.

This is where policy is made; when we get to post, we are taught repeatedly, we can recommend actions to Washington, but the final decision-making happens here, and the people in Washington tell the embassies abroad what to do, not the other way around. This is also the one place where the world comes together into a big picture; each post is responsible for the relationship with one country, but here in offices like mine we have a team of people working on a whole region and seeing how it fits together. One floor up are teams of people looking at larger regions and issues that span the globe. All this, and it's also a really fun place to work. I do hope to serve here in the future, so don't think you're finally getting rid of me for good just because I'm a diplomat now!

Political/Economic Tradecraft

As of today, I've finished the last course of my initial training at the Foreign Service Institute. My final class was the three-week course on how to be a political officer (the second year of my rotation at Embassy Copenhagen). It was definitely a high point of the overall instruction.

One of the best aspects was a good overview of basic economics. Through lectures and a book ("Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan) we got just enough of an introduction to speak somewhat comfortably about international economics.

In the second week, we had opportunities to practice various skills of an embassy's political section. We prepared three-minute briefings on a topic related to our destination countries (mine was on the Danish government's environmental policies), wrote and revised cables reporting to Washington, created and presented a PowerPoint on the destination country's economy, and practiced "elevator briefings" (the subtle art of boiling down a complex issue to a sixty-second explanation that one could give to a VIP during the ride in the elevator down to the meeting room). They also showed us some technology, ranging from a pretty cool wiki that the US government uses to share sensitive and classified information between various agencies, to the sometimes bizarrely counterintuitive program that we use for writing and sending "cables" to the Department.

During the Pol/Econ course I was also able to join a meeting the Danish Embassy in DC held for various U.S. diplomats who will be going to Copenhagen this year. My friend Spencer, who passed the FSOA with me and was in the A-100 class right before mine, helped set that up for me. It will be fun working with him in Denmark. The embassy lunch meeting was a great chance to hear the Danish point of view on issues ranging from the climate change conference to prospects for economic recovery in the EU to the best way of keeping a healthy lifestyle in Copenhagen. It was also a good opportunity to enjoy real smørrebrød prepared by a professional Danish chef.

Another highlight was a briefing by Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, State's Director of Policy Planning. She said that she enjoys meeting new officers and encouraged us to go out and have great careers. She also gave us some insights into Secretary Clinton's major speech at the Council on Foreign Relations this week, and into the general style and substance of the Obama administration's approach to foreign policy.

While we were at the main State Department building for the meeting with Dr. Slaughter, I also had a chance to meet with one of the coordinators for our delegation to the climate change conference in December. In general, I've been impressed with how easy it is to make appointments with all kinds of different people who have information that might help me in Denmark, and how happy they are to take the time to share that information. People have prepared print-outs of briefing info for me, talked about the kind of reporting they need to receive back from post, what I can do to make their jobs easier and what I can do to make my own work more rewarding. It seems like a great atmosphere at the Department. Which is good, because another office I checked in on that day was the Office of Nordic and Baltic Affairs in the European Bureau, where I'll be working for five weeks starting on Monday. I introduced myself to the receptionist, confirmed that they're expecting me, and checked out the room that she thinks will probably be my office. I am most definitely looking forward to being productive again - while I've enjoyed learning new things for the past 20 weeks, it will be nice to feel like I'm making a contribution, and earning the salary on which the government is spending your tax dollars.

Diplomatic And Consular Officers, Retired

During the final week of A-100, DACOR invited the 144th (along with our spouses) to a reception at their cool historic house near the State Department building. In addition to having this beautiful old house for members' use, DACOR holds various forums and lectures, and also parties for new FSOs, FS Specialists, and new Ambassadors at the completion of their Ambassadorial Seminar at FSI.

In that they are justly proud of their wonderful edifice, DACOR is kind of the Di-Phi of the Foreign Service. Alternatively, the Foreign Service itself is kind of like Di-Phi (incredibly bright people who take themselves very seriously), in which case DACOR is analogous to the Foundation. Either way, it seemed like a cool thing to join, and Bongsu and I became DACOR members after our A-100 reception a couple months ago.

As such, this evening we attended the reception for the most recent Ambassadorial Seminar. Most hilarious moment: the Ambassador-designate to [Redacted], on being introduced to me and hearing that I am headed to Copenhagen, assumed that I was going there as the Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. I had to explain that I will actually just play the role of the bureaucrat behind the Non-Immigrant Visa window, and that Ambassador-designate Laurie Fulton had her confirmation hearing before the Senate yesterday. As soon as I started to explain, Amb. [name redacted] caught up to speed very quickly, but it was good for a laugh all around.

Another amazing moment came near the end of the party. I was talking with a guy whose name I am annoyed with myself for not having gotten, and in the way of small-talk mentioned that I was from North Carolina. He responded that he had only been to that state a few times, for work, having made several visits to Fayetteville in connection with some military cooperation work, and also a couple trips to Chapel Hill when the State Department was trying to interest the Kenan-Flagler Business School in setting up a satellite campus in Qatar in the middle east. I was amazed to hear that, since I was a UNC student at the time and, as University Columnist for The Daily Tar Heel, had broken the story and dedicated a couple of my columns to supporting the Qatar campus. So, we got a chance to reminisce together about the goal we didn't even know we were working on together. (Now, almost eight years later, there is still no business school satellite campus in Qatar, and it doesn't look like there will be, despite the great effort of the guy at the party and my small contributions.)

I also enjoyed chatting with some of the non-career political appointees. Those I spoke with seemed very well-qualified to lead a large team working on a vitally important mission. Given that Fulton herself is a non-career political appointee, I was glad to see how comfortably I am able to accept the authority of such people. To be honest, actually, I'm not sure I fully agree with the argument that career ambassadors would be preferable; in the private sector, after all, you don't usually hear much complaining when a top executive is hired from outside the firm. Anyway! I don't intend to get into this complex issue at the moment. For a discussion on that topic, the comments to this post at Hegemonist.com raise most of the important aspects and points of view.

Anyway, the party itself was fun. Bongsu and I both enjoyed wearing a suit and mingling with interesting people and asking them about their lives while drinking mediocre wine and eating hors d'oeuvre . We are happy to find that we like this kind of event, as we have been led to expect that we'll have many, shall we say, "non-declinable opportunities" to go to similar things in the future.

Managing Changes

After ConGen, which ended on a Tuesday, I had three more "gap days" to close out the week. On the Wednesday, I was proactive and found a one-day course called "Managing Change" up for which I was able to sign. We all received a copy of the book "Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change" by William Bridges, which is all about dealing with major changes that happen on the personal, team or organizational level. A lot of the course dealt with leadership strategies; how to help your subordinates or your team get through a difficult change, how to communicate upcoming changes to them, etc. Communication seemed to be the main message of the entire day - change is inevitable, but in order to maintain your credibility as a leader, it is key to keep people informed and to be honest about what you know, what you don't know, and what they can expect.

By the way, a lot of the course reinforced what I've learned from the book my Uncle Joe is writing about resilience. His start-up company, Arctos Associates (http://www.get-resilient.com/), identifies seven traits that lead to resilience: Perseverence, Compassion, Humor, Confidence and Flexibility, all supported by a foundation of Honesty, and giving rise to a sense of Balance or perspective. Humor was one trait that several people brought up in my "Change" course as being important to help them adapt to change, as well as Honesty.

In addition to learning about how humans physically deal with change and stress, we also talked a bit about positive changes. The main focus of the course obviously was on how to overcome difficult changes, but in my case, for example, when we did exercises about a change we are dealing with now I could only think of a very positive one (getting a wonderful new job and moving to Denmark). But one point that the instructor made repeatedly was that "all change involves loss", and as I looked more deeply into my analysis I could find some elements of joining the Foreign Service that I might find difficult (mostly, having significantly less control over my own life: I'll be living in assigned housing, for example, and not engaging in political activities). Obviously, these drawbacks are minor compared to the huge advantages, but it does make sense, I think, to look at them directly and think about how to make them even less of an issue. It probably wouldn't be particularly damaging to say "yeah, that part's annoying, but overall it's great" - I could definitely get by on that attitude. But it would be even better if I am able to address the annoying parts right away, move through the stages of grief, and instead of being, say, up seventy percent and down five, something like up seventy and down one. Does that make sense?

Anyway, it makes enough sense to me that I'm glad I spent a day in the course. If I ever have a chance I will definitely sign up for an Arctos course as well, and not just because of the family connection! ^^

ConGen Rosslyn

All entry-level Foreign Service Officers, regardless of their "cone" or career track, are required, during either their first or second tour, to spend at least one year working in a Consular section at a post abroad. This is the section where people come in to apply for a visa to enter the United States, and also the section that provides services for American citizens abroad in the post's "consular district". I am very excited about my assignment in Copenhagen, which is a rotational assignment giving me first one year in a Consular position and then one year as a Political officer (my cone is Political).

The consular requirement makes great sense for a lot of reasons. First, it is one of the largest segments of the Foreign Service, because there is so much work to be done. It's also some of the most important work that we do abroad; American Citizen Services (ACS) is one of the main reasons for having an official U.S. government presence in other countries in the first place, and vitally important to protect the interests of Americans throughout the world, especially as more and more people do travel internationally. Visa adjudication, meanwhile, is of course a vital step in protecting our national security, as well as ensuring that foreigners who are legally eligible to enter the U.S. can do so as easily as is practicable. So it's important to have enough people filling these positions and doing this vital work.

Another good reason for the consular requirement is that it's great experience. After a year of visa interviews, I expect to be much better at figuring out what people are really thinking when they spin me a yarn, in addition to improving my communication and customer-service skills. It's also a great opportunity because, apparently, "consular officers have the best stories" (an oft-repeated phrase).

The most popular training at FSI, then, is the Basic Consular Course, a six-week seminar that teaches the fundamentals of all the skills needed to do all three types of consular work (ACS, Non-Immigrant Visas, and Immigrant Visas Overseas). It's also known as "ConGen Rosslyn", because the course takes place at an actual Consulate-General of the United States in the fictional city of Rosslyn in the Republic of Z. There is an actual visa interview room in one of the buildings at FSI, as well as an actual jail (a small one with just one cell, but with real bars and real plastic rats). Doing role-plays at the visa interview windows was a lot of fun, although it is not easy to keep track of everything - the piles of paperwork, what the applicants are saying, the various things on the computer screen, and the myriad complexities of immigration law that underlie the whole thing and that must be kept in mind at all times.

At the beginning of the course, they gave us each a copy (to keep) of the 9/11 Commission Report. On the last day, which happened to be my birthday, we had a nice little "graduation" in an FSI hallway. I feel like I still won't be fully prepared until I've been in Copenhagen for a while and have gotten a chance to see the real thing in action, but I'm definitely a lot more confident about starting my consular rotation now that I've got this course under my belt.