One very busy week...

This week has been truly crazy. I had intended to devote my next blogpost to housing options while training at FSI since I receive many questions on the topic, but this will turn into a mamooth post that no one will care to read. So, I promise to do that tomorrow instead. I also promise to write about the whole process of applying to join the Foreign Service in detail over the next few week.

This was possibly my busiest week in terms of hosting and entertaining ever. Last Saturday I hosted a 10-people, 5-course dinner party with close FSO folks at home, which was super fun. Then the Diplomat's sister and her family arrived on Monday night to stay with us for the holiday. On Thursday, I hosted a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner for them, the Diplomat's aunt and uncle and a good friend and a plethora of kids. Then, on Friday, we all went to Aunt and Uncle's house for a post-Thanksgiving party, where I helped to prepare a bunch of the (super-spicy) dishes. Ready to keel over from fatigue, I was really excited that a couple of great friends from NYC were in town and we were going to have dinner in downtown DC with them. Sadly, both of my babysitters had decided to have a personal life right this weekend and so we could not go out. Instead, we stayed home and had our friends over--I decided to be creative with my turkey leftovers and created the following fabulous alternative:

Thanksgiving quesadillas:
Take a flour tortilla. Spread mustard on one side and arrange pieces of the leftover turkey on one half of that side (I prefer white meat for this occasion). Top it off with leftover cranberry sauce, add some curry powder or whatever powder you fancy, and then put two thick slices of brie cheese on top. Fold the torilla in half, rub olive oil on top and stick it in a 425 degree oven for about 10 mins. It is fabulous with red wine!


I was rather surprised to learn that this past Friday was a non-vacation day in the federal world. Where the government worker vacations on a variety of splendid holidays neglected by the private world like Veteran's Day and Columbus Day, no one found it in their heart to give the day after Thanksgiving off to the poor, turkey-stuffed federal employees. I thought it was a shame and as a sign of protest stayed home that day. The Diplomat could not--he gets paid to learn bengali, while I do not, so that's OK.

Speaking of protesting, I continued to be a true rebel this weekend--as someone keeps stealing our incredibly unexciting newspaper, the Investors Business Daily, I decided to post a note at the door. The note reads: "Please, stop stealing our newspaper. It is very juvenile. Go buy your own." The Diplomat thinks it is very undiplomatic and openly juvenile. I think it is fantastic and poigniant. As a matter of fact, as I am writing this (I swear!), one of the FSOs who also lives on this floor knocked at the door on her way back home from the holidays to tell me that she loves my note. Nuff' said!

This and next week our Bangla class has individual midterm progress exams. In other words, an outside tester will come to examine each one of us to find out how much we have progressed. The Diplomat is taking himself rather seriously (he is a nerd), and has been cramming vocab and verb conjugations. Good for him. I have no illusions about my Bangla command so I prefer to spend my time elsewhere.