Week 7:
Carpe Diem, Buenos Aires Edition

July 23, 2016

I feel like there is a dark cloud over my head, in the form of my countdown app on my phone, that’s looming over my time here. I have only 19 days left at the Embassy, and 25 in Buenos Aires, and that thought is absolutely terrifying. I changed my ticket to come home earlier, and I’m happy with that decision overall, but it has made my return date seem a lot more pressing than I previously expected. I have a long bucket list of things to do, and marking my progress on those is keeping me accountable! In the interest of checking off these bucket list items, I’ve been filling my schedule with more and more activities.

Last weekend, I actually accomplished quite a lot! It was Justin’s last weekend here, so we made the most of it. I didn’t have the photos when I wrote my last blog, so I decided to postpone the writing until I had the proof. On Friday, we went out for intern Happy Hour after work at the bar Antares, my favorite restaurant so far in Buenos Aires. They’re an artisanal brewery that makes incredible beer – my personal favorite being the “Honey Beer” – and has a two for one drink special and huge portions of French fries. Saturday, we shopped around Recoleta and went to eat burgers – Justin’s quest while here was to find the best burger in Buenos Aires, following him around has been a delicious experience. After that, we went to a rugby game – Ellis, one of the other interns, plays rugby at his school, and with my current carpe diem attitude, I agreed to go. It was freezing cold, but the game was awesome! I’ve never watched rugby before this, and learned that it’s brutal, competitive, and highly entertaining. The Argentine team beat the South African team during the final game of the season, so it was really cool to be present for the celebration. Then, we went back to the apartment, ordered empanadas, and played card games, capping off the perfect despedia for Justin. On Sunday, the Vuelta de Obligado interns went to San Telmo, my favorite barrio and market in Buenos Aires.

I’ve also been relatively productive this week, which I’m proud of! On Wednesday, the guys and I went to go see an opera at Teatro Colon, the 3rd best Opera House in the world. The work was “Die Soldaten,” and although the guys had no experience with opera, they decided to come with me and pay the $12 for obstructed view tickets for the experience. The opera itself was not my favorite, it was dark and depressing and grating to the senses, but the staging and singers were absolutely incredible. Getting to hear opera in Teatro Colon brought back fond memories of my short-lived potential career path in vocal performance. 

This work week has been interesting. I’ve been given a lot of new projects to work on for the coming three weeks, which is exciting but also nerve wracking. A lot of my work that I’ve been doing has ended up being related to technology, which has been interesting, as that’s not normally my cup of mate. These projects include, but are not limited to: creating and running a Webinar for an upcoming conference, updating the (very complicated) display system in the Consular waiting room, and updating the Visa/ACS website. I’m also doing a lot of data analysis in the form of analyzing past wait time surveys, conducting a customer service survey of ACS work, and compiling resource information for American citizens. This is all really important work, and serve as helpful tasks for an intern to tackle. In keeping with my Bucket List attitude, I’m also emailing officers from other sections and cones and asking to meet with them to talk about FS careers, because, due to working in one section, I don’t always see all of the Embassy. I’m hoping to meet officers from other sections so I can get a better idea of how the Embassy works as a whole. A career in the FS is never a specific career path with specializations: you’re a generalist long into your career, and only focus on specific functions later on, if at all.

Last but certainly not least, I wanted to give an update on my “adulting” abilities that I have been honing since I’ve arrived. I’ve branched out in my cooking, bought some new supplies from Chinatown and the vegetable stands, and made leaps and bounds of improvement on my previous attempts. A picture is worth a thousand words!