All official & a night on the town
10.02.2003Yesterday afternoon, I went to the US embassy for my "security briefing", after which I got my very official embassy badge. I can just waive it at the guards and walk right into the embassy. It actually seems rather silly.
The security briefing was mostly tailored to three new staff that came in recently. We learned to watch out for pickpockets, to leave classified information on the fifth floor or above (I've no access to these floors, don't worry), to let the embassy run background checks on anyone we date (they could be spies), and other such useful information.
I sat through the ordeal w/ another Fulbright scholar, Maria. She's an anthropologist, and will spend much of her time in the Altiplano near Tihuanacu. Later, we went out for coffee and talked about each other's work and experiences in Bolivia so far. We ended up at a different café than the one we were walking towards, but it had started hailing (more like sleeting, actually) and so we ducked out of the weather.
We met up w/ yet another Fulbrighter (a linguistic anthropologist) who's been here a few months already. Steve had brought his cat, Mona, to Bolivia w/ him, which made me wonder why I hadn't brought Annie & Sophie (though I don't think they'd have enjoyed the trip a single bit). The three of us went out to dinner to Mongo's, a Canadian-Australian expat joint, for burgers and Huari (a Bolivian beer). More conversation about our experiences, Bolivian politics, and food. I had a good time.
Posted by Miguel at 12:02 PM
Comments
Bro sounds awesome, you are meeting some cool poeple. Sorry about S&A. I'm sure they are missing you too!
Posted by: Andres at October 2, 2003 06:45 PM
yeah I wish I was down there right now. It looks like I will leave the States on December 15th to head down there. Not official yet, but looks like it.
Speaking of cats, mom said they are not acting very well at the house. She has to clean after them a lot... Cats...
Glad you are official, did they verify your residence status yet?
Posted by: sam at October 3, 2003 12:15 PM