Back from Germany... Training starts today

Friday I returned from a short inter-employment sabbatical in Germany, where I visited friends in Munich & Berlin. While my family back in Washington enjoyed an early spring with temps well above 20º C, I experienced snow and cold.

In Berlin, I saw the construction site for what I hope one day will be my workplace - the new US embassy just down the street from the Brandenburger Tor and next to the Holocaust victims' monument.

I hadn't visited Germany since 1989, and Berlin since 1987 (when the wall was still up), so I found things very much changed. Since we seem to visit exclusively France when we travel to Europe (all of Patricia's relatives live there), my German friends had grumbled for a while about not seeing me. This short sojourn made up for it.

If Martin sends me his picture of the Schweinshaxe I ate, I'll post that too. Es war lecker.

Patricia is joining me for the first day of orientation at NFATC (National Foreign Affairs Training Center) today, which starts at 8:00 am sharp. We'll receive the list of available posts and start the bidding process.