Hilarity: One Degree

While I sat next to a former adviser to President Clinton on the

Middle East and schmoozed with embassy goers this week, I was
surprised and chuckled at the opportunities and fun of living in D.C.

On Wednesday, I went to an all day speaking event hosted by State’s
Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) on Lebanon and how Syrian
instability is and will affect it. The opportunity to come to it came
through an email invitation from one of the students in our intensive
Middle East Survey class we had last week at my internship. I just responded saying I’d
like to go, put a bunch of obscure acronyms after my name, and I’m in!
I don’t think they care as much about the acronyms as they do about
the email domain, but it was cool nonetheless.

INR uses classified intelligence sources but they also congregate leading
experts to discuss current events and forecast a bit in order to obtain intelligence. They invite the public to come
question and participate. This event had a sense of urgency, because the night
before, 2 or 3 of the Assad Regime’s defense advisers were killed by
a suicide bomber-body guard. Then, after academic experts, former
ambassadors, leading commentators, and news anchors spoke
about everything from the local smuggling rings in their
native Lebanese villages to Hezbollah’s calculating takeover of the government
in 2006, someone checked their phone and saw that literally minutes before, an
Israeli tourist bus had been blown up on the other side of the world
in Bulgaria and Israel was blaming Iran. Everyone started saying,
“This is very, very bad,” and pulled out their phones. They then added this super current even to the analysis of Syria’s impact on Lebanon. It was so interesting to see that process.

Another cool thing was that the Ambassador for Syrian Transition came
and spoke to us as we ate the lunch the posh Army Navy Club catered for us.
His name is Fred Hof and after explaining U.S. foreign policy to us, very humbly and frankly asked if we had
any advice for him and that he was all ears for understanding the
Syrian fallout to its neighbors. I was wowed. If I had something to
say (and credentials to back it up wouldn’t hurt), I could have
contributed something that influences American foreign policy! All by
virtue of the fact of being in the right room with the right people and
with preparation (the latter I obviously lack). It wasn’t hard to get
that invite too, I think after I leave my State Dept. internship, I
can still access these kinds of events. It’s so cool! It helped me
focus on my school work more!

Schmoozing at the embassy sounds swankier than it was. It was mostly
an excuse for me and four other intern friends to get dressed up and
have a classy evening that happened to include an open bar (important
for my friends ;) ). I got to be PRETTY!! The Czech Embassy hosted a
Red Carpet Event and asked everyone to dress up and come look at the
photography of a guy who photographs celebrities. Christina and I went
around and met the people there. I met a violin maker, a polyglot who
spoke to me in both Arabic and Spanish, a cable news anchor, a three
star general, and Miss Wyoming! Miss Wyoming was actually from
Maryland and was really interesting to talk with. She pointed me in
the direction of some good volunteer opportunities with agencies that
work in grief counseling for military families. I asked the general,
General Sims, what he missed most about the army and he said the
soldiers, the kind of people they are and how much they sacrifice.

Talking about these experiences on the way home from the embassy, my
fellow intern, Ari, commented on how we have been one degree of
separation from the President, the Secretary (of State), and others
through those we’ve met. That is true and interesting. I was told D.C.
is a town before I came here, and it feels smaller everyday. (I hope this blog post doesn't sound snoody. I don't mean to be and definitely don't feel like I have cause to be so.)

Nathan got the call this week that he'd be deployed to Afghanistan 1 August. That is soon. We're praying he's safe. He told me about what he's doing to prepare, both mentally and logistically. I'm excited for him and what he'll get to do and pray he stays safe. Last night, I youtubed a bunch of Afghanistan and Iraq videos taken by marines on patrol. I hope he'll be fine. :) Nathan said he's still going to be baptized probably around the same date, just a different venue. He's been working it out with his chaplain, and the Marines are sending him for a week to the place where service members in the Middle East and Central Asia get baptized apparently, the Red Sea! No idea why there, but I'm excited for him and he's excited too.