Homage to Brasília

Brasília from the TV Tower. You want to click the picture to zoom in.

Farewell Summer, Hello United States of America

This is the end of the homage. I'm almost positive that I'm no longer in Brazil. As far as I can tell I'm back home, being asked to mow the lawn, driving cars, eating chili and so forth. I'm glad to be back. Much like when I returned from my two year mission in Venezuela, people are asking me how "it" was. I could just tell them to read about it on here but that's just rude. Anyway, it's a tough question to answer.

Right before I left the embassy the Deputy Chief of Mission (second in command after the ambassador) called me into his office to ask me how I felt about my time working in the embassy. My time in Brasília was well spent. However, my favorite memories are my commutes to and from work on my bike. The work was extremely interesting and I got to experience and contribute to the activities in the political section, which is the section of the State Department that most interests me. Nonetheless, my time was very limited. I spent a lot of my time figuring out what was going on. That entailed learning Portuguese, familiarizing myself with the issues at hand in Brazil and learning how things work in the State Department.

By the time I started to get a handle on what I was doing, it was time to leave. Shucks. That said, it was a very worthwhile experience, an experience that I will value for the rest of my life (I'll never forget those bike rides). I learned a good deal of Portuguese, I met a lot of interesting people, I got a better feel for what kind of career I'm interested, and I got inspired. Yep, I got inspired. It happened in Minas Gerais. I was representing the embassy at a seminar on corporate social responsibility and the Norwegian premier said something that struck me. He said that all business leaders are responsible to better the world, even small and medium sized businesses. It's nothing grand, but I had been refining an idea for a project that I believe would encourage businesses to help their communities, and Mr. Bondevik's remark set me off. He helped me refine my idea and I'm planning to do something about it.

It's interesting. I didn't listen to much else in the seminar after that point. I sat there fleshing out my idea and I realized that I was doing exactly what those seminars are designed for. I had taken some advice, I had been led to think in a way that I hadn't been thinking, and hopefully I'll do something about it. The seminar will have served its function and the Inter-American Initiative on Social Capital, Ethics and Development (group that I used to work for that organized the seminar) will have borne fruit. We'll see.

Other than that, I wrote this massive blog while I was down there. I'm pretty proud of it. My writing and photography skills benefited greatly from my loads of spare time down there. It was a relaxing summer in a quiet town with perfect weather. I feel rested, and now I'm ready to get to "real" work again.

Lost Galaxy Mini Golf, In America

So I'm back in my land. I spent a day in Ocean City, MD over the weekend. As you might tell from the picture above, Ocean City isn't home to the best that America has to offer, but it's still America. I'm glad to be back among my friends. The drive to Ocean City reminded me of how stunningly beautiful Maryland can be. I ate local peaches for breakfast on Saturday. I had a McGriddle for brunch. I had all-you-can-eat crabs and corn for lunch. So, I'm back.

People have asked what I'll be writing now that I'm back from Brazil. I'm sorry to report that I have no real answer. I hope to be very busy for the next few months. I'm looking for work right now and I might get to flex my Spanish muscles as a bilingual writer/editor. If that's the case, I might be all written out by the time I get back from work. I hope not though, because I hope to condense Homage to Brasília into some kind of publishable article over the next few weeks. I'm also trying to come up with a narrative for a short story or a novella about Venezuela. There's all of that and the aforementioned project that I have to get to work on. Oh yeah, I can't forget my Fulbright application and a slew of grad school applications as well. So, I'll be busy. I won't have time to pay daily homage to the great DC Metropolitan Area, but I'll try to put something up on a semi regular basis.

Thanks for reading.