Days Thirty-Five through Thirty-Nine

Monday

Nothing much, unfortunately.

Tuesday

Today ended up being pretty nifty, because I got two free meals. At 10:30 I was sent to go to the newcomer's meeting at the embassy. Let it be known that the US embassy isn't just the State Department - it houses some 20-30 different agencies like the FBI, DEA, ICE, DHS, etc. And we had to sit in a room and listen to each one of them give a presentation on their individual section. Some of them were informative - who knew that the USDA has a foreign service section? - but others were the same old laundry lists of details: "the XYZ agency investigates Xs, distributes Ys, and cooperates on Zs." Oh yeah, and the thing lasted two hours.

Fortunately though, there was a barbecue afterward at the ambassador's residence, and believe me when I say that Ambassadorial hamburgers taste like no other hamburger. Maybe it was veal, maybe it was just expertly cooked, but it was some choice, delectable, savory meat. Wine and beer were offered at dinner, but I don't think that anybody wanted to be the first to start drinking at work - we are in Spain, yes, but we're American nonetheless. Does the adage "when in Rome..." apply to an embassy, since it's technically American territory?

Anyway, after work we were invited to a formal reception at the Ambassador's residence. The occasion? The Broadway musical version of "The Lion King" just came to Madrid (as "El Rey León"), and the show's writer/producer was in attendance at the embassy. The ambassador gave a very long speech to introduce her, and it just so happened that right before he started speaking I was standing next to the podium. Thus for the entire speech I was stuck between the Ambassador's wife and El Rey León's Spanish version producer who were both being introduced and speaking a little, so I was stuck awkwardly in between.

Nevertheless the food and wine were good at the reception as always, and this time there were some new little morsels like a "Manchego soup" which basically tasted like watery liquid Parmesan cheese which I promptly chased with a mouthfull of wine to get the flavor out of my mouth. It wouldn't have been bad in the right context, but it wasn't a flavor I wanted hanging around in my mouth all night.

Wednesday

Wednesday happened to be my co-intern Romina's birthday, and she wanted to go to a nearby sushi place for lunch to celebrate. The restaurant was a mere 5 minutes' walk away, and Clark strongly recommended we get the "menú ejecutivo" - the "executive menu" - and although at E15 it was on the expensive side, it was a birthday after all, and it did come with what looked like a lot of food. Here's what it came with, in courses brought out each one after the other:

1. Little appetizery bowl of ramen-like noodles
2. Four pieces of a vegetable roll, four pieces of salmon roll
3. Three pieces of fried fish
4. A bowl of actual ramen. At this point I was starting to get pretty full and I hoped my next dish wouldn't be too large...
5. What appeared to be an entire flank of grilled salmon, about 8 inches long, on a bed of rice. I struggled through eating the entire thing
6. A bowl of ice cream of a flavor of one's choosing. I opted for ginger, and after letting my neighbors at the table sample it, we all decided that mine was by far the best.
   

Thursday

Nothing really, I don't think. I stayed after work with Eric for a while to go over the INCSR - International Narcotics Control Strategy Report - this year's version of which I am spearheading. It will be online at the beginning of next year on a US government website.

Friday

Nothing during the day, but evening to follow...