Mendez October Email to the Masses

Yes, it's the middle of the month already. I was trying to wait until our laptop and DSL lines got fixed, but sadly it's going to take a few more days to get all of the kinks worked out.

The most fun thing we did in September was go to London. LOVED it. LOVED it. (Did I say that already?) Did the double-decker bus tour, Shakespeare tour (I can now show you the empty lot where a house that Shakespeare once slept in stood), a tour of the Globe theater where I got to have my picture by the stage, ate Indian food galore, and saw two shows, Mamma Mia and Death of a Salesman with Brian Denehy. It's really expensive in London with the British pound compared to the dollar, but we had such a wonderful time, we just have to go back again. This is us at the Tower of London.

At work, September was also the great month of orientation. We had a BBQ at the DCM's (2nd in command under the Ambassador) residence for all of the newcomers, and our Tri-Mission Orientation to orient everyone to living here in Rome. The Ambassador started showing monthly movies at his residence (September's was Madagascar, this month is Bewitched). We spent most of the month also working on Halloween and Oktoberfest planning for October, and my Co-CLO went to two weeks of training back in the States. September also saw one of my biggest work goals being realized - the start of the SNAP program here in Rome. This was a grant through the State Dept to hire a Local Employment Advisor, who helps family members find jobs outside of the embassy. So, she finally started last month and she is rolling right along, which is great.

Oh, and I took this jazz singer workshop for a week at a local university with this American jazz pianist who was in town. Very cool.

So last week we had Oktoberfest which was nice event. Would have been much nicer if it hadn't poured down rain all throughout the event, (we were trying to have it outside on a patio, but ended up under a large covered walkway) but hey, get enough German beer in folks, and they don't care too much about the weather. I ended up with a cold that I'm still trying to kill.
This month we are already finishing up with Halloween, and working on plans for a Thanksgiving reception, a Christmas market, Tree Lighting Ceremony, and a Children's Santa Party to round out the year. We've got a lot going on event-wise as you can see. We are at Mgmt workshops all this week, and we start going out to visit the schools again next week. Oh, Saturday we went back to this cool bazaar at the NATO base that I went to last year with a huge busload of people. It's a crazy time in the CLO office.

Joel, that guy? Yeah I see him around occasionally. He tries not to be a workaholic though his job does tend to lean that way. But lately I've been lucky enough that he comes home at reasonable times. He's started playing basketball with a group of men once a week, and has become the unofficial poker game organizer for the embassy. He's gotten pretty good, and has even won me some spending money at the last game.

So, that's it for us. You guys write back, and tell me how everything is there! I hope you are all getting less rain than we are right now. It rains more here, than it did the weekend we were in London. Sick of the gross weather.

Love,
Julie and Joel