Halloween

Lest anyone is concerned that the Richardson children (and Mikayla) may have been deprived of a proper American-style Halloween this year, let me allay those concerns. To the contrary, I would say that Halloween 2009 will go down in the Richardson archives as one of the most eventful Halloweens we've experienced. In addition to a full-on trick-or-treating experience in the main Embassy residential area on Saturday night (followed by a party with gobs of food, activities, a costume contest, pumpkin-carving contest, marshmallow roasting, etc) the kids' school sponsored a Halloween Fair on Friday night comprised of many of the same kinds of activities. The weather both nights was crisp and cold, the leaves were falling, and it was DARK (since the time changed a few weeks ago, it is pitch-black dark here by 4:30 or 4:45 every day)! Spooky!! So, although the Serbs do not, as a country, celebrate Halloween, the Embassy and school communities here went to great lengths to ensure that the 70+ kids at this post had a great Halloween -- and our four (Mikayla included), certainly did!!

Virginia (Turkish bellydancer) and Mikayla (Medieval princess) at the school function on Friday night

The crew at the post trick-or-treating party on Saturday night (Graham was our little NBA basketball star, and Wes, well, Wes boldly decided to go as a "girl!")

The crew and me

This may be as good a time as any to talk a little bit about Embassy life. Basically, in the eight months we've lived here, I've figured out that embassies are microcosms of American society. Take any small church or school community -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- and you've got an Embassy community. The main difference is that given the relative isolation and location of most embassies, folks in embassies really need each other and rely on each other since we are all so far away from our own friends and families.

The State Department, I must say, has put a lot of thought into what kinds of things people need in order to survive living overseas for years (keep in mind that most State Department employees -- Foreign Service Officers -- spend most of their careers overseas and raise their children overseas, as well). And so, one of the things you'll find at every Embassy is a CLO, or Community Liaison Officer. This person (or persons -- we have two in our Embassy) is in charge of planning events and functions that are designed to entertain, and to help employees feel supported and less isolated. Our CLOs planned the Halloween event, and have planned many other events since we've been here, some of which are monthly (like a monthly spouse coffee, a monthly reading club, a monthly ladies' night out). These things really do help people (including us) feel connected to the Embassy community.

There are many other things about Embassy life that are great, as well -- like being able to go to the Health Unit anytime (without having to jump through a bunch of hoops to make an appointment), and like having our housing provided to us, and being able to call someone anytime anything goes wrong in the house (which seems to happen a lot at our house, even though we LOVE the house!). It's also pretty cool hanging out at the Ambassador's pool during the summer -- I don't suppose that there are a lot of kids around who can claim to have spent the summer swimming at an Ambassador's house!

So, all in all, we're fans of embassy life, although at times, it can be full of drama and issues, just like in any other small organization (or family, for that matter). It's good to have a support network, though, and we certainly feel that we have that here in Belgrade. Kudos to the U.S. Embassy/Belgrade for being such a great place to live and work!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend.

Erin