Monday, March 16, 2009

Of politics and muffins...



We had a lovely brunch on Sunday with new friends, made through a connection in Duluth, who work at the embassy.

I was able to recreate the taste of Perkins almond-poppyseed muffins - recreating U.S. tastes may be a bit of a theme next week, as a soon -to-come post will show - and make my first ever quiche. Add in fruit skewers, and the buffet got pretty colorful. Whoo hoo!  Brett had just run 20 miles so it seemed like a good time for good food, and as you know, I am diving headfirst into the culinary world.

We enjoyed hearing about the state of the foreign service world in our conversation. Did you know that about 1/3 of foreign ambassadors are political appointees, people who have done nice things for presidents and get paid back by being made ambassadors? Kind of ridiculous, considering that all other ambassadors are wonderful foreign service agents who have served in many countries and learned the ropes from the bottom up. 

Turns out a recent ambassador in Estonia did a beautiful job fundraising for Bush and wound up with the odd concept that she was "running" Estonia. Please, do yourself a favor and click on the following link to watch Estonia's version of Jon Stewart make fun of her. Bear with the Estonian if you don't speak it, everything will become very clear to you in the second half of the clip. They say laughing is good for your health...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbFobTTBqTg

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're teachers outside the classroom, too, of course. Know that we always want to learn from your lives and experiences. I watch J.S. each available day, thanks to you both, and I'll be checking out Estonia's version of him as soon as I sign this. Thanks and affection from Duluth.

Anonymous said...

Later: I watched the Eastern European Jon Stewart, laughed loudly, then re-watched it with Bruce, who took a break from re-flooring the kitchen to laugh just as loudly with me. This would do Nic and Lindsey good,so I sent them a push to check it out. nin (that's "mom" with a mis-placed right hand.)