Meeting the Ambassador

I would like to say that this was a key event in my life and one that I remember and cherish forever but I think I will remember it more for its hilarity than for anything that was actually said.

To my knowledge we are the first group of Fulbrighters to Latvia that have actually gotten to meet the US Ambassador so I feel thankful for that. The meeting was very weird and seemed more like a PR opportunity than anything else. Basically we were herded into the room in her residence, introduced to her, listened to her speak about Latvia (I was actually impressed by how much she knew) for 30 minutes, had coffee and snacks, and then she left. Maybe this is how diplomatic things work but I thought that it seemed like a very unimportant event for her.

Then I looked on the US Embassy homepage and there we were (I am on the lower left hand side). So my lasting memory of meeting the US Ambassador to Latvia will be a Latvian American flag pin and this picture I saved from the website.