Today Is going to be a shorter post because yesterday I went to bed at the glorious hour of 10:45 and I’d like to get as close to repeating that as I can (though it’s going to be tricky) because I woke up this morning feeling better than I have in a long time. I don’t know quite what it was, but nothing can compare to waking up feeling like I’m in the right place, I’ve done all I can to prepare for this day, and it’s going to be great.
Perhaps part of it was that today I would be Notetaking on a meeting between our Ambassador Glass and the Newly appointed French Ambassador to Portugal, Florence Mangin. I’ve been working on the briefing checklist for this meeting since mid-June, so it was cool to see all my work (and the work of many editors) come to real life in a way. Anyway, after that I got some other interesting tasks and I tackled them with glee. It helped that the cafeteria in the embassy now has ice cream–my glee can be extended dramatically with the help of ice cream.
Anyway, I learned today that tomorrow’s schedule will be such that I don’t have time to return home for dinner–and if I do, it would be for only about 30 minutes–before I am volunteering to take photos at a reception. I’m super excited, because receptions are fun, even if I have to work, and I came upon the realization that my access to these sorts of spaces and opportunities is extremely limited. I’ll be here and I’ll be gone before I know it, and my time here is precious experience and filled with opportunity to learn and grow. So I spent my time today, before going out to dinner with some housemates, prepping lunch and dinner and breakfast for tomorrow. I made Peanut satay sauce with curried tofu, which I thought came out pretty good 🙂
Tofu with cilantro and such–a lunch or dinner for tomorrow 🙂
Peanut butter, coconut milk, Lime juice, soy sauce, and cayenne/garlic/onions are the ingredients I used for this satay sauce! Ana, one of my housemates, said she would hire me as a cook if she could (after trying the sauce) so I would say this is a success!
Then I went out with some housemates, chatted about politics more, and enjoyed a Bitoque–a fatty cut of beef grilled and served underneath a sunny-side up egg with fries and rice on the side. Carb-heavy, but yummy!
Much love!