Good things: It's not often that diplomats receive public recognition. So much of what we do goes unseen and largely unnoticed, but that is the nature of the job, and sometimes going unnoticed is part of the point. Sometimes, however, certain diplomats who do the right thing in the right place at the right time can make a real difference in the lives of huge numbers of people. Recognizing this, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new set of stamps today depicting six distinguished American Foreign Service officers. The stamps were formally unveiled today and should be available nationwide tomorrow.

Bad things: DC's weather has officially entered its yearly period of unbearableness. To walk outside today is quite literally like walking into a sauna. It is the most miserable, sticky, disgusting weather, and you can actually see people physically wilt when they step from an air-conditioned building into the heat and humidity of the outside air. I learned from a British diplomat while I was in Vienna last year that Brits posted to DC actually receive hardship pay for the summer months because such weather is considered to be more than one should reasonably be asked to bear. I've half a mind to petition our government for the same. The Germans have a great word for this phenomenon: schwül. Simply uttering the word makes one's lip curl with an appropriate note of derision.

I flew out of Dulles airport on Friday evening to come to Chicago for a Peace Corps Bulgaria reunion of sorts. As I was getting onto one of the funny-looking little tram things that Dulles uses to ferry passengers out to the gates, I realized that I hadn't flown out of Dulles in a really long time. In fact, the last two times I flew out of Dulles were both on trips that would change the course of the next few years of my life.

The most recent time was my return trip to Bulgaria after a couple of days of interviews and tests that led to me receiving the Pickering graduate fellowship. Because of that trip, I spent two years in graduate school and have now joined the Foreign Service rather than following through with the original plan of moving to Wiesbaden, Germany on a Fulbright fellowship. The time before that was when I and 68 or so of my soon-to-be closest friends were getting on a plane that would take us to Bulgaria for two years of life as Peace Corps volunteers. After that flight, all sorts of things changed. And I learned Bulgarian, and how many people can really claim that?

So here's to breaking my trend of seriously momentous things being associated with trips out of Dulles airport. Normalcy can sometimes be a good thing. For those who are curious, I have made reservations for my flights to Korea, and I will be flying out of National airport instead of Dulles.

After a long journey that involved staying up for two whole days (give or take a few hours with the time change), one of our own has come back from Saudi Arabia for a visit. Yes, she is exceedingly happy to have the freedom to wander about in public without having to wear an abaya. Personally, I am finding it a little difficult to believe that she is already six months into her one-year tour (halfway done!) and many of us have not gotten out to our first post yet. At any rate, we are very glad to have her here for a week, and tonight we celebrated her arrival in style: pork chops for dinner (forbidden meat in "the Kingdom&quot accompanied by a few glasses of good riesling (another forbidden item in Saudi), followed by a lovely dessert (not forbidden but soooo sinfully delicious). Picture five young ladies standing around in a kitchen chatting in between bites of these lovely things:

(Not the best photo, I admit, but they disappeared so quickly I couldn't try for a better one. Strawberries. Chocolate. 'Nuff said.).

One of the best things about her return as far as I'm concerned (beyond the simple fact that she is here) is that she needs to stock up on some of the things that are difficult or impossible to find over there. So that means we get to do some shopping! Oh, how I love helping other people find ways to spend their hard-earned money!

At any rate, I'm glad to have her back, and I intend to help her indulge in just about everything she's not allowed to do over in Saudi. It should be a fun, if busy, next week or so.

This week:

• I met Don Oberdorfer, author of the definitive guide to all things Korean and geopolitical, a book called The Two Koreas. Apparently even the North Koreans think of it as the definitive guide, as there have been reports of visiting journalists and foreign dignitaries being given copies of the book as gifts from officials in the North Korean government. Closer to home, I have personally heard from more than one source that even the State Department uses this book as the first briefing material for top officials heading to Korea. I know it's the first thing they handed me to prepare for my time there. He definitely has some fascinating stories to share, and I feel privileged to have been able to spend some significant time talking with him.

• I went for the first time to a jazz place in DC. For those who know this town, it is a marvelously low-key place on Barracks Row called Ellington's. It's a very pleasant place, perfect for those evenings when you just want to relax, have a glass of wine and maybe some peach cobbler, and listen to some good live music. It's a very homey atmosphere, complete with a gal behind the bar who may admonish patrons if they have not eaten enough. I have since been unable to get the song, "My Funny Valentine" out of my head, so I will probably have to break down and download it for my i-pod.

• I found out from one of my Korean instructors that the wildfire season in Korea is actually during the winter. The rainy season (they actually have a "rainy season!&quot is in the middle of the summer, and apparently the winter is when everything dries out and becomes good tinder for fires. Sounds like the opposite of how one would ordinarily think it would go, doesn't it? I don't know how I'll like having a cold winter with snow that turns almost instantaneously black from Seoul's pollution and without any rain at all, though. Doesn't sound too fabulous to me.

• I found out through a friend that the State Department has gained the distinction of being the number three most desirable employer in a recent survey of American undergraduate students. Wow - when I was an undergrad, I wasn't even considering it, and I didn't know anyone who was. It simply wasn't on the radar. My, how quickly things change.

There haven't been many photos here lately, so I thought I might share some of the highlights of the last several weeks. Or at least some of the things I've managed to take photos of.

Birthday Party Madness (more than one event represented here).

Lunchtime in Rosslyn: apparently even the birds were famished. Yes, there really are a few green things growing in Rosslyn.

A nearly perfect (drizzly, warm but not hot) spring day at FSI. Note to the DC weather gods: spring is nice. There is no need to jump straight from winter to summer - linger in between for a while longer than you may ordinarily be inclined to.

Impulse buy. On the list of things one should avoid doing immediately following a dental appointment, shopping should be right up there with getting into a heated argument and feasting on beef jerky, hard pretzels and caramels. No, they're not "real" - remember, I'm still just a lowly government employee.

Every now and then, I come across something that just takes me right back to my days as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria, frustrated beyond belief with what I perceived to be the ridiculousness of the way things are (or are not) done there. The BBC has highlighted one of the more amusing items of late, which may be of interest to those whose luxury cars have been stolen elsewhere in Europe.

The Bulgarians have a phrase for things like this: Българска работа, “Bulgarska Rabota.” Literally, it means “Bulgarian work/deeds,” but its intended meaning is more to the effect of “Oh, well, what can you do?” or “Yes, it’s inefficient/ridiculous/maddening, but that’s just how it is and it can’t be changed.” So next time you’re walking through the streets of Sofia, wondering why you are seeing souped-up sports cars and SUVs as police vehicles, just roll your eyes, throw your hands up in the air, shrug, and say, “Bulgarska rabota.”

I've assumed this was true for a long time, but today made me realize that there truly are a lot of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) working in foreign affairs in the U.S. government.

I met the number two person in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and had a two-hour conversation with her and four of my colleagues who are also headed out to Seoul this summer. About five minutes into this talk, she told a story about her first months in the Peace Corps (she served as a PCV in Korea in the 70s, teaching English in a middle school). I could have told the exact same story - verbatim - about my first few months as a PCV in Bulgaria, with the only changes being locations and nationalities. The resemblance was uncanny.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the State Department's headquarters building (aka Main State) to attend the "Peace Corps Legacy Event." Certain people at the State Department had invited RPCVs in all of the other foreign affairs agencies of the government to come to Main State for a celebration of Peace Corps' 45th anniversary. People were there from all over the federal government, from State and USAID to the Foreign Agricultural Service and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The hall was completely full of people - so much so that it was difficult to walk through the crowd without jostling people. An article in this month's issue of State Magazine estimates RPCVs to make up nearly 10 percent of the State Department's workforce - apparently the transition from volunteer service in the Peace Corps to professional service as a member of the government's foreign affairs community is even more common than I thought.

Also, more interesting to me personally, after having met the number two person in my regional bureau, I also ran into the Assistant Secretary (i.e. head) of the bureau at this gathering. Yes, he too was a Peace Corps Volunteer, posted to Cameroon back in the days when Peace Corps still issued motorcycles to volunteers to get around on. He actually had a pretty amusing story about riding this motorcycle to the city one very early morning on his way to take the Foreign Service Exam. Notably, the Assistant Secretary still refers to his time as a Peace Corps Volunteer as "the best assignment of my Foreign Service career."

Following up on a recent request from a friend to write about what I've "actually been DOING," here is a bit of a snapshot of recent activities/events:

I am still learning Korean and this is still what takes up the bulk of my time. I am also trying to put together a 10-page paper talking about the two little places in North Korea that have been opened up to South Koreans and tourists. For those who are interested, these two places are a mountain where South Koreans go to hike and enjoy the natural beauty and an industrial complex near the DMZ where South Korean companies have set up some operations. The paper is for the "Area Studies" class that is a mandatory part of long-term language training at FSI, and theoretically I am supposed to have it finished in the next two or three weeks.

Being that I am finally within a relatively few months of my estimated departure date, I have started to think about the huge stack of things I have to do to prepare to leave DC and head out to Seoul. It's a long, intimidating-looking list of things ranging from "get personal property insurance that also covers your stuff while it's in transit" to "get an international driver's licence" to "ask for/find and gather together all of the official documents that people will need to see to make arrangements for things like packing your stuff and buying your plane tickets." Just the sheer number of things on the list is overwhelming. So naturally I was delighted to see that another FSO who recently did all of this had laid out the big stuff in a nice, straightforward manner. I also received a very helpful email from a friend and A-100 colleague who is also preparing for departure that contained a variety of phone numbers that will need to be called in the next couple of weeks. Hooray for other Foreign Service Officers!

Outside of things directly related to work, life has generally been pretty quiet. Two of my friends here in DC had birthdays this weekend, which we joyfully celebrated on Friday and Saturday evenings. This week was a good one in terms of having some really yummy meals at some of DC's better establishments (partially because of birthday events), but this is a double-edged sword because I am going to have to avoid eating out for at least the next week and a half in deference to the budget.

Next up: more of the same. Sorry to disappoint, but it can't be helped. I'll be studying and hopefully retaining some Korean, writing a paper (some of you may remember my gleeful words upon finishing grad school almost exactly a year ago: "No more papers!!" Yeah, I guess I was wrong on that one - please don't gloat), and trying to wrap my head around all of the necessary preparations for departure. I'll also be cleaning my apartment (it REALLY needs it) and hopefully still taking time to get together with friends and unwind. The glamorous and rivetingly exciting life of a Foreign Service Officer.

I got into a conversation today that led to the conclusion that people everywhere make decisions through the "paper, scissors, rock" game. It's one of the few things I've found so far that Bulgaria, western Europe, the U.S., Turkey, Korea and Japan have in common. Hmm, maybe it's the only thing. The order of the items in the name of the game tend to change, but the idea and the method of play are consistent. Anyway, I realize that there are a few continents left out of that equation, so, knowing quite a few of you are more well-traveled than I am, I thought I would put the new theory out there and see if anyone disagrees with it. The theory is this: in a world where anything beyond a smile and a frown is culturally relative, "paper, scissors, rock" may be part of this ultra-selective pantheon of universally understood things. Admittedly, this whole effort is highly unscientific, but I am kind of hoping someone does disagree with the theory, because if it is true, well, it's kind of daunting to think about. Out of all the things in this world to be universal, why "paper, scissors, rock?"

If you learn something new every day, today has been a particularly productive day for me. Today I had lunch with some diplomats from the Korean embassy, then headed to the Korean embassy itself for some briefings on Korea-U.S. relations from the Korean point of view and a quick Q&A with the Korean ambassador. A few of the highlights:

• The Korean ambassador to the U.S. is not a political appointee, but a career member of Korea's diplomatic corps (file this under "good things").
• The Korean-U.S. relationship was at one point likened to a married couple: in the past, Korea was a wife under strict Confucian philosophy wherein she kept her mouth shut and did as she was told; more recently, Korea is a modern wife who has opinions of her own and wants to have them heard.
• Korean diplomats wear really nice shirts.
• Inside the Korean embassy, the Korean flag's markings (really everything but the white background) are made of pieces of velveteen sewn onto the white fabric. This is different from the way you typically see it, where the markings are either different colors of the same type of fabric as the backing or they are printed on the backing.
• The Korean embassy has significantly fewer security procedures for visitors than the State Department has for its own employees.
• The Korean ambassador wears a lot of cologne.
• No matter how many big issues are on the table between Korea and the U.S., the foremost issue on the mind of the Korean government is their overwhelming desire to become a part of the U.S.'s Visa Waiver Program (the program that allows tourists from places like western Europe and Japan to come for short stays without having to get an entry visa beforehand). I'm getting the feeling that the pervasiveness of this issue will make my tour in Seoul as a consular officer especially interesting.