I arrived to Zagreb on Thursday. The city is absolutely beautiful and there are a lot of things to do. Most nights I head to the city center to have coffee with friends and walk around. Transportation is pretty simple, and I mostly take buses and trams. I am staying in a cozy Airbnb apartment by myself. Although I have had amazing roommate experiences at Duke, it is really nice having a place all to myself. It is in a very pretty location, surrounded by small parks and a river. It conveniently has a bakery located right next to it, which I have gone to just about every morning. For dinner, I usually keep it simple and make some combination of meat and cheese sandwiches. My goal by the end of the summer is to learn how to make burek, a famous Croatian dish that consists of a freshly baked meat pastry topped with dough and cheese.
I officially began work at the Embassy this past Monday. My commute is a bit tedious (roughly an hour each way) but it is totally worth it. So far, this experience has gone above and beyond my expectations. Even though I have only worked two days, I feel that I have already gained a lot of insight into how an Embassy operates. It is divided into four different sections (Administrative, Consular, Economic/Political, and Public Affairs). Although I am primarily stationed in the Economic/Political section, I will be assisting all the other sections when they need extra help. As part of my in-processing, I had to meet with every single section office leader. They described their role in the embassy and their involvement in the Croatian community. They also mentioned some of the projects that I will be helping them with. I am particularly excited to help out with the planning of the annual 4th of July festival which will be held at the embassy. The people working in the Pol/Econ section have been very welcoming to me. I have already met most of them, and frequently get to chat with them during coffee breaks. As far as my work goes, I have mostly been sitting in embassy staff meetings covering a wide range of topics. While sitting in these meetings I take notes on the different subject matters. My favorite meeting so far was the Daily Action Report, which is where we discuss all of the Political and Economic developments that occurred in Croatia the previous day. After the meeting, my team returns to our office and they draft up a cable that is sent to Washington at the end of the day. My supervisor told me that I will be drafting one of these reports by myself in the coming weeks. This Friday I am planning on going to an Embassy cookout hosted at the marine's bunker. There is supposed to be some great barbecue so I am very excited.
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