Another day at the office!!

So much for my New Year's resolution of writing more often. Life has been very exciting around The Hague. The Hague hosted a conference on Afghanistan, which meant the boss was coming! It was an amazing experience getting ready for a visit. I was the "Kurhaus site officer" the Kurhaus is an old hotel 5 star hotel at the Beach where everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) stayed. The preparation for the visit starts as soon as we hear rumors that the Secretary is coming. There is a movement officer, a luggage officer, a control officer for every VIP (of which there were many), then a site officer for every location that the Secretary visits. As the Kurhaus site officer I was responsible for the book signing the night she arrived and the Embassy Meet and Greet. We began having countdown meetings early on, I consider countdown meetings about 30 hours of my life I will never get back! A week before the visit the advance team arrives, this is the poor soul from Washington who is responsible for everything. Every detail of the visit is discussed, and then discussed again, and then since we have only been in the countdown meeting for 2 hours we discuss the details again. Since I was responsible for the M&G (meet and greet) I had to find a location for it, then plan the 15 minutes down to the last detail.....the podium had to have water and a stemless glass, and we had to have masking tape on the floor so everyone would know where to stand and where NOT to stand, which side does the Dutch flag go on and which side does the American flag go on. There was even an elevator manifest, so everyone knew when to get their VIP to the elevator and who was riding in the elevator. I have decided that my goal in life is to be the elevator manifest operator.....who says a girl can't dream. On the big day as the clock was ticking down towards my 15 minutes of M&G fame, all of the Embassy families were waiting behind the infamous masking tape line and I was sweating bullets. My biggest concern at that point in my life was making sure security told me when the Secretary was leaving her interviews so I could make sure the microphone was on and working (at least one sleepless night thinking...what if the microphone is on TOO early and runs out of juice??? No promotion for me). I was wandering through the hall when I heard a voice I recognized-believe it or not you would to-it was the Secretary on her way to the M&G. I racewalked through the halls, double checked the podium, water and stemless glass and turned the microphone on just in time to slide behind the masking tape, I had about a second to spare! I then got to shake the Secretary's hand as she walked through the crowd (everyone remaining on the correct side of the masking tape) and then "poof" it was all over! Then the best part of a VIP visit-the wheel's up party-which can't start until you know the plane has taken off and won't be coming back! All in all a great experience.

I am off to Malta tomorrow, there are 8 of us going!! Will Malta ever be the same. I am really looking forward to it, a friend is coming from London and she just had the BIG BIG boss for 3 days, so I am sure she will be ready to kick back as well.

More from Malta next week (I promise!)