I was invited to dinner last night at the Deputy Ambassador's house.  When I got the invitation, I immediately looked on a Jewish calendar to try to figure out how my name got on the list.  Shavu'ot is coming up...that's not really a holiday most people make a big deal of, but whatever, maybe she has a family tradition or something.  I have become one of the most visible members of the Jewish community (guess why) so I typically get an invite to this kind of thing.  I did think it weird that the dinner was on Shabbat at exactly the same time as services, therefore preventing me from attending synagogue.

It turns out, no, I was invited because the Deputy Ambassador likes me.  What?  Didn't she get the memo from the previous regime?  They used to strike my name from the list and they had no qualms about calling to tell me I was dis-invited.  Trust me, the feelings were mutual; they were jerks.

So I was the youngest person in the room by at least a decade.  The USAID mission director also came and was seated next to me at dinner (there were only 10 people, but it was assigned formal seating with embossed place cards, 3 different kinds of glasses, and more than half a dozen utensils for each place - I panicked immediately).  Thank goodness I ignored the "Casual Dress" comment on the invitation.  I wore a work outfit and planned to claim I had come straight from the office - no need, I was dressed about right.

Actually, I felt the evening went well and I had fun.  People seemed really interested to talk to me (unfortunately several took my card because they had people they wanted to sign up in the program).  The other guests were incredibly interesting - a war crimes prosecutor and his wife (who has figured out how to make homemade ricotta and plans to attempt to make bagels), a woman who works for an NGO that deals with human trafficking and her husband, a Scot who was here since before the war, a couple who works for the Bureau of Missing Persons, the USAID Mission Director who was formerly in Egypt most recently - and me.  Our hostess, the Deputy Ambassador is married to the Director of Consulate Services.  

What neat conversations we had!  Guess where we all had in common - Thailand (thanks, Ingrid).  Everyone had at least been there, but the Deputy Ambassador and her husband served in the US Embassy there (I got the feeling they may have met there, but I didn't fish).

I guess I won't really know how well it all went until I see if i get another invitation.