The Foreign Service Journal, April 2012

60 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 2 M oving every two to three years in the Foreign Service is a rather nontraditional way of life, unless you are a nomad. However, recently it occurred to me that this life is very sim- ilar to something a little more prosaic— going to college. The main difference is that in the transient expat life, instead of going to university once, we do it over and over again. There aremany similarities, both social and academic, between the Foreign Service life and university. Whenwe went off to college, we often didn’t know a soul. The same can be said for almost every post. There may be a few people we encountered earlier in our careers; but most likely, we arrive not knowing any- one. Despite having done our homework, we arrive without much of a clue. Al- thoughwemay have read about the place and what it has to offer, it is only when our boots hit the ground that we are able to figure out how every- thing fits together. As the years at post pass, just as they do at university, we move from being clueless, disconnected freshmen into the ranks of upper- classmen, where we generally have the situation down pat and are woven into a tapestry of commu- nity and social life. Being at post is comparable to university academically, as well. Just as we had to select a major at school, something on which to focus our intellectual attention, many of us do something similar at post. For Foreign Service members, their major is pro- scribed for themby their jobs. But many familymembers actually get to choose their majors. For example, here in Brussels, Robbin Zeff Warner is well on her way to graduating magna cum laude in chocolate. Belgium is the perfect place for such amajor, as it boasts three of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers, and is home to more than 10,000 artisan chocolate shops dotted around the country. Warner spent her first couple of years exploring Brussels before settling on learning all she could about making chocolates. Now she has moved on to offering courses teaching others how to take raw chocolate, temper it and mold it into a variety of shapes. “Finding out I loved working with chocolate was a process of dis- covery,” says Robbin. “I’d been dabbling in this, sampling a little of that, until I took a professional chocolate-making course at the Chocolate Academy at Callebaut and was officially hooked. When we go back to the States, I am seri- A F S A N E W S The University of (fill in the blank) Peter Barbarich, a family member in Brussels, finds his true calling chiseling sculpture from local wood. Robbin ZeffWarner creates chocolatesmolded into a variety of shapes when she isn’t teaching others the joy of Belgian chocolate-making. FAMILY MEMBER MATTERS BY DOUGLAS E. MORRIS GENE WARNER TJERRIE VERHELLEN