As assistant CLO, my portfolio has been Newcomers, Welcome, and Orientation with Events as well, until Nick arrived.  Now I'm the alternate for events. But before Nick came onboard, I had planned a cultural dance exchange - one night of Hoedown, and one night of some sort of Chinese dance.  We ended up getting the Local employee association made up of local staff to plan a night of Mongolian dance.  The Hoedown was in October and the Mongolian dance was in November. The whole point was to bring us together, our different cultural dances, to learn from each other and have a way to connect with each other.  It was perfect.  I had everything planned, tickets sold, etc. for the Hoedown, and then Nick started.  Perfect timing for him to help us out with the finishing touches like this WANTED poster and everything.

The kids weren't too keen on coming and dancing (I should say Thomas and Savannah - Rhea was excited!), and Bri came for a little bit because he wasn't feeling very good.

We found a Texan that teaches Hoedown classes to come and instruct us.  Nathan was awesome.  Just the right personality!  

We all ended up having a great time, even my kids!  And we all laughed together as we struggled to figure out the moves and dance together, Americans with Chinese.

Our favorite little kids, Molly and William H. from church.

So the LEA learned from our Hoedown experience, and got even more creative with fundraising to cover the costs of the instructor and sold Mongolian apparel.  Of course I had to buy a few for our family too!

Here's the team of teachers.  They hired the main teacher, but the rest of the ladies spread out around the room to demonstrate to us a little closer up.  That was a good thing--the moves were complicated,.

Here's Crystal with the girls and me.  Crystal is our good friend from Kingstone that fostered Cocoa before we adopted her in December, a few months after this). 

Coworkers Catherine and Megan and me with a local staff that helped teach.

Rhea is a very social creature.  She is always ready to play, laugh, dance, sing, and play some more.  She makes friends easily, and loves spending time with them.  Every week for the last several months, she and the other American Kingstone girls have been playing together several times a week, meeting in the lobby, running around the complex, playing in the playroom and on the playground, in each other's apartments, and have had movie nights every weekend.  All of the parents, without agreeing to, have all agreed to appease these cute girls by taking turns hosting the movie night, offering treats, pizza, etc.  Today we had Toby,  three B sisters Avalon, Haven, Lilian, and Caroline.  The girls watched "Yes Day" about parents that have agreed to not say no for a day, only yes.  Fun movie that I stuck around to watch with them.  Savannah joined in the fun after the movie since she's a favorite of these younger girls.  I imagine we'll have many more movie nights to come!

An American made Coronavirus vaccine finally arrived here at the embassy in Beijing, and those 16 years and older were able to receive them first, and then 12-15 year olds as well.  We got the Pfizer vaccine that requires you get two doses.  For my first dose, I got an almost instant headache, but then felt fine, but the second dose wiped us all out a little more.  Thomas and I both felt tired and headachy, and Bri felt exhausted too.  Luckily Bri got his on a different day so we weren't all feeling crummy together.  The girls handled their first dose well and the second dose was unfortunately given to them only a day before we left for our month long trip, and they didn't feel so great.  But we're grateful to have the vaccine!

Sani, in the public affairs section at the embassy, put together a wonderful outdoor display of artistic street art found around the United States.  The works were hung from walls around the embassy.  An impressive job as her last project before leaving Beijing.

My ministering sisters from church, Morgann and Jen, wanted to visit me, so I suggested we go on a tour of the art together.  I then decided to invite my friend and neighbor Amy and Jing, my Chinese-American friend from Tai Chi and Rou li qiu.Poor Jen was chasing little Ryan the whole tour!Sani told us a little about the artists and where the street art actually was painted, but she said say much about how we should interpret the paintings because the artists like for people to interpret them however they want.I appreciate how Sani was making the art free and available to everyone.  I love art and artists' perspectives on societal or political issues of our day.  They can be very powerful.  I'm glad I got to enjoy some art and some time in person with my friends!

A few weeks before leaving Latvia, the embassy held a "Hail and Farewell" to say hello to newcomers and goodbye to those of us leaving.  Before the barbecue, they had an award ceremony where Bri earned his second Meritorious award.  He earned one in Angola along with a Superior award, and now he's earned another.  We're proud of him!

Here's the political section Bri enjoyed working with the 2nd year here in Riga:  Jean, Aleana, Gunthers, Ken, Bri, Simone, Nadia, Dan, Mike, and an intern.  Bri enjoyed getting to know all of these capable and fun coworkers.

 Consular section with whom Bri worked with.  James and Jennifer came to the consular section after Bri rotated to the Political section,  The wonderful local ladies that keep the consular section going are Linda G. and Linda.  Bri always knew he could count on these ladies, along with Kristine who wasn't at the party.

 And here's Bri's wonderful, supportive wife.  ;)
More pics of the embassy community that's leaving.We bought the kids some yummy hamburgers while Bri and I saved our appetite for dinner out with Simone in the city.Hard to believe we're leaving our 2nd post!  We are excited for our next adventure in China but we will miss those we came to appreciate and love.