Happy Birthday, Marines!

The 10th of November is the birthday of the Marine Corps (the 235th birthday this year to be exact) and a great excuse to throw an awesome party. This year we attended the ball here in Brussels, and even though there are fewer than 30 Marines in town, the political clout of the city made it a big deal. Did you know that there are not one, not two, but three US Ambassadors living in Brussels? One for the Kingdom of Belgium (sounds funny, doesn't it, but no kidding, Belgium is a kingdom), one for NATO and one for the EU. Jen and I were lucky enough to sit next to Ambassador Kennard and his wife, Deborah, during dinner. Amazing. I had no idea how ambassadors were chosen, but I had always thought that they were career politicians. How wrong I was. Ambassador Kennard attended Stanford for undergrad, then got his law degree at Yale. He worked as general counsel to the FCC from 1993-1997, then became, get this, the chairman of the FCC from 1997-2001 under Clinton. I asked him what he was most proud of accomplishing during his tenure, and he told me about the lengths he went to to ensure the access to communications, even things as basic as telephone access, to people with disabilities and places without connections, like indian reservations. He told a story of a man he met at the Gila Bend Indian Reservation in Arizona who was awaiting an organ transplant, but didn't even have a phone. There was one phone down the street at the store, and the locals would post children at the store to act as runners who would then bolt off to the appropriate house when someone called. Can you imagine that? It was fascinating to talk to the Ambassador and his wife and hear where they had come from and what they had accomplished. I'm such a nerd that I asked if we could get a picture with him and his wife. Oh, due to the Marine Corps Ball I got my first haircut in two and a half months. It felt amazing.