A visit to the US Embassy

On Tuesday the 9th 2013, a group of 20 Political Science students accompanied by their English teacher went to a visit to the US Embassy. I was one of them.

In order to enter to the Embassy, you must pass the security check and leave all your personal things outside the Embassy. All 20 of us plus the teacher, were able to do that and after a little walk from the security check to the Embassy entrance – we entered the Embassy. We were welcomed by our Croatian hosts who work at the Embassy. At the entrance of the Embassy there are three pictures on the left wall that anyone who enters will notice; that of President Barack Obama, Vice-president Joe Biden and State Secretary John Kerry and on the other wall is a list of all American ambassadors’ throughout Croatia’s history.

We were then lead to the big room where the US Embassy greets and meets all of their guests. While waiting for Deputy Chief of Mission Hoyt Brian Yee, who was here because Ambassador Merten was at a Brown forum in Zadar, we drank some juices and talked some more with our Croatian hosts. Then Deputy Chief came. The “meeting” started with a little chitchat about our knowledge of English, how long have we been studying it, has anyone ever been to the USA and thing like that and then the conversation became a bit more serious one discussing topics like Deputy Chief’s own historical background and then finally we were talking about political topics like gun control and conspiracy theories. After our interesting discussion and a serious of questions Deputy Chief left after we took a group picture.

Our second speaker, so to say, was Robert D. Woods, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. NavyActing Defense Attaché and American Legation United States Naval Attaché. He used his 15 minutes that he had with us to tell us a little bit about his experiences in Afghanistan and Homeland security, but pointing out several key characteristics that should guide us all in our daily life like courage and confidence. And that we will all fail sometimes in our lives, but success is built upon and based upon failure and it all about getting up every time we fall.

The last speaker at this stage of the Embassy tour was David Allen, Political section Chief with whom we could really identify because the job he is doing, is what some of us would like to do once we have finished our University. He said that the most important skill that we all must master is writing and that it will serve us tremendously some day in the future. We also compared American Political Science to Croatian and found out that in Croatia you have strictly separated Universities’ of Political Science and Law, but in the USA, you start with Political Science and then you become a lawyer.

After Mr. Allen ended his presentation, we went to the Visa sector. In Visa sector, we were shown how Visas' are actually made and we had a little discussion whether or not a person born in the US Embassy can later on become the US President and how come that you must answer questions that might seem a big silly at first, in order to get your Visa. For example, the question – are you a terrorist might seem stupid to most people, but once you know that it is there for

legal reasons, so that if it turns out that you were a terrorist and said that you weren’t, you can be accused of lying.

All in all, our group spent more than 3 hours in the US Embassy. It was both entertaining and very educational, more that I personally expected. Keep up with good work.

Aleksandar Jelovac

University of Political Science

Zagreb, April 2013