about

Hi, we are Dina and Peter— two Californians who found ourselves working for the U.S. State Department for eight overseas assignments–moving from place to place–a title chosen by our daughter who was nine when we started this. The 2 was her idea.

For our first assignment, we were surprised to find ourselves in West Africa. We went from Niamey, Niger to Moscow, followed by Bucharest, Kyiv, and Muscat, Oman. Recently in London for three years, we are now in Morocco.

I do whatever they tell me to do in a special projects position for the embassy, and Peter runs the medical unit.

This blog began back in the jurassic days, when I only wrote posts on my desktop computer and uploading photos took days of planning. So when Typepad collapsed a year ago, I gathered up years of this story (and hopefully the photos when I get them all linked up) and carried them here.

This is: Transatlantic cruise adventures
That time I got my MFA in Bucharest at age 50
Parent-teacher conferences in languages we don’t speak
Bea and Scout’s canine diplomacy efforts
Peter’s tales from the medical unit
Reasons I cried in London and did not want to ever want to leave
Embracing the unknown, over and over again

If you’re someone who has ever moved overseas, thought about moving overseas, or simply enjoys watching someone else try to navigate the world with a paintbrush in one hand and a dog leash in the other while mispronouncing metro stops—you’re in the right place.

Wherever you currently find yourself, thanks for reading.

I’m always at dlbernardin@gmail.com