It’s the end of another (long) year, and time to take a little vacation. To that end, our blog and social media will be on holiday break for the rest of the year, and we will begin posting again in January 2020. Our staff will also be taking some holiday too—our office will close early at 2:30pm on December 24, and the office will be closed on December 25, 26, and 27, reopening Monday, December 30. We will also be closed on January 1. Whether you’re able to sneak away for a few days to a warm and sunny beach or will cozy up in a nook inside to escape those cold temperatures outside, we wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!
Happy Holidays!
5 Things to Remember Before You Travel Internationally this Holiday Season
As the holidays approach doesn’t it seem as if things are moving at warp speed? If you are like me, you have several lists going: work projects to finish before the end of the year, gifts to purchase, cards to send, things to pack, and more! As we have in prior years, we thought it would be helpful to give foreign nationals who are traveling internationally one additional list (sorry) to ensure all goes as smoothly as possible and that you can enjoy the holiday season without being overly worried about immigration status and visa stamps. Now that we’ve made this list, make sure you check it twice (as the song says)!
Read moreHappy Holidays from DLG!
For our final post of the year on our blog we thought we’d close out with our view from outside our office windows. That’s right, we get to stare at the Empire State Building and (sometimes) the moon every day! Don’t worry, we’ll be back in January with lots of fresh content. Please note our office will be closed for the holidays on December 24th, 25th, 26th, and 31st. We will also be closed on January 1st, 2019. We wish everyone a wonderful rest of 2018 and a Happy New Year!
Birthdays, Presents, and Parties!
This week was a whirlwind at the firm. We celebrated four December birthdays (happy birthday to Briana, Ashley, Gaby, and Adrianna!), exchanged gifts with our “Secret Holiday Friends,” and held our annual DLG Holiday Party at the Institute of Culinary Education where we made some delicious herb and cheese raviolis, New York strip steak with twice-fried frites and charred broccoli, and a lovely pumpkin tart with a ginger cookie crumb crust and caramel whipped cream. (Okay, we had a few drinks too.) It was a lot of activity but totally worth it. Now we just need a nap. And an eggnog.
Holiday Tree at Washington Square Park
While the holiday tree at Rockefeller Center seems to get all the attention, the tree at Washington Square Park has some serious holiday spirit as well. The forty-five foot Vermont tree stands south of the arch and is lit up beautifully between the hours of 4pm and 1am. The Washington Square Association, founded in 1906, is one of the city’s oldest community organizations, and invites those with sufficient holiday cheer to sing yuletide carols this Christmas Eve at 5pm. For ninety-three years, this association has sponsored carol singing under the arch, and carolers this year will be joined by the Rob Susman Brass Quartet. The association will helpfully distribute a songbook to the singers but, as they point out, "many will know them by heart."
DLG Holiday Party 2017
This year instead of our usual cooking event at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), we held an in-office potluck. We each brought a favorite holiday food or a food celebrating our heritage. Food included kugel with cornflakes from Liz, Scandinavian cardamom bread with candy cane icing (yum!) from Alexis, salpicão (Brazilian chicken salad) and pão de queijo (cheesy bread) from Daniele, sufganiyot (filled doughnuts) and matzo ball soup from Michal, lentils from Matt, Hungarian potato salad and coconut/date cookies from Carolyn, deviled eggs from Olivia, pasta salad from Ashley, miniature Italian pastries from Dana, cookies and cream cake from Briana, cinnamon rolls from Joseph, rosemary potatoes from Alla, brownies from Gaby, and Pio Pio along with the addictive green sauce from Protima. After eating (and drinking), we played several spirited rounds of "Immigration Taboo" (which we created) and then took our own "Immigration, Citizenship, & Geography Quiz." Yes, we do know how to have fun.
Flatiron Sky-Line
Need a nap this holiday season? Next to Madison Square Park is Flatiron Sky-Line, a spatial installation featuring tubular arches with white hammocks. The installation invites the public to immerse themselves "into the constructed tranquility of the Flatiron Plaza—skyline gazing, socializing, contemplating, and experiencing the surroundings." The installation, designed by architecture and design firm LOT, opened to the public in November, and will remain on view through the holidays as part of the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership's “23 Days of Flatiron Cheer” programming. Get comfortable before it's too late!
The Japan Times: "Romance dance routine featuring Santa-clad Ambassador Kennedy an instant online hit"
US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Embassy staff in Japan made a special Christmas video that has since become a social media hit with over five million views. The video consists of the US embassy version of a koi (falling in love) dance routine from a popular Japanese TV drama series “Nigeru wa Hajidaga Yaku ni Tatsu” (roughly translated as “Running Away is Shameful but Useful”).
The video begins with Santa-clad Kennedy performing the choreographed dance, and she is joined by various other diplomats and staff from the US Embassy office in Tokyo as well as the Consulate offices in Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Fukuoka, and Okinawa. US Embassy spokeswoman Marrie Schaefer says the diplomatic mission was “pleasantly surprised” at the response to the video, especially considering the video was originally meant to just be shared internally. “This is the holiday season and we try to do something nice and light, and we try to be merry, like Merry Christmas,” Schaefer tells the Japan Times. “Originally we were just going to do something internal, to say ‘Hey guys!’ in the mission… But after it was finished we said, ‘This is good! We should upload it!’ And everyone said, ‘Great idea!’ and so that’s what we did.” A female staffer at the US Embassy filmed and choreographed the movements. “We practiced, but we didn’t have to practice a whole day,” Shaefer says. “We do have other work to do.”
The dance is inspired by the theme song from the TV drama which features actress Yui Aragaki and actor/singer Gen Hoshino, who also sings the theme song. Hoshino plays an “introvert computer engineer who nurtures love and trust with a woman with whom he gets into a fake marriage.” In a nod to the show, the Embassy video also features one male official wearing eyeglasses and acting like the husband character played by Hoshino.
With this video, the US Embassy joins a growing list of people and institutions across Japan that have joined the “koi dance boom” and filmed and uploaded their own versions. The US Embassy dance video impressed many YouTube users, with some commenting on the “high quality” of the dance and the showmanship. “This would make even (US President-elect Donald) Trump smile,” one user commented.
It wasn’t just the US Embassy in Japan making cute holiday greetings. Inspired no doubt by James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke,” the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway released a creative Christmas video. The video features Ambassador Samuel Heins, who is spending his first Christmas in Norway, singer Tone Damli, and journalist Ole Torp, who drive around Oslo singing Christmas carols and practicing Norwegian in their quest to find “julestemming,” a.k.a. true holiday spirit.
Not to be outdone, the US Embassy in Prague posted a video showing US Embassy employees singing one of the best-loved Czech Christmas carols “Půjdem spolu do Betléma” (“We will go to Bethlehem Together”). The video starts with Cultural Attaché Erin Kotheimer and Ray Castillo, Counselor for Public Affairs, breaking into the song. As they walk around the US ambassador’s residence, other employees join them. Finally, Ambassador Andrew Schapiro shows up to wish Czechs a Merry Christmas on behalf of the staff.
We hope to see more creative videos from Embassy staff worldwide in the future (and, who knows, perhaps one from Daryanani Law Group). Happy Holidays!
