Edith Delaney is assigned to the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where she works on digital-economy issues in the Indo-Pacific.

Delaney’s first impression of the United States was formed as a child during a family trip to Colorado. Near Denver, young Edith saw a remarkable owl. While she had seen owls in Ireland on occasion, she believed then that the Denver owl portended good luck. Today, she thinks back on it as a sure sign she would return to America again and again … and she has.

FAVORITE THING: Delaney loves living in Washington, where she never tires of seeing the city’s world-famous monuments and once ran into U.S. first lady Jill Biden at an exercise class.

DIPLOMACY LESSON: Delaney has been shocked that some American peers have never seen the ocean. She herself grew up on an island, and at first, she thought the Americans were joking. “It was inconceivable to me that someone wouldn't have seen the sea, but of course that was just how naive I was,” she says. An American friend asked her to describe the ocean, which she found “a difficult thing to do.” The conversation drove home the fact that people who hold similar values may have lived differently, a lesson she carries with her today as a diplomat.

Sébastien Fagart is a French diplomat who speaks Arabic and has worked on Middle-Eastern and North African issues. In his position with the State Department’s Global Public Affairs Bureau, he has enjoyed collaborating on digital content and contributing to the establishment of a G7 communicators group.

FAVORITE THING: A boat ride in the New York Harbor, during which he and his family enjoyed a sunset view of the Statue of Liberty, an 1884 gift from the government of France to the United States that epitomizes the two peoples’ shared appreciation of freedom.

MEMORABLE IMPRESSION: After moving to the Washington area, Fagart faced the onerous task of setting up phone and internet services. He called a company to ask for help and mentioned he was new to the country. The service rep immediately asked Fagart, "Did you have a safe trip?" The concern confused Fagart (at least until he came into contact with other friendly Americans). “I’m amazed by the positive character of the Americans, the kindness of people,” he says.

DIPLOMACY LESSON: On sightseeing jaunts, the Fagart family finds French culture in unexpected places, from art museums to National Historic Landmarks. At the Mount Vernon, Virginia, home of U.S. President George Washington, they saw a key to the Bastille that was given to Washington by General Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. The home not only highlights the key but also France’s role in the battle of Yorktown, one of the last major victories in the American Revolution.

What’s more, Fagart says they found “an incredible number of Renoir paintings” in the Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia, artworks that show how much Americans see a reflection of their own modernity in the French Impressionist movement. Americans and their French counterparts “are ... so complementary in some ways,” Fagart says. What can be more diplomatic than that?

Alex Taylor-Fowles, a diplomat from Germany, is working in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he helps to develop strategic communications related to the People’s Republic of China. Despite his multinational upbringing, he wasn’t sure what to expect on his tour as a TDF in the United States. 

FAVORITE THING: Taylor-Fowles was taken by the beauty of Everglades National Park in Florida. He says that “in the beginning of my visit to the park, the first couple of hours, I would photograph every alligator that I saw.”

MEMORABLE IMPRESSION: An American friend whom Taylor-Fowles met while serving as a German diplomat in China invited him to her family’s Thanksgiving celebration near Huntsville, Alabama.

He had an idea of Thanksgiving might be like, but experiencing it with a large family was “such a wonderful experience,” he says.

“The neighbors would come round for one part of dinner, and then we’d go to another neighbor’s house for another part," Taylor-Fowles said. He marveled at the number of casseroles prepared, from green beans to sweet potato dishes. Thanksgiving turkey — the center of the traditional meal — stands in favorable comparison to Christmas dinners in the United Kingdom, he admits. And each family has its own special recipe for pumpkin pie served as dessert.

(Full disclosure: Taylor-Fowles overate, which led him to chew on antacid tablets the following day. “But I was told that that is a completely normal reaction to an American Thanksgiving,” he says in his defense.)

DIPLOMACY LESSON: Taylor-Fowles had preconceptions about the U.S. — its cities, food, and daily life — that he created by watching movies and television shows. What he found is that the U.S. is diverse, made up of people representing so many different cultures. His new understanding will inform his future diplomatic work.

Matúš Huťka, a diplomat from Slovakia with deep experience in European affairs, works in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs on U.S.-EU relations. He has helped officials to prepare for high-level transatlantic visits and to organize strategic dialogues on key issues.

FAVORITE THING: For Huťka, who grew up in central Slovakia surrounded by green mountains, the red rock deserts of Utah have inspired awe. Utah’s scenery would be hard to find anywhere else in the world, he says. He and his family loved visiting Arches National Park. The United States — as the fourth largest country in the world — is massive compared to Slovakia. “From my hometown in Slovakia, you can go anywhere in the country in three hours by car,” Huťka explains, whereas it would take three days to drive from one U.S. coast to the other.

MEMORABLE IMPRESSION: While vacationing recently in Moab, Utah, the Hu’tka family stopped at a restaurant for cheeseburgers and milkshakes. They felt very far from home, but another diner, an American, approached and, pointing to the Slovakia lettering across Huťka’s T-shirt, said, "I just returned from Bratislava … I love it there." “Never underestimate an American’s or anybody’s knowledge of Central Europe,” Huťka says, though he admits to having been amazed at the time.

DIPLOMACY LESSON: There are similarities between Americans and Slovakians. “The people I’ve met have been really kind to me and really interested in where I come from and when I tell them that I’m from Central Europe, they all need to know more,” he says. “It’s only a positive experience. The people in Slovakia, also, are very kind and hardworking, so I see this link.”

After Lithuanian Rūta Beinoriūtė finished an internship in the U.S. five years ago, she returned home and reminisced. She knew she wanted to return to the United States someday. Now, she works in the State Department’s Office of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts (which oversees relationships with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia). The work keeps Beinoriūtė thinking about international affairs every day.

FAVORITE THING: America’s art museums! Beinoriūtė often takes friends to the National Portrait Gallery, with its images from the 18th century to today, and the National Gallery of Art. She is amazed by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. “I came from Lithuania, a small country," she says. "And you have a museum dedicated to women artists. How great this is,” she says, “what a beautiful message it sends.”

MEMORABLE IMPRESSION: A road trip (a few, really) with friends to wineries in Virginia. “Once I hit the road and see the greenery of Virginia, I just annoy my friends and sing ‘Country Roads Take Me Home,’” she says. “I'm just amazed how beautiful Virginia is.” (Full disclosure: The song is about West Virginia, but close enough.)

DIPLOMACY LESSON: Beinoriūtė says the best part of her diplomatic work for Lithuania has been telling stories and teaching about culture. In Washington, she has seen stories in the paintings and photos at the National Portrait Gallery. A portrait, she says, is an exciting piece of art, and especially “when it has a story built in … it is really, really interesting to see.”