For Arabic speakers, I've already given away the punchline to my Flag Day post in the title. For those of you who just decided to use google translate, it probably says something about Grandma Isn't...
So hold your horses (or just scroll to the bottom of this post) to find out where Matt and the Diplomat are headed next...
Flag Day! My bestie Pamela and her boyfriend came to visit us for a long Friday the 13th/Flag Day/Valentine's Day/President's Day/Snow Day weekend. After a fun field trip Friday morning, I grabbed my stack of 300ish Flag Bingo cards (yes future FSOs reading this, you do have to make them yourselves!) and had Pamela distribute them to everyone who entered the room.
The 180th A-100 class sat at the front of the room, like a graduation, and one-by-one were called up for their posting. I held my breath and crossed off flags as each post and officer were paired up. Finally, a very large green flag with Arabic writing and a sword popped up and my name was called.
Arabic Training! Good Internet? Arabic Training! Matt can work? Consular Tour! I can't drive? What about Ellie?
This is a pretty representational list of things that crowded my mind as I moved up to shake our class mentor's hand and accept my packet of information about additional training and when my expected departure date is to be.
I was, honestly, in a bit of shock. I had bid this post high but Matt had been expressing reservations about certain high bids after the list had been submitted. Would he be able to work there? Will he be okay if not? Then I rounded the corner and saw his beaming smile and knew it'd be okay.
We're going to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The name literally means grandma, and the city slogan is "جدة غير" or Jeddah is Different! There are a few things I'm already sure about: I can't drive while there (or import a yellow car), I should be able to bring in Ellie but there's a lot of finagling to do with temperature restrictions and we may try to fit her in the cabin. Stay tuned for that update. Hopefully we can get solid internet in our compound so Matt can continue telecommuting. Oh, and it's illegal to import or sell alcohol, pork, and pork byproducts. And I'm going to need to invest in some lightweight abayas (like a long black wizard robe or graduation robe!) but not an entire new wardrobe... probably...
So after Flag Day, we went to a happy hour with our classmates and tried to figure out who was going where. Some people had been kidnapped by their future coworkers (Juarez is pretty tight knit!) and taken out for drinks already before joining us for the official 180 happy hour. Others left a bit early because family or friends were in town and they wanted to celebrate over dinner.
Valentine's Day was fairly low-key; I spent most of it on the couch doing hard-core research about Saudi Arabia (hereafter KSA) and reading the post reviews with a stronger focus on what living there is like, specifically. I also plumbed the depths of the Consulate's intranet site to find out more about housing and things like that. I am, in fact, a huge research nerd.
Sunday was also low key, then on Monday I had brunch with Pamela before she flew back home to Texas (ugh, Snow! She ended up doing some crazy routing to leave before the airport closed, but she made it home okay) then because I'm living in an apartment building with at least 15 of my classmates, we did a slow apartment crawl, where each person made some dish or drink for us to partake in. We started out with breakfast tacos and coffee, then had pancakes, polish sausage, Chai, mango & pineapple salsa, Nigerian food, and wrapped up at our apartment where a giant plate of bacon and mimosas were on offer. Hey, if I can't get it in to KSA, I'm going to maximize every op-pork-tunity before I leave.
That pun was specifically for Julia. She knows why.
Then, a few people hung around and we watched Ambassadors while keeping an eye on the snowfall and the OPM website. Success! A snow day was called for Tuesday, so I... I guess I slept in or did more research on KSA. Something like that. It's been awhile and let's just call this sentence my official apology for not updating you sooner. Good?
So the final week of A-100 was a weird blur of excitement over our assignments and a final blast of information about how to get to post and what onward training looks like and happy/sad recollections of Offsite-Shenanigans gone by.
Did I talk about the offsite? I suppose I didn't. We spent two days before Flag Day at ski resort in a more-northern state (and did not go skiing thankfully!) where we did a lot of team building exercises and then ran a really really cool simulation of an embassy. I got to do my job! It was great. There was also an uproariously funny Follies put on by members of the A-100 and Specialist classes that has been quoted extensively and sung about ever since.
You can't always get what you want.
You can't always get what you want.
You can't always get what you want,
but if you try sometimes, you just might find
You get what the service needs! Aw yeah!
Anyway, that's about all I can say re: the Offsite, except that I had a great time and my brand new snowboots arrived just in time to save me from hypothermia. And then I proceeded to wear them daily for the next month.
At the end of A-100, we had a swearing in ceremony at Main State that my in-laws traveled to DC for. It was pretty cool, and then I got to show them around Main State and take them to the gift shop (hello pretty State Department mug collection! I have one now.) then we joined up with everyone else at yet another Happy Hour.
On Saturday, it snowed all day but that didn't dissuade us from a delicious brunch and seeing the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History. Also, we found out that Friday had literally been the coldest day on record in Washington DC since the 1890s. Seriously.
Okay, here's where I'm stopping by recollection of the end of A-100. Since then, I've been in Arabic training, and we had an additional snow day and some more happy hours. My friends and I have been winning Trivia Nights all over Arlington and throwing some pretty fun themed parties in the clubhouse at my apartment building. Overall things are going well, and I'm looking forward to spending more time in DC until September.
- Travel Size Mely
Oh, did you just scroll all the way down to see where I'm going next? Too bad, you'll actually have to read the whole thing, and no, there aren't any pictures to give it away. Nice try!
So hold your horses (or just scroll to the bottom of this post) to find out where Matt and the Diplomat are headed next...
Flag Day! My bestie Pamela and her boyfriend came to visit us for a long Friday the 13th/Flag Day/Valentine's Day/President's Day/Snow Day weekend. After a fun field trip Friday morning, I grabbed my stack of 300ish Flag Bingo cards (yes future FSOs reading this, you do have to make them yourselves!) and had Pamela distribute them to everyone who entered the room.
The 180th A-100 class sat at the front of the room, like a graduation, and one-by-one were called up for their posting. I held my breath and crossed off flags as each post and officer were paired up. Finally, a very large green flag with Arabic writing and a sword popped up and my name was called.
Arabic Training! Good Internet? Arabic Training! Matt can work? Consular Tour! I can't drive? What about Ellie?
This is a pretty representational list of things that crowded my mind as I moved up to shake our class mentor's hand and accept my packet of information about additional training and when my expected departure date is to be.
I was, honestly, in a bit of shock. I had bid this post high but Matt had been expressing reservations about certain high bids after the list had been submitted. Would he be able to work there? Will he be okay if not? Then I rounded the corner and saw his beaming smile and knew it'd be okay.
We're going to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The name literally means grandma, and the city slogan is "جدة غير" or Jeddah is Different! There are a few things I'm already sure about: I can't drive while there (or import a yellow car), I should be able to bring in Ellie but there's a lot of finagling to do with temperature restrictions and we may try to fit her in the cabin. Stay tuned for that update. Hopefully we can get solid internet in our compound so Matt can continue telecommuting. Oh, and it's illegal to import or sell alcohol, pork, and pork byproducts. And I'm going to need to invest in some lightweight abayas (like a long black wizard robe or graduation robe!) but not an entire new wardrobe... probably...
So after Flag Day, we went to a happy hour with our classmates and tried to figure out who was going where. Some people had been kidnapped by their future coworkers (Juarez is pretty tight knit!) and taken out for drinks already before joining us for the official 180 happy hour. Others left a bit early because family or friends were in town and they wanted to celebrate over dinner.
Valentine's Day was fairly low-key; I spent most of it on the couch doing hard-core research about Saudi Arabia (hereafter KSA) and reading the post reviews with a stronger focus on what living there is like, specifically. I also plumbed the depths of the Consulate's intranet site to find out more about housing and things like that. I am, in fact, a huge research nerd.
Sunday was also low key, then on Monday I had brunch with Pamela before she flew back home to Texas (ugh, Snow! She ended up doing some crazy routing to leave before the airport closed, but she made it home okay) then because I'm living in an apartment building with at least 15 of my classmates, we did a slow apartment crawl, where each person made some dish or drink for us to partake in. We started out with breakfast tacos and coffee, then had pancakes, polish sausage, Chai, mango & pineapple salsa, Nigerian food, and wrapped up at our apartment where a giant plate of bacon and mimosas were on offer. Hey, if I can't get it in to KSA, I'm going to maximize every op-pork-tunity before I leave.
That pun was specifically for Julia. She knows why.
Then, a few people hung around and we watched Ambassadors while keeping an eye on the snowfall and the OPM website. Success! A snow day was called for Tuesday, so I... I guess I slept in or did more research on KSA. Something like that. It's been awhile and let's just call this sentence my official apology for not updating you sooner. Good?
So the final week of A-100 was a weird blur of excitement over our assignments and a final blast of information about how to get to post and what onward training looks like and happy/sad recollections of Offsite-Shenanigans gone by.
Did I talk about the offsite? I suppose I didn't. We spent two days before Flag Day at ski resort in a more-northern state (and did not go skiing thankfully!) where we did a lot of team building exercises and then ran a really really cool simulation of an embassy. I got to do my job! It was great. There was also an uproariously funny Follies put on by members of the A-100 and Specialist classes that has been quoted extensively and sung about ever since.
You can't always get what you want.
You can't always get what you want.
You can't always get what you want,
but if you try sometimes, you just might find
You get what the service needs! Aw yeah!
Anyway, that's about all I can say re: the Offsite, except that I had a great time and my brand new snowboots arrived just in time to save me from hypothermia. And then I proceeded to wear them daily for the next month.
At the end of A-100, we had a swearing in ceremony at Main State that my in-laws traveled to DC for. It was pretty cool, and then I got to show them around Main State and take them to the gift shop (hello pretty State Department mug collection! I have one now.) then we joined up with everyone else at yet another Happy Hour.
On Saturday, it snowed all day but that didn't dissuade us from a delicious brunch and seeing the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History. Also, we found out that Friday had literally been the coldest day on record in Washington DC since the 1890s. Seriously.
Okay, here's where I'm stopping by recollection of the end of A-100. Since then, I've been in Arabic training, and we had an additional snow day and some more happy hours. My friends and I have been winning Trivia Nights all over Arlington and throwing some pretty fun themed parties in the clubhouse at my apartment building. Overall things are going well, and I'm looking forward to spending more time in DC until September.
- Travel Size Mely
Oh, did you just scroll all the way down to see where I'm going next? Too bad, you'll actually have to read the whole thing, and no, there aren't any pictures to give it away. Nice try!
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