DiploNerds

Finally together in Addis Ababa

2012-02-13T05:30:00.000-05:00

Well it has been kinda quiet around these parts. Mostly because I have been getting ready for pack out, and honestly because I haven't had the drive to write.

To update fully on where I am. I arrived into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia late Friday, February 10th. though I was probably traveling for around 20 hours including a 2 hour layover in Frankfurt (can't stand that airport, have to walk 5 miles from terminal C to B), it seemed like I was traveling for 3 days! It was pretty uneventful, little sleep, airplane food, movies, and luckily babies on the flights were well behaved.

Upon arrival I got in that line for my visa as I was instructed to do. About 10 minutes went by before one of the local Embassy staff came through looking for me, I waved her over. She got me through without a visa, as I would get my diplomatic visa at the Embassy soon. So they stamped my passport and off we went. We collected my bags and right outside costumes which we breezed through was Dan waiting for me.

We pushed the luggage cart with my two monster of a suitcases (50 and 70 lbs respectively) to our SUV. Conveniently I found out our house is less than a mile from the airport. While some may be bothered by the airplane noise. They seem to only go over head in the early mornings and evening time, and it doesn't really bother me much as it tends to block out the other street noise.

I think so far my biggest culture shock in the weekend I have been here is all the different noises I hear. I am constantly saying "what is that Dan" or "what direction is that coming from"? The biggest difference is that the church's here call out for prayer in the morning like mosques do. I believe we are in ear shot of two local church's.

So far this weekend was restful as I settled into the house. I am still settling in as I don't have my hangers yet for my clothes, so I am slowly unpacking. We have wall length built-in armor closets which have tons of storage. Funny enough, Dan has already managed to take up a good portion of these, so I will be doing some shuffling around. I have also so greatly enjoyed being back with our three kitties. They were a little upset with me for the first two house, especially my baby Neko but soon afterwards they just wanted to cuddle and play, hasn't stopped since.

Dan also showed me the town some. We ate twice at the Sheraton, once for a lunch buffet and then Sunday night for a delicious Italian dinner. Unfortunately I think I am still getting used to things here as I have gotten sick once from our filtered water system (bottled water for me) and then the Italian food was a little too rich for my stomach so I only at a little and brought the rest home (yay leftovers). Otherwise I have thoroughly enjoyed all the delicious artisan bread they make here, probably some the best I have ever eaten. I am so happy we picked some up French bread, farmer artisan bread and some rolls for sandwiches. Also bought some beef tenderloin, noodles, some sodas, bottle water, and other tid-bits. One huge benefit for us living here is the hugely lower cost of living, it is always a huge surprise and always brings me happiness when we hand over a hundred bier and realize it is only $5!

Ok, so I have truly written a lot for this post and still have so much more to share. I will give more fun details in the next post.

Merry Christmas and Medical Clearances

2011-12-26T02:55:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and warm Holiday wishes to all!

Dan and I spent our first married Christmas apart this year, as he is in Addis Ababa, and I am still working my way through the system to join him. We had originally hopped I would be in Ethiopia by Christmas, but arranging to get me his orders and schedule my medical clearance took longer than hopped.

I went up for my medical clearance on Dec. 12. It seems they try to make you spread everything out. Not sure why they would do this as it only prolongs the process. However, I let them know throughout my process with MED that I was here on limited time from Florida and needed it to get down. That seemed to help. 9am on the 13th I had my first set up testing. Now I am not one who likes needles, in fact my mother would reward me with ice cream after I got shots for school when I was younger. I don't pass out or anything like the such, I just hate looking at them, hate feeling them, hate the mental anxiety that swells up in my body when I have to get them. So as you can imagine when they tell me that not only am I getting my blood drawn today but also a TB test, how over joyed I was. I went through it all, the TB exam, the blood drawn, the urine test, and then over to the Washington Radiology Center for my Chest X-ray.

I am very happy and lucky I got a great deal on a hotel that was only a couple block from MED and the Radiology Center.

Next day, my appointment was a little later at 10am. It was very chilly so I decided to take a cab. When I was walking away from the cab I looked back, I had a feeling that something was missing. I was right my phone. I hopped and prayed while I was MED I just left it at my hotel. So I went back in, and they were setting up for their Christmas party. I met with the doctor, we discussed my previous days tests, and once again reiterated how fast I need my clearance. I was determined to leave DC Friday morning with it. The doctor checked my entire body for any unusual moles etc, then did a pelvic and breast exam. Oh the joys of being a woman. I thought everything was going great till she requested I get a pelvic sonogram, due to she felt that my left pelvic area was more pronounced than the right and wanted to make sure I didn't have cyst. Now I have to schedule a sonogram before my trip is over.

As for my phone it was in that cab. Thank goodness for Find with icloud for the iPhone. I not only was able to watch a live feed of where my phone was I could send it text messages and alarm noises. I prayed that a kind customer would find it. My hope jumped when I saw the cabby pull into and out of Oakwood apartments in Fairfax! I thought oh pleas oh please let an FSO or family find my phone. I started calling it none stop and the driver answered finally. He brought my phone back to me safe and sound! I am soooo lucky.

I luckily got in again with the Washington Radiology center the next morning. This was my first sonogram and honestly it wasn't too bad. You know, other than having three people in the room (a doctor and two med students) checking out everything on the mounted tv monitor. By that point so many medical professionals had seen me naked in some form that week, what the heck add two more. I even got the doctor to agree to fax the results with an hour rather than waiting 24 hours as they normally do.

So I waited that hour, doing some Christmas shopping in DC and then headed back to MED. They checked out my TB results and then of course said no way did that radiology center have my results to them that fast. They checked the fax, they were of course there. I then reasoned with them to give me medical clearance so I could get my yellow fever shot. After about 20 minutes, they granted to me. I then proceeded to get my yellow fever shot. The woman in travel MED must have fun with all those needles, she had the pleasure of asking me if I wanted to get 5 shots at once! After she saw the horror on my face, she reconsidered. I explained I was traveling early the next morning and didn't want any major side affects from all of them. Since I knew I only needed my yellow fever shot to get to Addis Ababa and can get the rest once at post, I opted for that one only and to take home typhoid pills.

I walked back to my hotel so happy I had not only got my medical clearance in 3 days, I achieved in getting the one shot I needed as well. I was ridding this high, which turned into a small fever and upset stomach from the shot later that evening. I was down at the bar waiting on a specially made grilled cheese to help my stomach when I placed my phone on the table in front of me. Next thing I know it is slipping off the table and smashes face down on the tile floor. I knew before I picked it up what waited me. I was right. Smashed. Still functioning but smashed. My phone was determined to spite me that week. Of course with, hopping, less than a month in the states till I leave for post, and I can't use an Iphone there, what am I to do?

Now we are waiting upon my approval for finance for pack out and my flight to Addis Ababa, once I have that I will know definitely when I am leaving. I will submit my application for the diplomatic passport with orders attached and start organizing the mess of everything squeezed into my parents spare rooms.

I am very excited for the near future, truly becoming an EFM at post and of course my husband.

Warmest Holiday wishes,

The diplonerds

DiploNerds Wed!

2011-11-27T22:36:00.001-05:00

I know we have been away for awhile but we have a good reason! Besides Dan being very busy with his duties in Ethiopia, we are proud to announce the DiploNerds are married! Dan and I wed on November 12 in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. We were so happy Dan could get two weeks off for the wedding and we are now working on getting me added to his orders. I hope to be joining him in Ethiopia by Christmas. So if anyone can help speed up the process or has any tips on getting a new spouse out to post we would love to know! Here are some pictures from the big day of us!

- Mr. and Mrs. DiploNerd

A total goat roast

2011-08-14T11:04:00.002-04:00

Last night, some of the newer arrivals from the Embassy as well as a bunch of NGO workers got together, and we roasted a small goat. It was pretty awesome -- one of the NGO guys had picked it up on his way back from Afar region, and when he got back to Addis he strung it up and butchered it. The resulting chops were small enough that they could fit into a single bowl.

We got a couple of rather meaty chickens (at least by Ethiopian standards) and some veggies and set to work. My colleague hosting the party built a bonfire in his driveway, and placed some sort of giant steel plate over it -- the thing is like an enormous wok, probably 3 feet in diameter. Toss in some beer, spices, and a healthy amount of olive oil, and you've got a party.

Now, my asparagus is well known back in the states as being the best you can possibly eat -- now we're international. I cooked up the asparagus as well as some sweet red onions that someone managed to find. It was amazing; better vegetables than I've ever had at the Sheraton. The goat turned out pretty good as well; a little tough to get off the bone, so you had to rip it with your teeth like a feral dog. Nothing a few toothpicks later on can't fix.

Anyway, this swiss guy dressed like a club kid shows up. Now, he didn't work at the Embassy, nor did he work for the NGO all these people were with. In fact, I can't really figure out who he knew or how he got there. But by the end of the night he was drunk and serenading us with his violin. He was actually pretty good (though a little out of tune at times). He spoke better Italian than he did english, and surprisingly after 10 years since the last time I took Italian, I actually understood most of what he was saying.

It was a great way to end a very stressful week, and despite some rain earlier in the day, we caught a break just long enough for me to get home nice and dry (and the second I closed my front door, it started pouring again.) All in all, a great weekend.

And here I am.

2011-08-12T13:37:00.003-04:00

I realized the other day that if I don't get even a short post out, updating people on what I'm doing here, friends and family will butcher me when I return to the states. Plus, I've been feeling guilty about not updating quite so often as I wanted to.

So here I am, in Addis. It's pretty great here -- the weather is 50-60 most days, and while it is the middle of the rainy season, that's tolerable and my house has only flooded once. The DiploCats have arrived, and are busy tearing the crap out of the house, though they hate the local cat food. Supposedly I'll get my HHE sometime this month. We'll see about that.

About once or twice a week, I get over to the Sheraton hotel, which is a true five-star. The restaurants there are spectacular, although since I started a low-carb diet I mainly tend to go to Summerfields, their buffet. All you can eat beef tenderloin and lamb chops what up!? The meat is Kenyan, which is good because that means it actually is quality; Ethiopian meat tends to be tough and stringy. It's also the place to go do business; you can't go two feet without running into an Ambassador, or a Somali parliamentarian, or some corporate CEO. The nice thing is that they have a fair selection of cuban cigars; and while overpriced, they're well kept.

I've been basically dead this whole week -- 16+ hour days except today, due to having two separate groups of congressional staff visitors in town and somehow I got stuck with all of them. Which wasn't as bad as it could be, it was actually rather fun, but I like to go home at a reasonable hour (8:30 or 9pm is NOT the norm.) I'm looking forward to some much deserved sleep this weekend; although a colleague in Consular tells me they may be roasting a goat at his place and I don't think I can pass that up.

And it begins...

2011-06-27T14:17:00.002-04:00

Well Dan is now flying to Addis Ababa. It seems like there is someone leaving from his 160th class every day. Pack out took 12 hours last Thursday, yes that is right 12 hours! Even the cats where tired after (evident of picture below). I don't even know how they do a full house. I thought it would take only half a day but guess we know for the future.
Yesterday I took Dan to the airport for his flight to Addis. Before the airport we completed last minute errands for a cell phone charger, international adapter and to return a few unneeded items that were purchased for the cats travel.

We also stopped at 5 guys for a last supper of sorts. while driving around the block in Old Town three times looking for place to park, one opened up right in front of the restaurant, yes! Except...I don't know how to parallel park. That probably seems weird to most people but in the state of Florida (where we are from) there is almost no parallel parking so it isn't required to learn on the driver’s test. Luckily Dan was better at it than me and so we traded and he parked my car. The burgers were great as always.

We got to the airport 3 1/2 hours early, which turned out great because Dan had to wait behind a family with 10,000 pieces of luggage to get checked in and then found out he could only take one carry-on. Luckily they checked the third for free since it was small. From Dulles airport he flew to Frankfurt and had a 5 hour layover. Currently I am guessing he is flying somewhere over the Mediterranean on his way to Addis. He arrives fairly late at night (7 hour time difference) and then starts work immediately on Tuesday. No time to recover from Jet lag. Guess that is what this weekend is for.

What hit me really hard is when Dan handed over his keys to the apartment.
As most of you know I will be joining him in November after we get married. I have the fun task of cleaning up, but at least I have the cats for company. I am happy to still have them. They are contracted to fly out on the 6th of July to Addis. They actually worry me more than anything because they are flying alone. They will have to stop in Frankfurt for a night in the animal lounge and they don't understand German, haha. I think by the time they get to Dan they will be pretty mad but hopefully they will get over it soon after they see the new house.

For myself, I am currently in my last week with my job and will be enjoying the 4th of July weekend with my parents here in DC before moving home. This way I will be in town to do wedding planning, spend time with family and friends before moving in November and of course save money. Hopefully I will find a new job soon. If you know of anything in Orlando I am all ears!

Preparing for Post

2011-05-30T01:32:00.004-04:00

One of the weird things about going to post is that everything happens in crazy little bursts of activity, followed by periods where I'm making no progress and feel guilty about it. Example: After Flag Day, I was ready to start knocking out all those things I'd have to do in order to leave for post -- book my travel, get my diplomatic passport (for the first time) and tourist passport (renewal)....but I couldn't do any of these things until a cable came saying I'd been officially assigned to the post. Now, in the paper we get after A-100 conveniently titled "Next steps after A-100", they have a timeline for when these things should be done. That cable, for instance, should be in your hands several months before you go to post. Needless to say, that was not a possibility for me, so the cable's proposed timeline was utterly useless to me.

Most recently, I had been waiting on post to tell me when I'd be arriving, but that's now out of the way. Since then I've gotten my passports renewed, got several rounds of shots and immunizations, met with my desk officer, signed up for distance learning courses, submitted my itinerary, scheduled my pack-out and about a million other things. It feels great to be making some sort of progress towards getting to post. On the one hand, it can be incredibly stressful when you know that in a couple weeks you need to be in Ethiopia, and nothing seems to be happening. On the other hand, State is pretty good about ensuring that you will actually get your visas and passports and what-not, even if that means a one-day turnaround. (I'm sure someone with more experience can offer examples of where they've failed, but this is the general impression that I've gotten so far).

The worst part of this process though is that my beloved Mercedes can't come with me. I've had this car since 2006 and it has been an utter joy to drive. Unfortunately, a rear wheel drive sedan simply won't work in Ethiopia, and parts are hard to find. So, I had to trade it in and buy an SUV. I'm now the proud owner of a 2004 Range Rover HSE, and it is awesome. It handles like a car, it's very agile, and corners surprisingly smoothly. The interior is quite nice and it has plenty of room to store just about anything I can throw at it. Unfortunately, I had to go out of town the next day, so I've literally only drove it home from the dealership and that's it. But I'll have some pictures later. Land Rover and Toyota parts are quite common in Ethiopia in particular, and Africa in general, so it shouldn't be too hard to maintain. 2004 is also one of the last years that the Range Rover used the 4.4L V8 BMW-made engine. Rover group was sold to Ford in 2000, but they didn't switch engine production over to Jaguar (also Ford) until 2006, so the 2000-2005 Range Rovers still have the BMW engines, which are apparently more reliable. I was expecting it to be sluggish compared to my Mercedes, which had a 3.2L 221hp turbocharged V6 engine and is quite zippy, but the V8 on the Range Rover pushes around 290 hp and has quite a bit of kick even at higher speeds on the Beltway. So I'm pretty excited about it.

Finally, I get to suffer the indignity of likely having a black eye in my driver's license photo when I renew it this week. Why will I have a black eye? Because I walked into a sliding glass door tonight at full speed, almost knocking it off its hinges -- if it wasn't tempered glass, it would have certainly shattered. I'm amazed that I didn't break my nose, but almost instantly a huge knot swelled up just over my eyebrow, and I can feel my right eye swelling as well. I've been icing it, and it's been fairly pain free, but knowing my luck I'll have a huge shiner. Great. Oh well, it's better than my current photo, which was taken when I was 15. Now I know how birds feel when they crash into windows at speed.

Pass in Review: Gene Sullivan

2011-05-21T15:52:00.004-04:00

Earlier this month, Deputy Secretary Steinberg unveiled a new addition to the AFSA memorial plaques in honor of those FSOs who paid the ultimate price for their service. The new addition was Eugene Sullivan, Jr., a USAID foreign service officer who died in 1973 of black water fever complications (basically malaria), in Addis Ababa. I encourage you all to take a few minutes to read through the transcript of the ceremony and learn a bit more about the life of this remarkable public servant. After 40 years, this recognition is long overdue.

"From all that I’ve learned in hearing this remarkable story, Gene Sullivan’s life was shaped by a powerful sense of mission. During tours of duty of Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, and Addis, Gene lived his dream of helping the poor and the powerless. That commitment extended to his private life as well. Gene gave generously to many charities and orphanages.

Gene’s friends and family describe him as a man full of intellectual curiosity with a love of travel, new cuisines, and new languages, especially languages. He spoke 13 of them, including two Chinese dialects.

They also talk about what a loving husband and father he was, and we’re honored that so many of his members of his family are here with us today. And I want to pay tribute to you for being here. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

We often talk about the need for a more expeditionary State Department and USAID to venture beyond capital cities and the diplomats and the embassies to reach people in need, and build new partnerships. And that’s exactly what Gene was doing in his career. Ethiopia’s capital, Addis, is at a high elevation and generally free of mosquito-borne illnesses like black water fever. But one – as one friend described it, Gene was a hands-on, out in the field, Indiana Jones kind of guy."

Snaggletooth

2011-05-21T15:05:00.005-04:00

It's been a hectic few weeks after Flag Day, so it's time for an update on what I've been doing. I've graduated from A-100, which honestly was a bit melodramatic after flag day. We had a second swearing-in ceremony but due to scheduling issues with the rooms it was done in one of the big lecture classes at FSI instead of at Main State. And since I didn't have any family attending (Kristin had to work, family weren't coming into town for a bit longer) it wasn't really high on my priority list. I did get to meet Deputy Secretary Steinburg though, which was really cool. He's leaving the service to become dean of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University sometime in the near future, so this may have been the last A-100 graduation that he addresses.

Immediately after the last day of A-100 (the Friday after Flag Day), our class began to head off to our different follow-on assignments and training courses. Some people started work as desk officers or working for a bureau in D.C. immediately the next Monday, while an (un?)lucky few have an entire month or more gap to fill before their next training starts. I started my Political/Economic Tradecraft course, and am now in my final week. It's an interesting class -- I LOVE my coordinators/instructors. First, we have an economic expert who is very affable and is able to explain macroeconomics to me in an understandable format in a very short time. This is a relief, because I didn't take any macroeconomics in college, and the only international trade courses I took were all IP related. His counterpart on the political side sounds and looks just like David Spade from NewsRadio. He's an utter riot, but beyond the humor he's a very insightful, incisive guy who hasn't been afraid to constructively criticize the way we (the Department) do things. The breath of fresh air is very greatly appreciated. The coursework is about what you'd expect, some courses on international finance and macroeconomics, exchange rates, data analysis, etc. I finish next week, just in time for the holiday weekend.

In my single-minded focus on work, I totally missed that there are a bunch of comments on this blog and that we've actually got some sort of readership! Thank you all so very much for reading what we have to say -- now I need to ask for your advice. For our FS readers, particularly those on the FSBP insurance plan, did you have any trouble receiving your ID cards? I've received my welcome packets but I've yet to receive either my health or dental cards, despite having signed up for them via two different mechanisms, from two different providers, and at two different times. (For those of you who have ever repaired a PC, you'll note that I mention the above to isolate out the possibility that HR forgot the forms somewhere, as happened to some of my colleagues on Blue Cross).

If you've ever seen "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" you might have seen one of the episodes involving Dennis and his ex-wife/girlfriend Maureen's dead tooth. Well, I broke a crown and now I too have a dead tooth. So I'm soliciting any recommendations you guys might have for dentists in the Alexandria/Arlington area before people start referring to me as "snaggletooth".

Finally I need to give a shout-out to Cafe Monti on Duke Street. It's this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Duke St. that does Italian and Austrian cuisine. Yes, you can get goulash and Wiener Schnitzel with your linguini. It's really good too, the schnitzel is veal and pounded flat, crispy fried (in the right way, with the breading being its own crust that rises on its own rather than a gloppy mess that sticks to the meat) and served simply with some lemon slices and roasted potatoes. Yum.

Flag Day!

2011-04-29T19:27:00.002-04:00

Hello All!

So today was the big day! Flag Day!

The event started at 3:30 pm today and began with very brief introductions of the instructors, heads of FSI and Ambassador Patterson who was the Ambassador to Pakistan and the United Nations, she served as the class mentor (wikipedia link). After the introductions they wasted no time to start handing out flags and first post to the 160th Foreign Service class. What is crazy about this process is that it is random in order. So you don't know which country will be called next or which name. They don't even do all the same post at the same time. So for example they didn't announce all the India post at the same time. So everyone waits on the edge of their seat for when you hear the name you are listening for and hopefully one of your personal high ranked posts.

So you probably are wondering what our outcome is ..................

I am pleased to announce Dan will be an Economic Officer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!

I know this might comes as a shock to some, but it was actually one of our post we ranked high. Dan will be posted there for the next two years. When we were learning about this post originally there were just so many good comments we kept reading. The post has above average housing (which the State Department provides for us), There is a great social scene and it is very westernized and was previously an Italian colony. Apparently their pasta is better than what you can find in the US (yum!). They are a hub for travel in Africa and have a 5 star Sheraton and Hilton both with popular health and fitness clubs. They have abundant fresh fruits and vegetables, lots of restaurants and bars, as well as a great cinema that gets American movie releases very fast. Crime is very minimal and is limited to petty non-violent crimes like pick-pockets. The weather is very cool and dry, except for a distinct rainy season for 3.5 months. There is no air conditioning, but apparently never needed to the high altitude (8500 feet!).

Now with all these great factors you are probably wondering, where is the catch? The first is that Dan will probably be leaving in June to start work at his new post and then will take leave for our wedding in November. The other is it is hard to find that favorite brand of toilet paper and other consumables, it just means bring a small stockpile with you on your shipment over there and then make due without Charmin till you can have some more mailed over. Due to the difficulty of getting these consumable this means Dan gets a nice percentage in his pay check and we receive high equity towards our second posting in two years which means possibly a dream post!

It will be a lot to take care of before Dan leaves. Taking care of Dan's apartment, getting the cats ready, and getting his Diplomatic passport.

We are very excited to share this news with all of our family and friends, it has been a long time coming. We are still planning to be married on November 12 and Dan will be taking leave to come back.

We are excited to continue to share our news with you.

Best Regards,

Kristin and Dan

Progress

2011-04-24T00:52:00.008-04:00

Ok, I swear that I'm not going to be "that guy" who starts an A-100 blog and then never posts until after Flag Day. Part of my reticence here is that I'm really not sure what's OK to post about course content, and coming from the type of military background I worked in before the Foreign Service, I am keenly aware of OPSEC.

That said, several of my colleagues from class have been posting a bit more, and having not heard of any repercussions I'm going to consider the bar being raised a bit. So while I'm still going to be cautious about what I post, I'm going to give a little insight into the past several weeks. As an aside, if any fellow FSOs are reading this and have an informal opinion on where the lines are, I'd love to hear it -- not sure that it really merits an inquiry to "L". (That's the legal department for you non-state types).

Actually, that's a good place to start. If you're unfamiliar with Washington, you may be surprised by the mind-numbing amount of acronyms that you're going to have to learn on arrival. "My BFF at DoD on TDY a DoS PRT had AL and went to the DAR for the MWR show" is quite literally something you could conceivably hear someone say on the metro. Translation: My best friend at Department of Defense on temporary duty at a Department of State Provincial Reconstruction Team had Annual Leave and went to the Daughters of the American Revolution (Constitution Hall -- it's a really nice concert/events venue) for the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation show.

Anyway, State is no exception. We define ourselves by what series of acronyms we work for. Example: Secretary Clinton is simply "S". The shorter your acronym is, the more of a badass you are (The image at the top of this post is an org chart, it's hard to see the acronyms but they're on there). The director of State's legal dept. (I have no idea what the job title is called, but I'm referring to the equivalent of the general counsel or managing partner) would be "L" - also used to refer to that whole department. But someone working in an office at M/A/OS you would be able to know he's at Under Secretary for Management » Bureau of Administration » Office of Overseas Schools. Obviously much lower down on the totem pole than the Under Secretary for Management himself, who is simply M. He's also a really nice guy and I was awestruck in our briefing from him -- he's clearly on an intellectual level that I'm just utterly jealous of.

Speaking of, most people who have read blogs about A-100 realize that we get a lot of briefings. What doesn't often come through is just how rockstar our briefers are. In a law firm, you may get some initial training briefings by some low level partners or Of Counsels, maybe a couple 5th or 6th year associates. Wal-Mart doesn't send C-suite staff to meet with a newly hired store manager. Our briefings come from Principal Deputy Undersecretaries, Ambassadors, senior FSOs with experience as Deputy Chief of Mission or Minister-Counselor, etc. There's also subject matter experts who don't have the same level of seniority, or contractors, but for most part we're really being treated like rock-stars. And barring a couple of exceptions, they've all been incredibly accessible to us, and clearly take a real and honest interest in our careers.

One of the things that I'm sure every FSO has felt during orientation is the big fish/small pond issue. "Holy crap. I've gone from being one of the smartest people in a group wherever I go, to working with 80-odd other people who are just as accomplished and smart as I am, if not more so in some cases." Some of us deal with it in different ways. For me, the thing I had to learn, and am still learning, is how to dial myself back a little bit. I've been told my entire adult life "Diplopotamus, you got that award? And you learned how to fly? And went to law school? And you spoke where? How many times have you been in the newspaper now?" Don't get me wrong, I never had a big head about it. But I've done a lot of things in my life at a pretty young age, and I've consequently developed a breadth of experience in these fields. Coming to A-100 though, I constantly have to restrain myself from the urge to chime in at every opportunity with my own experiences. Usually at least one person in the class has experience in whatever we're talking about, and in many cases their experience is deep (whereas mine would be characterized as broad).

It's sort of a humbling experience, but I think it's good training for a diplomat. We can get a big head about ourselves, and that's not hard to do when so many of us are PhD's, BigLaw associates, military officers, well-traveled expats, etc. It takes a certain amount of self-awareness to be able to step back and say "Look, I know what I know, and we're all on the same team here. I don't need to prove my worth to anyone here, because we all know what it took just to be able to walk in this classroom. Every single one of us is valuable and there's no prize for swinging the biggest diplodick."

I was told Friday night that I'm not chatty in class. This kind of surprised me a bit, because I had been feeling like sometimes I ask too many questions (not right before class ends though). But the reply was "Yeah you ask questions, but don't really talk much in class." I was happy to hear that. I didn't want to get the rep of being the guy who talks too much. I just am always interested in observing what's going on around me, and I can't do that as well with my mouth jabbering. There's another colleague of mine who I admire for the way he handles that. Every time he opens his mouth, I listen intently because I know he doesn't speak up unless he's got something worthwhile to say. And when he doesn't have anything to contribute, he doesn't say anything. That's the kicker right there, and I'm rather envious of people for whom that comes naturally. I think I'm getting there, but I'm definitely not there yet. But it's nice to have colleagues who I feel that I can learn from in a personal, not just academic capacity. Also he makes a really neat wild-bird call that I want to know how to do. The more you know...

Alright enough blabbering for one day. I'm not sure how much more of the past couple weeks I'll be able to fill in before Flag Day this week, but I'll certainly try.

Mid-way point

2011-04-16T12:16:00.005-04:00

It's really hard to believe that we're basically half-way through A-100 already. It seems like we just barely started! The amount of information I've taken in over the past weeks is staggering but I can feel it slowly starting to coalesce in my head - I'm a foreign service officer now. I'm starting to "get this". Of course, once we get to post that's all going to go out the window, and I'm sure we'll be flailing for a bit, but I'm enjoying the feeling for now I've just returned from our leadership training out in the boonies in West Virginia. I can't speak for the other teams, but team Cairo* represented like crazy. We really got into the exercises, opened up when it came time for self-assessment and reflection, and I think we really came together as a team.

It was also great getting to spend some time with colleagues that for whatever reason, I don't end up hanging out with often during class. And the scenery was great: West Virginia is beautiful. It's funny, I had just watched an episode of Justified, (which is an amazing show) and they were talking about coal mining and cutting the tops off of mountains -- we actually saw a lot of that driving through "Mineral Valley".

Also, I finally got a bit of color -- on the day that I actually WORE sunscreen (as opposed to the day I was out in the sun for a while unprotected and nothin').

There's a bit of nostalgia to going back to a military base, eating in the DFAC (the food never changes no matter where you go), watching people trudge up and down the road, occasionally watching some private get smoked and have to do pushups, (I suppressed a laugh at that one and got a dirty look from some major. Too bad, can't smoke me now suckers!) At one point I was waiting outside the bar for some reason or another, and overheard a couple junior enlisted guys talking about us, saying "There's got to be one or two not-very-ugly females in there". Because I cut my hair REALLY short (basically a high and tight) and was wearing my camelback that still had my US Army nametape on it, they must have figured I wasn't part of that group. The irony is, neither of them would have been successful if they had tried to pick up one of my colleagues at the bar -- West Virginia is not known for breeding "lookers" and having a moustaches that immediately make one think "pedophile" is not very sexy.

On the way home, we took some ridiculous scenic route through the mountains. There's some very pretty country up there. I wouldn't mind exploring it more, especially some of the rivers that look great for fishing.

*Team names were random, have no bearing on actually where we're going. Cairo's not even on our list.

Blarrghl

2011-04-09T21:28:00.002-04:00

A new job, a new blog! I'm your friendly neighborhood Diplopotamus, also known as Dan, and I'm the other half of this blog! I'm a political-coned FSO currently in the 160th A-100 class. So first things first: this job is amazing, and we've barely even started orientation. My co-workers/classmates are all extremely talented, accomplished, and every single one of them has been friendly and outgoing; I've already made good friends in our class. We've got statisticians, lawyers, military officers, a couple former enlisted guys like me, CPAs, tandem couples, foreign service specialists, and I wouldn't be surprised if one of them was a race car driver or something.

I'll keep this post short, but I hope this blog will be a dialogue -- please comment and let us know how you like our posts, or what you'd like to see!

Cheers,

Diplopotamus (blargghl!)

Hello......and Goodbye already?

2011-04-08T23:07:00.000-04:00

Hello! We had planned to begin this blog a few weeks ago or so when everything was beginning. Dan is an Political Foreign Service Officer for the Department of State. He is currently going through A-100 in the 160th class, which basically is college orientation for Diplomats. He started his class on March 28th and we recieved the Bid list for our first post a few days after. I was very excited to finally get this list because it seemed like such a long time coming. Ok it was a long time coming. Dan started his testing for this position back in 2009 and finished his final round in April 2010 where he passed. From there is has been a long wait till December 28th 2010 when he found he was called for the April Class. All the while we have been talking and dreaming about that future bidlist.

You might be wondering who I am, well I am Kristin, the fiance of Dan the FSO and lover of blogging. I have blogged about my study abroad travels in the past and was a attributing writter for a blog about Tallahassee, Florida events while I was a student at Florida State University. Hey, free Cirque De Soleil tickets as a broke college student is a pretty sweet deal! Most importantly I am a big fan and follower of most the FSO and EFM blogs on the interwebs.

And now for the goodbye. Well, not really goodbye but possible postponed. Due to the fact that there is a possible Government shut down in the very near future, Dan's classes as a result will also be postponed till further notice if a budget does not go through. It is very nerve racking to see how much these individuals control the jobs and lives of families across the country and actually world because of their lack to come to accord. As a result FSO's will not only be not getting paid but they will probably be taking a 16% pay cut from here on out. It is a very frustrating situation here in Washington as government workers and business owners cringing, waiting for the other shoe to drop. This city will likely come to a hault if a budget is not passed. Well, hey at least there will be less rush hour traffic on the way to and from work.

Don't worry we aren't really going away, now that we are here Dan and I will continue blogging and sharing our experiences of this new life of ours. I hope you continue to follow our journey in the Foriegn Service life!