Our Choice Bids

I know that everyone will be shocked, but this is our bid list, in order of preference:
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Lima, Peru
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Seoul, Korea
Panama City, Panama
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Vienna, Austria
Berlin, Germany
Caracas, Venezuela
Wellington, New Zealand
Kingston, Jamaica

Our first priority was that our dog must go (Kingston and Wellington are out on that basis) and the cost of living in Berlin and Vienna are very high. Other criteria we looked at included housing and quality of life, as well as the actual job!

Tomorrow our items from home are supposed to arrive, including a real computer! We have been living with only the items we brought in our vehicle which included our vacation clothing-lots of shorts and pullovers. But the weather has gone from high 90's to low 70's for the daytime high. I'm so looking forward to long pants!

Week One

It has been a week full information and filing out forms-lots and lots of forms!!!

Everyone is required to wear business attire and there's very little time to talk and get to know one another, even less to ask questions about something you don't understand. But we did have one night out. It was great! I think being gregarious is requisite for this job. Many of my classmates had very interesting careers prior to this. We said that we'd just stay an hour. Two hours later we had to pull ourselves away.

Sleeping certainly has not been an issue. I pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow. Our little house is not far away. I'm so glad that we are so close, because we are still busy from dawn to dusk. I surely don't miss my 2 hour daily commute!

Embassy Yemen

This morning Embassy Yemen was attacked. Though it was all the talk among my colleagues, there was very little real information available to us during our classes. I had to wait to get home to watch the news. My thoughts are with them.

The List

And the bid list is...
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Middle East Partnership Initiative)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Berlin, Germany
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Caracas, Venezuela
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Kingston, Jamaica
Lima, Peru
Panama City, Panama
Seoul, Korea
Vienna, Austria (US Mission to Int'l Organizations)
Wellington, New Zealand

Just got the list late this afternoon. It has been a great day-FULL of information. The highlights of my day include being sworn-in in the Wood Lobby, where hundreds of other Classes have been before us; and getting my official State Department badge.

Tomorrow my spouse gets a full day, too. I'll see if I can get him to post his thoughts soon.

DC Arrival

We are finally in DC-well, actually Arlington. After living in hotels for the last 16 days, this little house is like heaven. We have driven more than 2200 miles in that time-and are still speaking.

Tomorrow is the big day. Suit and shoes-Check; Paperwork-Check; Know where to go-Check; Nothing left to do but get some rest and be ready for whatever comes.

We should get the bid list of posts tomorrow and will post it here as soon as possible.

Miss you all!

A Great Man

My Grandfather was laid to rest today. I wasn't able to be there.

My mother married my dad the same year Reginald married my grandmother and their union has spanned more than 50 years. Reg was a great man in both stature and in his character. He was a medic in World War II, though I did not know this until very late in his life. His memory began to fail several years ago, particularly his short term memory. He began to tell me stories from long ago which I had never heard.

He is much loved and will be missed by many.

Miss Pepper

We headed off to a vacation for the purpose of letting our emotions settle but we had gotten only a few hours away when we had bad news. Our 15 year old Miniature Schnauzer, Pepper was getting worse, we thought she would get better. We had to make the very emotional final decision for her.

Many tears later I can say that I have no doubt that we made the the right decision for her, but we will miss her very much. She's been with us for 10 years, full of personality and energy. She was always vocal and, from day one, protective of us. Frightened of thunder, fireworks and stairs, she was our little princess with the China girl eyes. She trusted us in everything. She suffered from allergies that for the most part we held at bay. With age came loss of hearing so I hummed to her when I held her.

Part of making the decision to pursue this position with State was the fact that all material things don't really matter, as long as we have each other and the dogs. My sadness is for my loss of the joy she gave me everyday.

Life is all about transition and evolution. We can neither separate the joy from the sorrow nor chose when either happens.

Taking a Break

Everything went exactly as planned-the packers came and packed everything we own, the movers came and moved it all out. We are officially homeless and, technically, jobless! It has been a wild ride and moved so quickly. We are taking a much needed break (on vacation) until Sept 12. We will resume blogging at that time.