Overwhelmed

Good lord, the amount of info that they shove at you during A-100 is astounding!!!  I am completely worn out.  You'd think that I'd be somewhat less stressed than some of my colleagues, since I don't have to worry about federal employee health benefits, retirement, TSP, etc.--got that covered as a transfer employee, thanks--but NO, you would be WRONG.   It would make me dizzy to go over it all now and I'd like to keep DSS off my ass for any security violations.  (Thank you, Agent X for scaring the crap out of all of us).  Suffice it to say that I feel like I've thrown into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim.  I know I'll survive, but man, this is going to be a busy six weeks.

The absolute highlight of my 1st day, though, was meeting my new best friend and partner-in-crime.  We met on the Metro on the way in on our first day, after I shamelessly eavesdropped and inserted myself oh-so-diplomatically (ha!) into her conversation with another fellow student.  We recognized each other from our apparently mutual blog-stalking, so it felt as if I was meeting a friend, not a total stranger.  Yay!!  Plus she is just as much of a back-row trouble-making smartass as yours truly.  So, while the next 6 weeks may be insanely busy, they will be highly entertaining, thanks to a certain someone who has promised to make me paneer tikka and who is already predicting that I will be assigned to the Bahamas and marry an Ambassador. 

Tomorrow's highlight?  BID LIST!!!!!!

Making Progress....

So, the Mini Menace's reaction to joining the Foreign Service has gone through three stages so far:

1.  "You're ruining my life!!!"

2.  "Wherever we go, we're taking the Wii, aren't we?"

3.  "Can we go to the Bahamas?"

April 29th

That's apparently the date of my training class's Flag Day, when we'll find out our first country assignment.  Now I have an entirely new date to obsess over!!!

The waiting is KILLING me!!!

The reason I haven't posted in a while is because I really, truly have nothing new to report.  Two weeks--14 of the slowest, most torturous days ever known--left before I start training at the new job.  Unlike a lot of my future 160th A-100 classmates, I'm already local, so there won't be any packout drama or TDY issues until I'm actually ready to head to post.  I probably ought to be starting to sort through my belongings and try to decide what, if anything, will go to storage, what will go in the HHE shipment, and what will go in the UAB shipment.  I just can't bring myself to start, though.  I could be here for another year before I go anywhere, so why start stressing about it now? 

I'm dying to start training though, and get the bid list.  That's the list of countries / jobs that are available for my class.  Unlike packout, this is one subject I can't stop thinking about.  Where do I want to go?  Pretty much anywhere.  On one hand, I wouldn't mind Mexico or another Spanish-speaking country...so I can actually put my Spanish to use.  Then again, I'd love to learn Arabic or Mandarin.  I like Mexico, in particular, since it's close enough that my family, and the Mini Menace's dad / family can visit easily--the Mini Menace's uncle owns a condo in Puerto Vallarta.  I'd even consider Nogales, but that's strictly for personal reasons and the personal reason in question may be relocating to another Western / Rockies state, but still, that's closer than, oh, say....Africa.   Leaving Mexico aside, I'd be happy with Poland (family), almost anywhere in Africa, Asia.....

Hmm.  I'm not really doing such a good job of narrowing down my list, am I?  Guess I just have to wait and see what's actually ON the list before I get myself too worked up.