My changing fortunes...
The news of the year for me - Friday morning I received an invitation to join the May 10 A100 class for Foreign Service Officers.
In April of 2009 I first entertained thoughts of joining the FS. Now 11 months later, it's a reality. I will be representing US interests in foreign countries (and sometimes the US). A100 training lasts 5 weeks, then some of us will be sent to specialized training and to language school. It's at the very end of the A100 class that we are told where we'll be assigned, so sometime around June 11 I should know.
I'm trying to arrange it so that I am trained in Russian. S is going to her Oral Assessment in a few weeks, and if she passes she'll likely take the Russian language test as well. Russian is a Critical Needs Language - which means that if she passes the Russian test, they will give her extra points and put her higher on the pre-employment register in exchange for her agreeing to serve in a Russian-speaking post in her first or second tour. If that's the case, then in order to keep us together, State may have to teach me Russian ANYWAY, so why don't we go ahead and do it. That way, I'll wrap up my language training right around the time S wraps up her training, and then they can send us both off together.
That's the plan, at least. Now I have to convince my CDO of its merits. I've been told that many Career Development Officers really work hard to keep tandems together. Assuming S passes the OA and we DO become a tandem FS couple, I hope we get one of those.
So in a number of weeks, we will have authorization in hand to move, and a moving company will show up, pack all our stuff, and move us to DC. We'll be put in temporary housing until training ends, but it's fairly nice housing. Better than the place we're living now - that's for damn sure. It's going to be difficult, though, to move us both from here and from the farm. Almost all of my woodworking tools, a full 1/2 of my books, and some other items I don't want to part with (including thousands of board feet of walnut, oak, maple, and cherry) are stored down at the family farm. I wonder if State will even allow me to store lumber in their storage facility? If not, I'm going to have a problem.
Many FSOs blog about their experiences in the FS. Well, I'll tell you now, this blog is about my life. This is more a stream-of-consciousness blog, and it won't change. Some posts will be about moving around in the FS, others will be about lutherie, others about swordplay (though I note I haven't really discussed that here.... hmmm), and others about cooking/biking/whateverthehellelse I'm doing. I guess what I'm saying is - for those who are just starting to read, this blog is about me and my insights into life, the universe, and everything. I may or may not blog about my experiences in A100. But you will certainly get to know weird and wacky things about me and my friends.
In April of 2009 I first entertained thoughts of joining the FS. Now 11 months later, it's a reality. I will be representing US interests in foreign countries (and sometimes the US). A100 training lasts 5 weeks, then some of us will be sent to specialized training and to language school. It's at the very end of the A100 class that we are told where we'll be assigned, so sometime around June 11 I should know.
I'm trying to arrange it so that I am trained in Russian. S is going to her Oral Assessment in a few weeks, and if she passes she'll likely take the Russian language test as well. Russian is a Critical Needs Language - which means that if she passes the Russian test, they will give her extra points and put her higher on the pre-employment register in exchange for her agreeing to serve in a Russian-speaking post in her first or second tour. If that's the case, then in order to keep us together, State may have to teach me Russian ANYWAY, so why don't we go ahead and do it. That way, I'll wrap up my language training right around the time S wraps up her training, and then they can send us both off together.
That's the plan, at least. Now I have to convince my CDO of its merits. I've been told that many Career Development Officers really work hard to keep tandems together. Assuming S passes the OA and we DO become a tandem FS couple, I hope we get one of those.
So in a number of weeks, we will have authorization in hand to move, and a moving company will show up, pack all our stuff, and move us to DC. We'll be put in temporary housing until training ends, but it's fairly nice housing. Better than the place we're living now - that's for damn sure. It's going to be difficult, though, to move us both from here and from the farm. Almost all of my woodworking tools, a full 1/2 of my books, and some other items I don't want to part with (including thousands of board feet of walnut, oak, maple, and cherry) are stored down at the family farm. I wonder if State will even allow me to store lumber in their storage facility? If not, I'm going to have a problem.
Many FSOs blog about their experiences in the FS. Well, I'll tell you now, this blog is about my life. This is more a stream-of-consciousness blog, and it won't change. Some posts will be about moving around in the FS, others will be about lutherie, others about swordplay (though I note I haven't really discussed that here.... hmmm), and others about cooking/biking/whateverthehellelse I'm doing. I guess what I'm saying is - for those who are just starting to read, this blog is about me and my insights into life, the universe, and everything. I may or may not blog about my experiences in A100. But you will certainly get to know weird and wacky things about me and my friends.