(no subject)
This site helpfully tells me it's been 38 weeks since my last update. It really doesn't seem that long, but LJ has no reason to lie to me, right?
Anyway, much has happened, most of it recently! First, my medical and security clearances finally came through at the end of September and I was placed as # 17 of 102 on the register of people that will be called when the State Department needs to fill consular officer training classes. For fiscal year 08, these classes are January 7, March 3, May 12, July 7, and September 15th. Calls usually go out 2 months or so in advance of the class date, but I knew I didn't want to go to Washington until the May class next year, so I asked the folks who make the calls to pass over my name if they got to it before then. Turns out calls for January started yesterday, and people further down the list from me got called, so I'd have gotten an offer had I not told them I was deferring! It's all very real in a way it wasn't before.
Why do I need to wait, you ask? Well, I have lots of stuff to do, including getting married! Steve can't go with me unless we make it legal, so it's sort of a shotgun wedding with Uncle Sam holding the gun.
Training in Washington will last anywhere from 15 weeks to over a year, depending on whether I get language training and what kind. Each training class gets a list of available postings, some of which have a language requirement (and thus language training) associated with them. The standard starting from zero fluency Korean course is something like 52 weeks, while Spanish and French are considerably shorter.
Eventually Steve and I have a blog to keep people up to date, and when we do, I'll post the URL here.
Anyway, much has happened, most of it recently! First, my medical and security clearances finally came through at the end of September and I was placed as # 17 of 102 on the register of people that will be called when the State Department needs to fill consular officer training classes. For fiscal year 08, these classes are January 7, March 3, May 12, July 7, and September 15th. Calls usually go out 2 months or so in advance of the class date, but I knew I didn't want to go to Washington until the May class next year, so I asked the folks who make the calls to pass over my name if they got to it before then. Turns out calls for January started yesterday, and people further down the list from me got called, so I'd have gotten an offer had I not told them I was deferring! It's all very real in a way it wasn't before.
Why do I need to wait, you ask? Well, I have lots of stuff to do, including getting married! Steve can't go with me unless we make it legal, so it's sort of a shotgun wedding with Uncle Sam holding the gun.
Training in Washington will last anywhere from 15 weeks to over a year, depending on whether I get language training and what kind. Each training class gets a list of available postings, some of which have a language requirement (and thus language training) associated with them. The standard starting from zero fluency Korean course is something like 52 weeks, while Spanish and French are considerably shorter.
Eventually Steve and I have a blog to keep people up to date, and when we do, I'll post the URL here.