You may be wondering why I’m blogging at 11pm on Friday, instead out celebrating or…well…sleeping (I am pretty tired). The simple explanation is that I’m waiting for State’s online HR system to come back online from scheduled maintenance so I can look at the summer bid list.
Imaginary conversation between me and you (because I like to put words in your mouth)
You: Huh? But today was Flag Day, didn’t you get your assignment?
Me: I did – and it’s AWESOME!
You: Then why do you need to look at the summer bid list (FS types probably already know the answer to this question)
Me: Oh, because I’ll be working at Main State for the next year!
You: Buh-but…you’re in the FOREIGN Service. Why are you going to stay here in DC? And why are you so excited about it?
Me: There are sooooo many reasons. First, I’m really excited about the office I’ll be working in. I’m going to be a Special Assistant in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Office of Policy Coordination and Public Affairs. I’ve already met some of the people I’ll be working with, and everyone seems very smart and nice. I should make a lot of really great contacts and learn a lot about the Consular Bureau before I go off and do consular work abroad. Second, it works perfectly with each of our preferences. Depending on when we leave for the next post we won’t have to pay back any tuition at all! We’ll also get to go to Alin and Christina’s wedding in Hawaii this winter – that probably wouldn’t have been possible if I were in language training. Ooooh, I just realized that I might get to work the election again this November. Yay!
You: Wow, that sounds really awesome!
Me: Yes! Chad and I are really excited. Now if only the HR website would finish its maintenance early so we can take a look at that bid list…siiiigh
Flag Day!
“The Woods”
is the overnight offsite leadership development and team building training for A-100.
is out in West Virginia.
is not about trust falls and high ropes courses.
is about learning about how teams evolve and interact.
is about working together as a team.
is about learning from our experiences.
was challenging.
was thought provoking.
was a great bonding experience.
was quite hilarious at times.
was a valuable and worthwhile experience.
Preferences
I’ve already written about The Bid List, the magical inventory of all of the amazing places we may spend the next couple of years. As a brand new hire, I need to bid on every post. So on Tuesday morning (Monday evening), I’ll send in my bid list with with each post ranked high, medium, or low. However, how I rank the list is not the only thing our Career Development Officers (CDOs) take into consideration when making our assignments. They tell us that our stated preferences are more important than our bid list ranking. Since they’re so important, I thought I would share them with you. Read more »
Hello Bid List
The following post tiger approved*
The worst part about last night was waiting for Chad to get home so we could talk about the bid list. We are both sooo excited because a full third of the list meets our time frame. Also, there are some really awesome jobs and places on here. Read more »
New Links Page
First: I am soooo tired, I think that I will go to bed as soon as I finish this post. I don’t know if it’s all of the excitement of meeting so many awesome new people (I still haven’t met everyone), or if it’s that I’m getting up an hour earlier than usual, or if it’s just that I feel like I have to be ON all of the time right now, but I’m exhausted. Actually, scratch that, I figured it out. I’ve heard people say that the class is called A-100 because that was the number to the original classroom. That is a red herring. A-100 actually indicates the number of lines that one must stand in before our official swearing in. Ah well, standing in line is a great way to meet people – who you then bond with by talking about how much you stand in line. I am having a fantastic time in class, but it still feels a little bit unreal. I guess I should face the fact that since they didn’t turn me away at the door yesterday, I’m officially in!
Read more »
Long and Winding Road
By the magic of the Internet, I can post an update right as I’m starting my A-100 training as an Entry Level Officer (ELO) in the Foreign Service (I actually wrote this a while back). It’s taken a loooong time to get to this date, and I thought some people might be interested to know just how long it’s taken me to get here – especially others who have had, or are in, a long candidacy. So here are my stats.
Read more »
State Department Weekly Blog RoundUp!
So, I know the reasons why I decided to volunteer to host the Friday RoundUp (1. I’m crazy, 2. I’ve got a couple of days off, 3. I’m crazy), but I didn’t realize how daunting it can be. I definitely don’t read every FS blog out there, but when I sat down last night to start working on this post, there were over 95 articles in my reader (and it isn’t even FRIDAY yet!), waiting for me to sort them for this post. Here goes nothing!
Read more »
Updates and a Request for Help
I’ve been home from Las Vegas for well over 24 hours now, and I thought I had decompressed enough from the trip to take a look at the blogs I follow on my reader (which I didn’t have time to read while I was out there). I’m almost ready to look through my Foreign Service blogs, but there are over 130 unread articles in that folder and I’m a little intimidated. That’s a little more than a weeks worth of blog updates that I need to go through, which just reminds me that I’ve volunteered for this Friday’s State Department Weekly Blog Roundup, which I know is going to a whole lot of work, but definitely worth it. However, since I’m certain that there were more than 130 State related blog posts out there last week, I’m therefore pretty sure that I’m missing somethings. Therefore, I’m asking for help.
Read more »
Alexandria Birthday Cannons
Yesterday was year three that Chad and I attended the City of Alexandria’s birthday celebration, which I’ve written about before. Every year we enjoy the concert by the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (this year’s theme was movie music), the fireworks, and the cannon fire support. However, this year I brought my camera and tripod – not to take pictures of the fireworks, I did that LAST weekend. Yesterday, I wanted to get some shots of the Marines and their cannons – I think I got some pretty good shots too. There are plenty of cannonfire photos in the gallery . This year, however, we decided to skip the cupcakes. The crowd between us and the cupcake tent was just too big.
Read more »
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