It's official. I have been formally sworn in as a Foreign Service Officer in the US State Department after six weeks of initial training. From here I will learn how to be a Consular Officer and how to speak Bahasa (Malay Indonesian.) Honestly, I can't wait! There is little in this world that I have looked forward to more than this opportunity to serve my country. I am amazed and humbled by this honor and am confident that I will have a wonderful time in this new career.
Aren't I lucky!
To top it off, the Momma-beast came to DC to watch me get sworn in and today we drove southwest to visit "A", whom I haven't seen in 15 years. What a wonderful day it was! We had a great lunch in Luray, VA at Gathering Grounds, shopped a bit, and then visited some more. While the trees weren't at their most colorful, none the less they were beautiful and the drive was very scenic. The really nice thing is that with "A" living so close, it is likely she will come visit a few times before I move to Jakarta.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
And the answer is...
Jakarta, Indonesia!
That's right folks, I am going to be spending two years in Jakarta, after I finish ConGen (I will define this another day) and half a year of language training, learning Bahasa (Malay Indonesian).
This is really an awesome assignment and I am looking forward to it. Jakarta was one of our top choices as a family and everything that I have heard is that it is a great post. Lots to see and do. Lots of travel opportunities. I can't wait!
That's right folks, I am going to be spending two years in Jakarta, after I finish ConGen (I will define this another day) and half a year of language training, learning Bahasa (Malay Indonesian).
This is really an awesome assignment and I am looking forward to it. Jakarta was one of our top choices as a family and everything that I have heard is that it is a great post. Lots to see and do. Lots of travel opportunities. I can't wait!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Almost there!
After three tests over eight months.
After my past being scrutinized with a fine-toothed comb.
After having physicals and and lots of medical tests to insure I am healthy.
After months of answering the same question over and over.
After two weeks of sorting through names of cities.
After two more weeks of waiting.
I am almost there.
Two days and a wake up left.
68 hours to go.
Flag Day is almost here!
Finally I will know what country I am going to for my first post.
What city my family and I will be living in for two years.
Flag Day is almost upon me.
Flag Day, the day that every new Foreign Service Officer waits for with anxiety, fear, hope, dread, longing, anticipation, and excitement.
Flag Day, the day that every other Foreign Service Officer remembers for their entire career.
I'm almost there!
(The sad thing is, all I can see in my mind's eye is the final battle with the Death Star in the original Star Wars and Red Leader saying "Almost there." Yes, I am a geek. And lucky you, I am also the geek that will represent US interests abroad. Your interests! Isn't that exciting?)
After my past being scrutinized with a fine-toothed comb.
After having physicals and and lots of medical tests to insure I am healthy.
After months of answering the same question over and over.
After two weeks of sorting through names of cities.
After two more weeks of waiting.
I am almost there.
Two days and a wake up left.
68 hours to go.
Flag Day is almost here!
Finally I will know what country I am going to for my first post.
What city my family and I will be living in for two years.
Flag Day is almost upon me.
Flag Day, the day that every new Foreign Service Officer waits for with anxiety, fear, hope, dread, longing, anticipation, and excitement.
Flag Day, the day that every other Foreign Service Officer remembers for their entire career.
I'm almost there!
(The sad thing is, all I can see in my mind's eye is the final battle with the Death Star in the original Star Wars and Red Leader saying "Almost there." Yes, I am a geek. And lucky you, I am also the geek that will represent US interests abroad. Your interests! Isn't that exciting?)
Sunday, September 25, 2011
A Surprising Day
So I began my weekend looking for a good place to get breakfast in DC. Some place well-reviewed that had a unique or special something to it. And it had to be close to the Metro because otherwise I have to walk further than I would like.After doing a few minutes of research I discovered a place called the Waffle Shop, across the street from Ford's Theater. It was described as a greasy spoon diner and I am here to tell you that description was dead on. Very few tables but a long, snaking counter where you just walked up to and sat down. Everything on the menu was pretty standard except for something called "scrapple". I asked my waitress what it was and she told me it was "the last part of the pig that was used. Sort of like mushy sausage." YUCK! Needless to say I did not partake. The food was acceptable, and filling, but nothing to really go back for, so with a full stomach I began to walk down to the National Mall again.
When I got to the back side of the Natural History Museum I turned left and headed for the National Gallery to go look at some art. Not just any art though, I wanted to spend time looking at the works of Rodin, Degas, and that of other sculptors whose names I can't remember. Rodin's work just moves me. His attention to detail, to form, and to emotion simply floor me. While I'm not a huge fan of the busts that he did, his other sculptures are very moving. Similarly with Degas. The detail he put into most of his work was not the same as Rodin, but Degas captures movement and life, particularly in his different dancers and horses. After spending time being awed and humbled by such greatness I wandered upstairs to the portrait galleries where I sauntered past the Rembrandts and made my way to this painting.
This, was the National Book Fest, put on by the Library of Congress. There were tents for most genres of books: fiction, poetry, teen, children, contemporary, etc. They had the Magic School Bus there, a whole section from PBS Kids, a trailer set up to download digital library books, and at the far end of the field, a row of 20 small tents for book signings. Yes, that's right, 20 rows of people waiting to have a book signed by their favorite author. It looked like this:
When I got to the back side of the Natural History Museum I turned left and headed for the National Gallery to go look at some art. Not just any art though, I wanted to spend time looking at the works of Rodin, Degas, and that of other sculptors whose names I can't remember. Rodin's work just moves me. His attention to detail, to form, and to emotion simply floor me. While I'm not a huge fan of the busts that he did, his other sculptures are very moving. Similarly with Degas. The detail he put into most of his work was not the same as Rodin, but Degas captures movement and life, particularly in his different dancers and horses. After spending time being awed and humbled by such greatness I wandered upstairs to the portrait galleries where I sauntered past the Rembrandts and made my way to this painting.
This is "Moonlit Landscape With Bridge" by Aert Van Der Neer, and the first time I saw it, in January, I was struck by how strong the light shown out of the sky and illuminated the picture. There are obviously other great works of art in the Gallery, but this one jumped out at me, and on second viewing, had just as much impact. With that goal accomplished, I set off through the museum again and found another amazing exhibit, this one of etchings done by John Taylor Arms. I am always amazed at the talent that artists show, their ability to create so much emotion on different media, the fact that I can barely draw a stick figure in comparison. What Arms does though, is brings to life a scene, in many cases quite real, and etches it BACKWARDS on his plates. Thik about that for a second. Look at whatever is in front of you and imagine drawing the mirror image it. On metal. Apparently, according to his children, Arms would work with a pin that had been attached to a wooden handle, and etch lines while looking through a stack of three magnifying glasses. What might that create?
After dreaming for 30 seconds about what it might feel like to have this kind of talent in art, I walked out the front door of the Gallery into a sea of white tents set up across half the Mall.
What was this?!
This, was the National Book Fest, put on by the Library of Congress. There were tents for most genres of books: fiction, poetry, teen, children, contemporary, etc. They had the Magic School Bus there, a whole section from PBS Kids, a trailer set up to download digital library books, and at the far end of the field, a row of 20 small tents for book signings. Yes, that's right, 20 rows of people waiting to have a book signed by their favorite author. It looked like this:
I walked up to the tent for fiction just as they were announcing the next author to speak. I didn't recognize the name at first but heard something about Oz, so I stayed a bit longer, only to discover that it was Gregory McGuire, the author of Wicked. So I stayed longer. He read the first few pages of the fourth book in the Wicked series, which comes out shortly, and then began talking about how he came to write Wicked and then the subsequent books. Who would have thought that his muse was the first Gulf War and Hitler? Or that his second book was based on the incidents at Abu Ghraib? He was an engaging speaker and this discovery seemed to be the surprise of the day. Little did I know.
I left the Mall and headed off to look for a store, only to find that it had moved. So I jumped on the train to the next location where I could find the store I was looking for and when I walked out of the Clarendon Station I stepped square in the middle of a street fair. It was Clarendon Day! What? You have never heard of Clarendon Day? Good, because neither had I. Basically they closed off the center of town, in a two block radius from the Metro station, and filled it with food, games, activities, demonstrations, and vendors of all sorts. After getting turned around looking for the store I was seeking (stupid map program) I returned to the fair and had a look. The food was good, the entertainment was good, and I was able to walk around without everyone trying to sell me something and just take in the sights and sounds.
This may not sound like much to some of you, but the point is that you just never know what you are going to find when you head off looking for breakfast. It was a very surprising day and I am so very glad that I went looking for waffles.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Reflections
The reason I started this blog was to chronicle my adventures as I began a new job and new life in the Foreign Service. The funny experiences, the different sights, sounds, and foods, sharing these things with friends, family, and strangers who might be interested. Today is not going to be one of those funny days. Today I went to the National Holocaust Museum.
On my last trip to DC I visited several museums and had a wonderful time. Now that I am living here I intend to go to them all, and for some reason I chose the Holocaust Museum. Maybe it was because I am feeling down and missing my family, maybe because I wanted to get it out of the way, and maybe because I had heard how moving an experience it was for others. Regardless, I chose to visit it today. To say that I was overwhelmed is a serious understatement. The weight of the exhibits was far more than I ever thought possible. I have seen video of the concentration camps, pictures of the liberation, and different examples of what Hitler did, but NEVER in such breadth or depth. Even typing this in the comfort of my room I am overcome with emotion when I think of the section regarding the mental hospitals and what was done to children. Horrifying! Seeing the tower of photos from the city of Ejszyszki, and learning that so many were killed was another moment that will live with me forever. But the most striking thing of all, as strange as it may seem, was the part of the exhibit that was nothing but shoes taken from victims when they arrived at the camps. Mstly old and decaying leather, many of the shoes still had dye on them and you could see that they had been bright red at some point.
There were parts of the exhibit that I found to be intensely graphic and thought that I will never bring my children there. But another part of me is saying that at a certain age, they need to see this and understand that it is necessary to stand up to evil.
I knew I would be moved by this experience, I just had no idea I would be moved this much. If those of you that read this have never been to this museum, I encourage you to do so. If you have, encourage others that have not.
If you have gotten this far, thank you for reading all of this, and I promise such occurrences will be rare.
Be well my friends
On my last trip to DC I visited several museums and had a wonderful time. Now that I am living here I intend to go to them all, and for some reason I chose the Holocaust Museum. Maybe it was because I am feeling down and missing my family, maybe because I wanted to get it out of the way, and maybe because I had heard how moving an experience it was for others. Regardless, I chose to visit it today. To say that I was overwhelmed is a serious understatement. The weight of the exhibits was far more than I ever thought possible. I have seen video of the concentration camps, pictures of the liberation, and different examples of what Hitler did, but NEVER in such breadth or depth. Even typing this in the comfort of my room I am overcome with emotion when I think of the section regarding the mental hospitals and what was done to children. Horrifying! Seeing the tower of photos from the city of Ejszyszki, and learning that so many were killed was another moment that will live with me forever. But the most striking thing of all, as strange as it may seem, was the part of the exhibit that was nothing but shoes taken from victims when they arrived at the camps. Mstly old and decaying leather, many of the shoes still had dye on them and you could see that they had been bright red at some point.
There were parts of the exhibit that I found to be intensely graphic and thought that I will never bring my children there. But another part of me is saying that at a certain age, they need to see this and understand that it is necessary to stand up to evil.
I knew I would be moved by this experience, I just had no idea I would be moved this much. If those of you that read this have never been to this museum, I encourage you to do so. If you have, encourage others that have not.
If you have gotten this far, thank you for reading all of this, and I promise such occurrences will be rare.
Be well my friends
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)