Well, to say that the last couple days have been interesting would be much more than an understatement. To begin with, I MISSED the first day of training!! That's right, I basically missed the first day of the job. Now, I'm alright and I had a good excuse, but I would never have thought in my life that I would ever actually miss my first day of work.
Flashing back to yesterday, the plan was for Steph and I to attend my niece Lola's 3rd birthday party in the morning and then Steph would take me to airport to catch my flight in the afternoon. On the way to the party (around 10:30 am) I got an automated call from Northwest saying that my flight had been cancelled and that they had rebooked me on a flight the next day connecting through Boston...my heart stopped. What was I going to do? Would it be possible at all for me to report to training at 7:45 am the next day in Washington, DC? The major problem was a snowstorm that was hammering the east coast... would the federal government even be open on the first day? In the end, there were too many questions and I figured I needed to do whatever I could to try and get to DC as early as possible.
After 7 hours on hold and probably 9+ hours on the phone with the airlines and the government contracted travel agency I finally had a ticket for this morning to put in into DC around 12:45. In the midst of all that I was trying to track whether or not there would even be training today. At around 2 am last night, I finally had a confirmed ticket leaving Minnesota at 8 am, but a decision on the government's operating status was not yet made. After getting up at 5 am to get ready to head to the airport, I found to my dismay that the government was operating on a 2 hour delay, meaning I would for sure be missing some degree of training today... I was so sick to my stomach at that point. After an extended layover in Chicago, I ended up making it to DC around 3 o'clock this afternoon...most of the training day was over before I ever even landed...ugh!
In the end it worked out alright. One of the coordinators from the class got a hold of me while I was on my layover in Chicago and explained that I would be able to make up what I missed today, and that it was more important for me to make tomorrow than to go crazy trying to get there today. I was glad to have the piece of mind that I still had a job and that things would be okay, but in the end I was a little sad to have missed sharing some of those "firsts" with my new classmates (who I am yet to meet). I was also glad to know that two other people had missed today, meaning I wasn't alone. I'll be curious to see what they do with us tomorrow and how the three of us meld into the rest of the group who have all already had a chance to begin getting to know one another. Additionally, to be a Foreign Service Officer officially, you have to be sworn in. I unfortunately missed the opportunity to do this with my class, so I 'm really curious if the three of us who missed will do it in front of everyone else tomorrow or off to the side. I'll have to keep you posted on how things play out, but for now the anticipation is killing me.
I'm told that tomorrow will be the day we handle our security badges and cover some of the confidentiality components of the job (we did have to get security clearances after all). I'm very excited to go through this process and to finally get to meet my classmates and colleagues for the next seven weeks. On Wednesday we move to the Foreign Service Institute to actually begin our training. These first two days are mostly employment oriented, so the real work begins then. I promise to post often this week to keep everyone aprised as to what is going on and what I'm up to. I'm sure that this will be an exciting week.
Thanks to all for their support in this crazy process. Obviously, the craziness continues to pursue! I'm absolutely exhausted at this point and want to be fresh for the day tomorrow, so I think its off to bed for me.
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