Today was my first official day as a Foreign Service Officer... how exciting! After the travel fiasco and the stress worrying about having missed my first day, I was much more at ease today and ready to head off for my first day. After getting a good nights sleep (finally) I got up early to get ready to head to the main State Department building in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of DC. Of course, today was the first time in 6 months that I cut myself shaving! It took me 15 minutes to get the bleeding to stop, and I was so desperate that I actually salted the wound to make it stop so I could head out the door. Man, did that burn!
After getting to "Main State" I headed through security and was directed to the auditorium where the second day of HR orientation would take place. Right away, the coordinators whisked me away to be joined in a side room with three other of my classmates who also missed yesterday's orientation. Once we were all there, we took the oath and afterward were officially Foreign Service Officers! After the oath we were treated to a briefing on how to handle confidential material which was followed by a conversation on what considerations needed to be taken for us with our health insurance because of all the overseas travel. In the afternoon we had the chance to finalize all our employment paperwork, talk to the health insurance providers, and in the end were awarded our security badges as official State Department employees.
Today was an absolutely amazing day. I met some truly great people and am so exciting about the upcoming seven weeks. I truly enjoyed hearing about everyone's backgrounds and how they ended up as FSOs. Tomorrow starts our official training at the Foreign Service Institute, so I am really looking forward to getting into the real "work" of this process and learning about how to do my new job.
It's strange to be back in DC, but definitely exciting at the same time. I'm so looking forward to seeing Steph tomorrow so I can share this experience with her firsthand. There's so much going on, I know that she will have a blast and that this will then become OUR experience.
Well now its time to relax as tomorrow will be another early day!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
She Said: Food Poisoning and a Dose of Stress
Wow, what a crazy couple of days. On Saturday night we went out for dinner and I got sick from the burger that I ordered. It was not good! Although I felt a lot better yesterday, I'm still not back to full strength. That was the kickoff to our weekend, followed by all of the chaos that Brian described in his post. I'm just glad he finally got there today and will be able to join his class tomorrow. Even though he's nervous, I know he'll have no problem jumping right in.
As I opened the door to the apartment tonight, it felt very lonely. Noone was there, no lights were on, and Brian had not called to let me know that he was on his way home. It hit me that we are now apart and I felt really sad. I am lucky, however, that I will see Brian on Wednesday when I head to DC and then again we will have a chance to be together in Florida the following week. I think the weeks between Florida and Easter will be very difficult. As of now, we are not planning any trips to see each other in that time.
I am very excited to head to DC for "spouse training" at the end of this week. I'm hoping we will also have the bid list by the time I get there so that Brian and I can start to rank the posts and get a better idea of where we could be headed. That's all for now.
As I opened the door to the apartment tonight, it felt very lonely. Noone was there, no lights were on, and Brian had not called to let me know that he was on his way home. It hit me that we are now apart and I felt really sad. I am lucky, however, that I will see Brian on Wednesday when I head to DC and then again we will have a chance to be together in Florida the following week. I think the weeks between Florida and Easter will be very difficult. As of now, we are not planning any trips to see each other in that time.
I am very excited to head to DC for "spouse training" at the end of this week. I'm hoping we will also have the bid list by the time I get there so that Brian and I can start to rank the posts and get a better idea of where we could be headed. That's all for now.
He Said: Tried & Tested
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.
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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