It’s Sunday night after a nice weekend of getting none of my main tasks done. I did however get my Nook Color rooted with great, easy to follow instructions from Maurine Mongeon. That was an accomplishment only because it took quite some time to write the .img files on the microSD card.
But that’s not really why I’m writing. As I await my household goods patiently, I think about the things I look forward to most. They are not the things you might think a person who recently moved continents and left all friends and family behind might pine for. What are they?
First, a bit of back story, the shipment was originally supposed to arrive in Hanoi around 19 May. I headed back for a wedding on the 13th of May, so I had arranged for delivery of my stuff on the 24th. Incoming folks get a ‘Welcome Kit’ which includes stuff like a TV, sheets, silverware, etc. My sponsor recommended getting the Welcome Kit packed up and shipped out before my stuff was delivered because it just makes it easier to keep track of whose stuff is whose. I thought, that’s a great idea, so I had the folks pack everything up on the 13th, I went to sparring class, got beat up, showered, and hopped on the plane bound for Tokyo/NYC.
I arrive back on 23 May, read through my emails on the morning of 24 May only to find that there is no delivery of stuff for the 24th. As a matter of fact, the container is in Singapore waiting for more crap to fill it up. Hmm … now I have an empty apartment with no plates, no silverware (but I do have really sharp knives!), no pots, etc. At least I have amazing sheets.
As of this Thursday (2 Jun), the container should have arrived on Friday and I should have my stuff perhaps by Wednesday (the 8th), or so. Just another part of the game, right? Ship and wait.
So what am I missing? In order of descending importance, or read another way the item at the top of my list would produce the single largest decrease my overall level of annoyance by not having it.
I Need a Garbage Can
A tall garbage can – though the one we got for the wedding won’t fit under the sink and will look out of place in the kitchen, it surely beats the current arrangement.
Any other sized garbage cans – so I can occasionally through things away in the bathroom without having to walk to the kitchen.
Dish drying rack – as you can see, a pasta strainer works well … until you need to strain pasta.
Bath mat
Tripod – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to take photos on my balcony that require the rock steady stillness that only a tripod can provide. Tonight is a good example. There was awesome lightning in the sky that I could have captured, maybe, but the crazy safety and balancing system I put together on my balcony ledge was a little too precarious and slip shod to trust for the length of time I would need for a good shot. Instead, this is all you get (see below).
Mustard – I haven’t wanted to buy it here because I know it’s on the way. Nothing else tastes as good on a sandwich of dark bread, tomato, and cheese. Though the chili fish sauce is good, it’s just not the same.
Pepper grinder – one of the Vietnamese guys on the soccer team brought pepper from a family farm for folks. I can’t wait to use it.
I Need a Dish Rack
Anything stand out as a shocker? Perhaps nothing on the list is that shocking. Perhaps it’s just that when Marjie put the garbage can on the registry, I wondered “why the hell do we want garbage cans on our registry?” She was very persistent about wanting them, and very excited to get one. Now, I’ll be excited when that silly garbage can arrives. Oh how life’s pleasures change over time.
To make myself feel better about being excited about a garbage can and dish drying rack, I will say that I brought the stuff I care about most with me, which includes all the electronics crap, camera, address list, and good pens. If I didn’t have the computer and regular Internet, I’d be crazy right about now … or I’d be insanely smart from having read a lot of books. Or I’d be brain dead from watching River Monsters and Man, Woman, Wild because those were the only shows that ever seemed to be on TV.
All I got from the crazy storm and lightning show today …
Front of the Front
Lightning
The video below isn’t really all that great, but you can see the wind suck the curtains right out of the apartment. When I step outside, you can’t see anything, but you can hear the ‘howl’ of the wind and rain if you have your volume up.
I thought I’d take some time to write a little about some of the preparations Marjie and I took to move overseas. Those of you who are going through it yourselves or have already done it once, feel free to skip over this, unless you would like to amuse yourself at the efforts of a couple facing their first time overseas as ex-pats.
So, you’ve just found out you’re moving to a SE Asia country that is rapidly developing. You’re not going on vacation; you’re going to live there, for two years. When it finally sinks in that you’re living overseas, not just visiting overseas, you start to think a little differently about your lifestyle. What’s really important to you? If you can’t find half and half, will you stop drinking coffee? Maybe. What do you do for breakfast when the locals eat a noodle soup? Are you going to eat pho, too? What about when you’re craving popcorn (I never do, but someone else I know does … every night) or hummous or your favorite brand of chocolate?
I’ll tell you what you do, you buy a crap ton of stuff from Costco and you ship it to yourself as a Christmas present in May or June or whenever the stuff arrives. It’s one thing to go traveling for a while – even a long while – where you can pretty much be happy eating locally to save money and more fully experience the culture. But it’s completely different to know that it’s going to be a long, long time before you have the Jacques Torres cookie or Blue Sky Bakery muffin again. So you start to think about how you’re going to satisfy those cravings, minimize the disruptions to your way of life, and simply have that comfort food available for you when you just can’t eat another serving of morning glories, bok choy, or tough chewy beef with grizzle.
One cart of stuff from Costo, there's much more
So, what did Marjie and I do? I threw away the receipt for the trips to Costco we made, but I can say we probably spend about $1200 or so dollars buying stuff to ship. And we didn’t really finish. This included everything from huge bottles of laundry detergent (yes they sell it here, but we wanted a certain kind), dish washing detergent (same deal as the previous), boxes of brownie mix, cans of chickpeas, rechargeable batteries, tomato sauce, some cereal, a few (24) bottles of wine, and some other stuff. You can see in this photo that we also bought a few rolls of toilet paper. As my sponsor said, it’s not that you can’t buy it, but it’s much more convenient to run into my storage area than to have to run out and get more. So, we bought stuff for convenience and comfort.
My first weekend here, though, I was taken to a few of the Western stores and Fivi Mart to see what sort of stuff on available for the ex-pats here. You can get lots of stuff. I saw everything from full-sized jars of Newman’s Own pasta sauce for $6, Newman’s Own popcorn, chocolate bars from Germany, muesli, cleaning products (including one shop with ’7th Generation’ stuff), good quality cuts of meat, shampoos, peanut butter and so on.
It’s not that you can’t find something to satisfy your craving, for a price, it’s that if you have a specific brand that you like, you may not find it. The one thing I did not see was half-and-half or heavy cream. That said, I heard from someone who bakes that there is whipping cream available, so I should be able to put that in my coffee in the mornings!
Around the corner, there is a shop that sells all sorts of cleaning products: liquid hand soap, dish detergent (if only we had a washing machine), bleach, tooth paste, shampoo, and the like. There are German brands, US brands, and probably lots from China. If you need a specific brand, chances are you won’t find it. Prices seem reasonable – $3.50 for a dispenser of hand soap, $2 for shampoo.
The big thing about shopping in Vietnam is where to find something. A store may have some of what you need, but there are few one-stop shops. Luckily, in our building there is a ground-floor shop that has all the essentials – wine, beer, pasta, sauce, cookies, peanut butter, toilet paper, etc. Pretty much anything you need is right there. If you need fresh veggies, there is a market directly across the street.
This turned into a bit of a ramble. The bottom line is: it’s expensive to stock up for two years because living somewhere and visiting a place are two entirely different undertakings. If you’re flexible, you can find excellent substitutes for your favorite items from home. If you need a little comfort, you got to bring it with you. Just like Asian food products in the US aren’t as fresh and flavorful as they are in Asia, the same goes for your favorite stuff from the States in Asia.
Since I last wrote about A100, I went through the basic consular course and am over halfway through the Vietnamese language training. I have to say, I’m impressed with my progress in a comparatively speaking sort of way. 18.5 Weeks ago, I couldn’t speak a lick of Vietnamese. I think I might have remembered that ‘thank you’ was something like ‘caahhhm uhn’ but even that statement stretches the truth of what I remember from my three weeks in country five years ago to the limits of believability.
Now, I can talk disjointedly on a number of subjects, including: 1) the period of colonial subjugation at the hands of not only the Chinese, but also the French; 2) APEC meetings in Vietnam in 2006; 3) the price of coffee; and 4) a little about the important part of life … food. It’s tough going not only because the language is tonal, count 6 of them, but because of the aforementioned 1000 year Chinese domination, there are not only the Vietnamese words, but there are also hundreds of borrowed Chinese words that have been Vietnamized. It makes it doubly tough for those of us who don’t have the Mandarin background, but a bit easier for those with some Mandarin because they can quickly build their vocab.
Still, it’s pretty amazing that I’m being paid to learn Vietnamese and in about four months, I’ll be working in Hanoi reviewing visa applications. Luckily, that work begins after an additional month of in-country Vietnamese training. It’s all going to be quite an adjustment.
Yes, A-100 is only 5 weeks long and it’s 2.2 weeks since we graduated. Life always gets busy. Rather than lots of boring details, let me give you the broad overview of the past couple weeks.
First, the briefing pace never let up. Some were excellent, others were not. We learned about Afghanistan policy, USAID, diplomatic history, cable writing, how to hand questions from challenging audiences, to reclaiming the torch of knowledge from the titans. OK, maybe we were not all prometheans, but we did participate in an off-site leadership exercise. The off-site was quite a bit of fun and provided tons of opportunities to bond.
Second, I signed on with Trident MMA down in Dale City. I only get to go twice a week, but I love the Filipino Martial Arts and Thai Boxing that I get to do down there. I highly recommend the place if anyone is on the market.
Third, I’ve been eating food. Enough said. I finally ate at a place called Ravi Kabab on Glebe Rd. Amazing Pakistani food. I’ve had both the lamb and chicken kebab lunch and both are delicious. I highly recommend the place to anyone in the area.
Fourth. In case you missed the headline on the front page, Marjie and I are being posted to Hanoi, Vietnam. We ship out some time in the Spring of next year. I’m going to be a consular officer. Yeeha!
Finally, that’s it for this update. Not too much else to report. I’ll start Vietnamese language class in September. Aside from the basic consular course in July, life is pretty relaxed and focused on how to be useful when I get overseas.
Week 1 and Weekend 1 are both over. They often say that you’re drinking from a fire hose. Where else have I heard that? Oh yeah, in the Navy. I would have to say it’s true, but somehow I just don’t feel as overwhelmed. Maybe it’s just coming out of the school environment, maybe it’s being in the right job, but I’m not feeling as though I’m drowning in information. I’m tired and I ache from sitting all day, but my brain is not full. Perhaps it’s just hungry for info that I suspect I will use in my job.
Day 1 of Week 1 was in-processing – badges, benefits, and briefings. I met folks in the lobby of Archstone Courthouse, thinking it was Oakwood Rosslyn and not really knowing the difference, and heading in. We got to know each other in long lines and metro trips home.
The rest of the Week 1 blurred together as we learned everything from how our fate for the next few years is sealed – a complicated jigsaw puzzle of preferences, skills, luck (serendipity as they call it), and needs of the service – to how the State Department does its thing, to what happens when you leave your laptop unattended at a conference. As you might guess, your laptop gets stolen. It’s part of our cybersecurity awareness and training.
Overall, I’d have to say getting the bid list was exciting (Oh the Places I may go), but not the most exciting. The most exciting was a serendipitous conversation with a fellow A-100 colleague where he said he just felt like he was in the right place with good people. That’s how I feel, too. It’s great to have all the benefits, but when you’re doing bad stuff – like packing bad mortgages you know will fail into a product you sell to other people just so you can bet against them – it just doesn’t nurture the soul.
Although the work I’ll do is not development in nature, there are opportunities to be involved in the US efforts to rebuild broken places and build local government capacity. It’s heady stuff. My work will most likely be on the visa line first, but it will lead to some cool assignments. With that, Week 2 begins.
I took to Oral Assessment today and passed! I thought I hadn’t done so well on the structured interview, but, I passed all three sections and got a final score that sounds decent enough to be proud of it. Now, I just need to slow down the process enough to get through my degree before they actually offer me a slot. It would be ideal to get an August 2010 class, to give me some time in the Summer to go do some hiking in the mountains before I became a real, bone fide diplomat in training, but … I should simply be happy to have the prospect of a job. I just need to square away the security and medical clearance paperwork, as well as veteran’s preference.
Monday is the big day. I have my Oral Exam at the State Department. It all starts at 7am. By late afternoon, I will know whether I made the cut for the Obama/Clinton Foreign Service Team.
I spent most of this week coming my records for old addresses and tightening up my statement of interest for the Foreign Service. You get a page to state why you want to join the Foreign Service. For me, it boils down to public service, work overseas, and working on some of the most important and critical issues the country and the world have faced.
I have a hotel for Sunday night – one about 1/2 mile from the State Department Building, which will make it easier to arrive by 7am. Although, I’d like the exam to be over and I’d like to know I’m in, I’m going to enjoy the weekend hanging out with Chris, Michelle & their new baby, Baby J, as well as my sister and family when they come up for the day.
Just got word today that I was selected to move onto the Oral Interview stage of becoming a Foreign Service Officer. It’s pretty stellar, really. I spoke with a guy at Wagner who said that he applied, passed the written test and was not offered an oral interview. It got me a little worried.
Well, that’s another hurdle cleared to employment after I graduate.
How exciting! All the disclaimers said it would take about 8 to 10 weeks to grade the exams. I took the test November 6, 2008, so I wasn’t expecting it until the end of December. Then, today, poof an email that says my results are ready.
I PASSED! Not that I was actually that worried about it. The test was relatively simple and difficult to study for. Now, my whole application goes to a review committee who will decide whether I can sit for an oral interview. That should happen around the end of February. At that point, I’ll schedule and interview and wait to hear from them.
It’s great news to know there is a potential job coming down the line right about the time that I will be graduating school. Only, I given that my one-year program will now be about 18 months, we’ll see. We’ll see. Who knows, perhaps all the travels will extend the amount of time it takes them to conduct the background check, creating a perfect opportunity to roll right from school into the foreign service, should I choose to do so.
