Stuck in limbo waiting for a visa that may never come (153Cong.Rec.H5572)

My going-away party was more than a week ago, and yet, I have not actually gone away. I said goodbye to a bunch of people at a gathering at Courthaus Social, but I keep seeing them over and over, which is awkward, considering I was supposed to be out of here a while ago. Usually, I cause my own awkward situations, but in this case, it's bureaucracy's fault; I am awaiting my UK visa before I can hop a plane to cross the pond.

The party was not for naught, though, because TJ received his visa and passed his Russian test (exceeding expectations, of course), so he managed to get on his scheduled flight. I planned to depart before him -- mainly so he would be stuck with all the final cleaning-up and moving-out tasks -- but at least my failed attempt to deviously ditch domestic duties allowed us to spend one more weekend together.

In honor of his language-test achievement, we started with a celebratory dinner at Mari Vanna, which features cuisine from Russia and former Soviet countries. We shared a plate of Ukrainian salo, similar to Italian lardo; cured pork fat doesn't sound so good, but I swear, it's like bacon-flavored cheese. TJ chose two more dishes from the regular menu: Slovak machanka soup and Russian beef kotleti. I chose the rest of my meal from the featured Georgian menu: ispanakhi, or spinach balls, and chakhokhbili, or chicken stew.

TJ was able to make small talk with the Ukrainian waitress in Russian. I could read a majority of the menu, but I could barely manage a vocal "спасибо." This was a poor showing, considering that I recently learned my onward post after London will be Kyiv, Ukraine, where I will be expected to say more than "thank you" in Russian. I guess I have some studying to do once I finally get settled in the United Kingdom. 

On a lovely, sunny afternoon the next day, we headed, with a couple friends, to Bardo -- not to be confused with lardo -- a microbrewery a few blocks away from H Street in Northeast DC (top). The establishment distinguishes itself by brewing and serving its beer outdoors, which means it attracts a lot of mid-ride cyclists (bottom left). The beer garden's kitschy, hodgepodge ambiance might feel familiar (bottom right) because it is awfully similar to the owners' previous taphouse in Clarendon: Dr. Dremo's, an institution that offered brewed-on-site drafts and drinking-game options well before all the cool kids were doing it.

We packed up the leftovers from our picnic lunches, two jumbo fish sandwiches from Horace and Dickie's Seafood, and headed to an evening taping of  A Prairie Home Companion. Host Garrison Keillor walked through the crowd singing before he officially started the show, called “A Spring That Love Remembers” (left). It was a little easier to see him on stage, as he sang "Stars and Stripes Forever" with the U.S. Navy Band backing him up (right).

Ensuring that I will have appreciation for the Tube, the Metro made it take way too long to get to the Filene Center in the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (there's a shuttle from the West Falls Church stop). We made it just in time for the opening, but of course, the lawn was already packed, so we had a less-than-ideal view (left). But the powerful voices of Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O'Donovan -- who formed the trio I'm With Her after meeting at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival -- required only ears, not eyes, to appreciate (right).

 

Their songs were a blend of heartbreak and hope, an entirely apropos mixture when I dropped TJ off at the airport the next day. He made it to Tashkent safe and sound. Hopefully, I'll make it to London before his first R&R rolls around. 

So it was basically a waiting game (150Cong.Rec.H7430)

I guess it's time to break my radio silence and spill the beans (and also apparently combine multiple cliches in single sentences). A while back, I announced my new three-letter title: FSO. About a month after getting the call to join the Foreign Service, I started orientation for new officers, in which, among other objectives, the coordinators try to instill the core values of the State Department: Loyalty, Character, Accountability, Diversity, Community, and Service. You'll notice that Patience did not make the list.

That's because, although I learned a lot of valuable things during orientation, it's also a weeks-long waiting game until you find out where you will be posted for your first assignment. During the first week, you receive a "bid list" with all the possible assignment options. Over the next few days, you research the options before you submit your preferences, so posts can be assigned. Then many looooong weeks later, you find out where you are going in an infamous ceremony referred to as Flag Day.

Not all bid lists are created the same. I had seen TJ's bid list during his orientation, so I had a point of reference. From first glance, mine looked a lot better than his -- a good balance of types of positions in different parts of the world, not just consular positions in Mexico and China, which can be a good chunk of many bid lists because of the high demand for visas there. Some people were disappointed in the lack of public-diplomacy positions, but for me, glaringly absent were any Russian-speaking posts.

Having just learned Russian, I wanted to put my skills to use, but a Russian-speaking post would also mean I would be somewhere near TJ. Unlike some other languages (I'm looking at you, Spanish and French), Russian-speaking countries generally congregate together. I had thought my bidding strategy would be pretty straight-forward, considering that my priority is to be with my husband; I thought for sure that, even if I couldn't get to the same post, because of my Russian score, I could get close. Quite frankly, I did not consider the possibility that there would be no Russian-speaking posts on the list.

So TJ and I scrambled for a new strategy. Basically, we researched a lot of flights to find out which places had the most convenient schedules and prices. Some places that were geographically closer to Uzbekistan were not as good as places farther away because of the lack of transportation options. And I looked into places with Russian-language schools to keep up my skills, while crossing my fingers that I would not be assigned to learn Arabic or Dutch.

We all submitted our bid lists, and then we all waited. At Flag Day, I was a lot more nervous than I thought would be. I had envisioned having a pretty good idea of where I would be going. After all, if Kyrgyzstan had been on the list, I'm pretty sure not a lot of my classmates would've been fighting me for the position. I relaxed only when I was handed the Union Jack, the flag of my top pick.

After weeks of slow-motion waiting, things started speeding up quickly. Through some negotiation, my future supervisors in London agreed to let me arrive in May, two months earlier than expected, so I will be hopping across the pond in a matter of weeks. I will be working in the consular section of the embassy there for two years. And although being separated by a lot of land from TJ is not ideal, he can use his R&Rs to come hike the Hadrian's Wall Path with me and drop into some historic pubs along the way.

Both of us are now bogged down in logistics, as we prepare to leave within days of each other by the end of the month. Meanwhile, we are both trapped in yet another waiting game. Because I earned bonus points for my language skills, I am required to serve in a Russian-speaking post during one of my first two assignments. The United Kingdom, in case you couldn't guess, doesn't fulfill that requirement.

To ensure that I and others in my orientation class who got language points fulfill our obligation, we received second bid lists about two weeks after our Flag Day. Unlike the orientation bid list, these lists included only posts with the languages we speak. But like the orientation bid list, we submitted our preferences -- and now we wait.

So soon, I'll know what will be my next assignment after my two years in the UK, and I'll start another round of finger-crossing -- that TJ can get a job in the same post. He doesn't get to bid on his post-Uzbekistan assignment until summer 2016. And thus, the waiting game begins all over again.