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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment