Bidding Season has begun

As you can probably guess by the lack of posts, the past few months have been a bit hectic. Between classes, family, and everything else, I’ve definitely had my hands full! However, now that things are slowing down a bit I thought I’d try to get this blog going again.

One of the biggest events at work this past month has been the start of bidding season. The 2012 entry-level specialist list came out about two weeks ago, with bids due the first week of September. The potential list for my specialty is fairly short – about a dozen posts overseas, plus another 4 or 5 spots here in DC. While DC is great, I’m definitely hoping to get overseas with this next tour. Both for career advancement (not much I can do here in DC as an entry-level employee with no field experience), and because I really want to get back out there…but we’ll see how it plays out. Either way, I should find out where I’m headed (or not headed) by late September/early October.

Speaking of travel, I do have a few trips to look forward to in the next couple of months – think I’ll be headed to Europe in mid-September, followed by a trip to visit family back in the Midwest. Should be fun!

Cherry Blossoms

Yup, spring is officially here! For DC, this apparently means only one thing – cherry blossoms. In an effort to see what all the excitement is about, I headed down to the Tidal Basin this morning and took some pictures. Having never seen the blossoms before, I was surprised at how much color they add – the whole area is awash in white and pink. Really makes the whole area pretty.

Not much going on outside of blossom festivities at the moment. Work has been going well so far; I’m mostly taking classes at the moment to finish my job training, which will continue to keep me busy until at least August. August will also bring the much-venerated summer bid cycle, when I find out where I’m headed for my next post! Kind of ready to get back overseas and definitely have some ideas on where I’d like to go, but for now I’m just waiting for that bid list to come out

New York City trip

Lately I’ve been a bit busy with work and other things in my life, so this week I decided it was time for a break. Being on the East Coast now, I took advantage of the holiday weekend and headed up to New York City for a few days of fun. The trip went pretty well! I took the super-cheap Megabus (which is actually fairly nice) from DC to Penn Station Friday morning. After arriving, I met up with my friend Grace. We did some sightseeing around Midtown, and then visited MoMA. Later that evening we headed to Rockefeller Center and Times Square for some night shots.

Saturday was a bit quieter. It was really cold, so I checked out lower Manhattan and the Time Warner Center, then walked around the West Side a bit before heading down to Koreatown to get dinner and do some shopping. New York’s Koreatown is reasonably authentic, but depressingly small – only one block of one street! Still, I was at least able to get my kimchi fix

New York City's Koreatown

I headed out on my own Sunday to check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art – really impressive, but way too big! Unlike MoMA, it had the kind of art I prefer: really old paintings, lots of religious art, and plenty of ancient but impressive-looking Greek sculptures. I only say about half of it before I got tired and decided I had seen enough. Later I ended up hanging out with another traveler staying at the same hostel who, ironically enough, also came up from DC for the weekend. She convinced me to go check out a fundraiser with her that night for some sort of film. It was my first exposure to New York’s art scene, and it was interesting to say the least! Afterwords we wandered around Greeenwich Village and Midtown a bit looking for Sunday nightlife. To my surprise, Manhattan is apparently kind of dead on Sunday nights.

My bus back to DC wasn’t until Monday evening, so I spent my last morning in NYC checking out the Museum of Natural History. I was less than impressed with the Natural History part of the museum – they have an excellent collection, but the crowds were insane. Maybe too many kids who saw “Night at the Museum”? The science/space portion of the museum however was pretty awesome, particularly for a science geek like me Afterwords, I killed my last couple of hours wandering around the Upper West Side before catching the bus back to DC. Unfortunately, due to snow in Maryland + Metro delays here in DC, I didn’t get home until about 1am – just 5 hours before I had to get up for work today! Despite the lack of sleep, it was still a fun trip. I plan to make it up again before the end of the year – but next time I hope the weather is a bit more bearable.

Christmas time

So once again I seem to be neglecting my blog…but I can assure you that this last month has been anything but boring. Between happy hours, holiday parties, classes, museum visits, and everything else, I’ve had my hands full but am still having a blast I’ll say this – D.C. is a fantastic city, and I for one can definitely see myself coming back here if the Foreign Service life doesn’t work out (hoping it does, but you never know…).

Since the holidays are almost here, I thought I’d share a few seasonal photos I took last week. I’ll be visiting the family later this week so this will be my last post before the holidays are upon us – so an early Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ice-skating at the Sculpture Garden downtown

The National Christmas Tree, across from the White House

 

Taking pictures around D.C.

In case you’re wondering about the lack of updates, I’ve been a bit busy as of late and have had to scale back my writing a bit. One thing I have been getting into during my free time (that is, when I have free time) has been photography. Below are a few of my better shots from the past month.

Inside the National Cathedral

T-Rex at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

The Rally to Restore Sanity / Keep Fear Alive over Halloween weekend

New apartment & settling in

I moved into my new place a couple of weeks ago, so I figured I was overdue to upload some pics. I’m now in Arlington, which isn’t a bad place to be – lots of bars and restaurants, and I’m only two metro stops from the District. The apartment itself is a smallish 1-bedroom, but it’s a newer building, plus it’s significantly larger than the tiny studio I had in Seoul!

One thing that has been a major surprise has been the abundance of public transit options in this neighborhood. I was originally planning on buying a car after getting here, but now I’m glad I didn’t! I usually walk or take the bus to work, and I’ve been using the Metro to head into the District 2-3 times/week. When I do need a car, I’ve managed to get by with Zipcar and the occasional weekend rental from Budget. When I consider how much I need for loan payments, gas, insurance, maintenance, taxes, and parking fees, I’m actually saving quite a bit by NOT owning a car! I might still end up buying a car before I leave for my next post, but at least that’s not for another couple of years.

My crowded kitchen + office area

Living room

Bedroom

Almost through Orientation

Two weeks into orientation, and everything’s going great! I haven’t been blogging as much because I’ve been so busy, but there’s actually not that much to report on. Orientation has been interesting – mainly a combination of dull but important HR-related topics (like how to get paid!), along with some more interesting topics like diplomatic immunity. We’ve had a few Q&A’s with former ambassadors and other Department higher-ups; having the chance to talk with them firsthand has been a definite highlight.

The highlight of this next week are no doubt tomorrow’s Flag Day assignments. About a dozen of us know we’ll be assigned to D.C., but the rest of my classmates are anxiously waiting to find out where they’ll be headed in the next few months.

On other fronts, I finally found a decent apartment here in D.C. (not as easy as it sounds!) and will be moving next weekend. I’m going to miss the free breakfast and daily housekeeping that come with living in a hotel room, but I’m kind of looking forward to moving into my own place (and NOT having to move again for a little while).

In D.C., starting orientation

I made it to D.C. this past Sunday and jumped in with orientation yesterday. I am part of the 116th Specialist Class, training concurrently with the 156th A-100 class. I haven’t had a chance to network as much as I’d like with my classmates, but they’re an interesting bunch. I’ve met a couple of former lawyers who left their jobs to join the Foreign Service (and took big pay cuts in the process), a number of people with advanced degrees, several EFMs looking to become tandem couples, quite a few transferring from other government agencies, a handful of former military personnel, even a couple of former ESL teachers like myself!

I’ve only been in orientation two days, but with everything we’re covering it feels more like two weeks! Yesterday was something called “in-processing” – basically lots of paperwork and powerpoints on government benefits. Personally I found some of the presentations kind of interesting, but then again I’m kind of a geek I suppose. However it did give me a chance to visit Main State (a.k.a. the Harry S. Truman Building), which made the whole day a bit more interesting.

Today I started orientation at FSI, where I will be for the next three weeks. The orientation class is basically a slightly shorter, more condensed version of the well-known A-100 class taken by incoming FSOs. The class is kind of information overload, an attempt to fit everything you could possibly need to know into a few short weeks. We’re also covering bid lists – I won’t comment on details yet, except to say that as I predicted, it looks like my first tour will probably be in the D.C. area. Glad I started early on the search for permanent housing.

I also need to purchase a car, furniture, household goods – pretty much everything in the next couple of weeks. I came over with two suitcases and am probably the only person in my class who didn’t use the UAB or HHE allotment on my travel orders because I just don’t own enough stuff to ship here! I am also without a doubt the only person in my class who doesn’t already own a car (although being carless in D.C. isn’t as bad as I was expecting – thank god for the Metro). Looks like the next couple of weekends are going to be all about shopping…

More pics from Korea

So I guess the last few posts were a bit of a downer, mostly attributed to the unexpected stresses of moving. Sorry about that! Fortunately I’m going to be stationed in D.C. for the next two years, something I’m fairly happy about. i really want to go overseas again, but right now just being able to stay in one place for more than six months sounds kind of nice! Besides some last-minute preparations, this week has been fairly quiet so I’ve finally had time to back up the last of my Korea pictures from the past two weeks. As always, I’m continuing to post my favorite pictures on my Flickr feed, which you can find on the right side of this page. So enjoy, the next time I post I’ll probably be in D.C.!

Chinese restaurant, complete with the ubiquitous delivery moped. I've lost count of how many times I've had to dodge these mopeds

Gwanghwamun Plaza - group filming a commercial for Standard Chartered Bank

Incheon Airport's futuristic-looking main terminal

Kimchi stew - my last meal while I was in Korea

Getting ready to fly from Seoul to LA

Hanging out at LAX, waiting for my next flight

Back in the U.S., can’t wait to get overseas again

Got back to the U.S. just a few hours ago and posting this from LAX while waiting for my next flight. The flight was smooth (I actually got a few hours sleep – that never happens on overseas flights!), but right now I’m really feeling the reverse culture shock. Getting through Customs at LAX was a chaotic mess – pushy people, long lines, and paranoid customs agents – the exact opposite of what I’m used to at Incheon. Definitely feeling some sticker shock too ($8 to check my e-mail? Why are there no U.S. airports with free WiFi?)

To make it worse, I’m really kind of missing everything back in Korea at the moment – the food, the people, everything. I know I couldn’t have stayed there forever, but it just was starting to feel like home – I liked my job (mostly), I had friends, I knew my way around, and I was really making a nice little niche for myself. Kind of hard giving all that up for a career that might/might not measure up – here’s hoping the FS ends up being worth the sacrifice. Right now however, I think I’m starting to see why so many Foreign Service folks try to avoid being stationed stateside – after you’ve done the expat experience, you feel like you belong overseas – living in the U.S. just isn’t the same.