Better Late Than Never

I'm going to skip the drawn out explanation about how I've been meaning to update the blog for weeks and weeks now and just say I made it safely to Beirut and am having the absolute time of my life! After months of training, packing, stressing, goodbyes, and more freaking out, the cats and I arrived in Beirut in mid-September. One month in and I'm slowly developing a routine, though I'm quickly learning that life in Lebanon can't be lived by following a predictable schedule!


Life in Beirut is fantastic, though it's much different than most of our other Embassies as all employees live on the Embassy compound. Apparently compared to other Foreign Service housing ours is very small, but I live in a charming two-story bungalow with a balcony off my bedroom that overlooks the Mediterranean. This might be a hardship post, but I'll take a sweeping sea view any day of the week!  

Work has definitely been a whirlwind. My colleagues are so smart and helpful, and they've really made this transition much smoother than it could have been. One of the most heartbreaking things I've done so far is tour Palestinian refugee camps. I was part of a group observing UN-funded schools in action, and I will never forget the conditions under which the children have to study. The cramped classrooms, extreme heat, and lack of a playground don't encourage scholarship, but the students were so attentive and eager to learn. The kids-especially the girls-were eager to describe what they wanted to be when they grow up and knew how important education would be in achieving their dreams. I was so inspired by their determination-I'm not sure I would be as dedicated in similar circumstances. 

Life outside of work is also busy and lots of fun.  I've played on the Embassy softball team, sampled many of Beirut's tasty restaurants, and attended my first representational event: the Harley-Davidson Dealership Grand Opening. Oh yes, there's quite the Harley following here though the clientèle isn't exactly what you'd see in DC over Veteran's Day...I also attended the Spanish National Day party, and the wine and paella convinced me that Madrid needs to be at the top of my list for my second post! Yep, one month in and I'm already thinking about the next place. I need to work on this whole living in the moment thing. One way to do so is head to the spa-this is definitely a great place to pamper yourself! I indulged in a manicure, pedicure, and facial for a grand total of $65-mango mimosa included! And that's considered a bit pricey for Beirut. I plan on getting extremely spoiled while I'm here. 

Well, that's the first month in a nutshell! Here's hoping that updating the blog becomes a regular occurrence =)

Bueller? Bueller?

So apparently I'm not as good at maintaining a blog as I thought I would be. Being busy shouldn't mean that I automatically fall off the face of the Earth, but I've mastered the art of being incommunicado....A lot of the past month really wouldn't have made for interesting posts anyway, so I'll save you all the pain of reading, and myself of writing, a detailed account of life after A-100.

I knew that I would be busy, but I wasn't quite as prepared for juggling all of the little details involved in an overseas move while also learning the ins and outs of US visa laws. I will be spending one of my two years in Beirut as a consular officer, so right now I'm taking a course fondly called "ConGen". I had no idea how complicated the whole process is, but it's been fascinating to learn about processes that have directly affected my family (the naturalization process, registering a birth abroad, tourist visas, etc).

Here's a rundown of some of the other superfun logistics I've been wrangling with, and if anyone has tips on moving overseas I would love to hear them!

1. Set my travel itinerary
2. Decided to take the cats with me
3. Changed my travel itinerary
4. Decided the cats should stay in DC
5. Donated multiple bags of stuff to Goodwill
6. Had a freakout
7. Learned about passports and visas
8. Decided to take the cats with me
9. Had another freakout
10. Destressed with a Sex and the City marathon with one of my best friends
11. Repeatedly taking deep breaths

At this point, all of my travel plans are book and the kitties have plane reservations. Now it's time to focus on organizing all of my stuff, as well as making list after list of just about everything. In the meantime, I'm trying to come up with a DC Bucket List and actually stay on top of this blog. Stay tuned!

Flag Day!

The Friday before Flag Day I found out I received a 3/3 on my Arabic exam! Most government agencies assess language skills based on the Interagency Language Roundtable scale, and a 3/3 translates as "general professional proficiency." While that sounds like a pretty inflated assessment of my skills, I'll take the compliment-especially because it gets me off language probation and one step closer to meeting tenure requirements!

Fast forward to Monday, June 7th: Flag Day. I don't think I've been that anxious in a looong time. It was all I could do to stay focused during the morning sessions. Never before had one moment in time had such an impact on my life and future, and I have absolutely no control over it! Where will I live? When will I leave? Can Gene come with me? Will he be able to find a job? Will we get engaged? Can the cats come with me? All of my "what if" questions would finally come to an end once the name of my post was announced. No more hypotheticals. I would finally be able to plan my life again.

Two of my best friends accompanied Gene to Flag Day. I was so glad to have friendly faces in the audience, yet my nervousness couldn't be assuaged. When it was finally time to take our seats, I grabbed a spot in the front row with a few friends. Armed with a copy of the bid list, I first crossed off the names of posts that wouldn't be filled by our class. One by one, city names were read and happy colleagues made their way to the front to claim their flag. Several of my "high" posts were called, including Cairo. I was really starting to wonder where I was going to go....my guess was between Jeddah and Jerusalem. After Sana'a was called, then Jeddah, I was pretty sure Jerusalem was it. Then a flag came up for a post I had ranked high, but really didn't think I had a chance to get. Not only would it use my language skills, but it would fulfill my one year Consular requirement as well as provide a year of in-cone Political training. It also had fabulous weather and food, plus a high differential and plenty of R&Rs. I looked back at my class, trying to guess who would get this exciting post. Then, all of a sudden, I heard my name....

I'm going to Beirut!!!

I spent the rest of the ceremony tracking my colleagues' posts, but once the event was over it was all I could do not to jump for joy and cheer. I'm off to Lebanon in September!!! Wahooooo!