Nature Abhors a Vacuum

Well, no sooner did we sell all of our toys in anticipation of moving abroad than we are thinking about what new toys we may want to take with us. This is the latest on our wish list. It's an Airstream Basecamp with big wide rear doors and a ramp so you can load up yet more toys inside, which is why it is also called a toy hauler. So much for simplifying our lives. My station wagon should be able to pull it.

This would be great for taking camping trips in Mexico. It would be our 3rd Airstream. We have 9 months to find a reasonably priced used one. Some of them have a tent that hooks on the back to expand the sleeping area. With our other travel trailers, we got equal amounts of enjoyment from planning the trips as actually taking the trips. Just looking out and seeing it in the driveway was like an invitation to take a trip, therefore fun.

Blizzard 2009 in DC

The snow is amazing. Here is a video of my trip to Target this morning. There were some crazy folks driving but it was great to walk in the snow and not too far. There was hardly anyone shopping. I wanted to go to downtown DC but there was no metro service on the outside lines so Falls Church wasn't running. Maybe tomorrow.

So few FSO's from South Carolina

So far I have only met one other FSO from South Carolina. There was one person in my A100 who graduated from the University of South Carolina, but was not from South Carolina. I also know one girl who is starting in January from South Carolina. The whole Southeast seems underrepresented. I don't know if it is because they don't apply or because they don't pass through all the steps to become an FSO.

I would like to see more FSO's from my state. From a very unscientific survey sample of all the FSO's I know, I would say the majority are from large cities. Many are from three places: D.C., New York or California. Maybe people in S.C. are just too happy to want to live anywhere else.

Saw President Obama today

One thing we have looked forward to since we moved to D.C. was seeing somebody famous around town.

It happened today when we went to the GWU vs. Oregon State basketball game with the Obamas. They were sitting right behind the Oregon bench (the orange players), and we were way up in the upper deck. You cannot even see them in this picture but we could see them when we were there. The Presidential limo was parked right outside the gym, so everyone in line to get in the game was talking about them being there.

One of my savvy A100 classmates predicted that they might be there because Michelle Obama's brother is the Oregon State coach. It was a good game too.

In other sports news, the Gamecocks beat the Tigers today, making this branch of the family happy & rich. It was about time.

We're Going to Guadalajara

Finally it was Flag Day. We had posted a map in our apartment with pins for all the posts on our bid list. Every evening we would stare at the map with pins all over the world, different colors for our high, medium and low bids. Some nights we would move the highs to medium or mediums to lows. I feel so fortunate to have gotten a post that we bid high.

Guadalajara was one of our highs because it was a smaller post, a great place for the family, and a place to learn a language. The more we read about it, the more we like it. A few of our classmates are going as well, so we'll have instant friends at the new place. I still don't know how all the assignment officers came up with the posts for everyone. Most people got a high choice, so I know that they take our preferences into account to some degree. All through A100 they repeat that their main criteria are "worldwide availability" and "needs of the service."

Flag Day was quite a bit more emotional than I expected. The only thing I can compare it to is waiting for the jury to come back with a verdict. You just cannot predict how it will come out. All you can do is pray and hope for the best. We had lots of friends and family praying as well. You are hearing them call out the places and the names of your classmates, in no particular order, and waiting impatiently for them to call your name. Even though you want them to tell you immediately, it is also the end of the wide open possibilities so it is sad as well.

We are now reading all we can about our future home. It is still 9 months away because of language & work training. I had to take the language aptitude test this week (it was hard), so I am hoping the results will show that I have some aptitude. I am a little apprehensive. There is only so much room in this brain, so what will I have to forget to make room for the Spanish? Hopefully nothing important.

Flag Day Eve

In less than 24 hours we should know where we are going to spend our next 2-3 years, when we will be going, and whether or not we will be learning a foreign language. I am hoping for a county that speaks Spanish so that when we return home one day, we will have the language skills we need to talk to our Mexican friends. In a way, even if we get to go to one of our High ranked choices, we will probably have a bit of a letdown. Right now, we are so excited because the whole world is available to us. After Flag Day, the anticipation will be over and we have enjoyed it so much.

Today, we visited Manassas National Battlefield Park and took a 3-4 mile hike through the battlefields. It was a beautiful day in the high 50s. We picked my parents up at Reagan National Airport and went into DC for dinner and a driving tour of the monuments.

Missing my family

It has been less than two weeks since I saw my family but I really miss them. That has been the hardest part about A100. I'm glad they had the chance to come up and stay for a week, but it was not enough.

There are only 4 more days until Flag Day. We are all trying to prepare ourselves for the unknown.

Packing out

It took 3 days to pack out. One day to box up and two days to load, because at 5:00 the 2nd day it was apparent that all of our things would not fit on one truck. I was concerned that we would go over our weight limit but the grand total of the first truck's weight was 11,000 pounds. The movers had to pull out the tailgate of the truck and strap 3 mattresses on. Then the next day they returned with another small truck to pick up the items at my office, probably about 600 pounds.

It was sad to see them pack up my Vespa. When will I see it again? One of the movers told me he had recently unpacked a family that had been overseas for 20 years. He said all their things were old, like from the 70's, and most of it just went to Goodwill.

I had already spent a week separating all of our things into three groups: what we are taking to training, what we are packing out because we may need it overseas at an unfurnished post, and what we are leaving in Anderson.

The movers did all the packing, which was great, but I had to keep track of what was going into each box so that I can request them by box number or item number later on. Every item has a number that goes on our inventory.

Tonight Anderson, Tomorrow the World

Tonight is my last night in Anderson. I will probably be up late packing and getting ready for this big adventure. I didn't expect to be so sad to leave because I have been so busy I did not really think about it much. I have been focused on our destination, instead of what we are leaving behind.

Last night they had a bon voyage party for us at church, complete with international food, flags of the world, sentimental speeches, tears & costumes from different countries. Lots of people got up to predict where we would go: Sierra Leone, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Belize, Japan, Mexico, and China. My parents and Chet's parents almost cried when they started talking about us leaving.

Our church family will be greatly missed. We are very close to so many of them after living here for 15 years for me and a lifetime for C. It is nice to feel like they will miss us too. I hope they remember to pray for us.

The plane, the plane, the plane

This weekend C. flew us down to Myrtle Beach for a combination business trip/family weekend. If you would have asked us two years ago if C. would be willing to give up the airplane we would have said "never in a million years." Of course that was pre-FS (before we were thinking about the Foreign Service). Now we are taking our last few trips before it gets sold.

You might notice that all the posts lately have been about our sacrifices to join the foreign service. We cannot stop thinking about it because C's parents and his brother and sister-in-law keep reminding us. They think we are totally out of our minds to even consider giving up what we have here to go to a place to-be-determined. The thing is, we are asking ourselves the same thing, but at the same time we are excited to be doing it. It is liberating. It is also scary. We are simplifying our lives but we are taking a big chance too.

We are rolling the dice and hoping for 7's: a good post, an easy adjustment for the children & C, lots of new friends, and interesting work.

House for Sale - Owner relocating

Our house is the second big thing we have to give up to join the Foreign Service. A few posts back we told about our first sacrifice, our boat.

It is hard to give it up. We have lived here 5 years, longer than any other home our whole married life. Here is what we added while we were here: whole new kitchen & appliances, 2 new bathrooms, all new plumbing, tankless hot water heater, roof, jokul wood stove, porcelain tile, walls & flooring, hot tub, and more. Now we are selling it cheap because we have to go. If it doesn't sell, maybe we will rent it.

Someone came to look at it today with their realtor. It would be perfect for a large family. I hope it will be a happy home for someone special.

The rest of our family just says that we are crazy to give up our cushy lives here to go to live in some backwards part of the world. We might be a little bit crazy because it is really nice here.

Last night we watched the movie "City of Joy" starring Patrick Swayze about a doctor who works in a medical clinic in Calcutta. The conditions there looked really bad. Seeing how people lived in the movie made me so sad for them, and it made me think that there would never be enough help to meet their most urgent needs. Several people at our church are planning a mission trip to India, but they are not going to Calcutta because they heard it was not safe.

Yard Sale today

We had a yard sale today. All week we had the installation truck parked at our house trying to load it up with things to sell and we had it full by Friday. The kids made $12 apiece selling drinks and stuff from their tables. We made about $150, not much considering all that we sold: TV armoire, table & chairs, books, toys, videos, and bunches of miscellaneous knickknacks.

Having a yard sale just makes you realize that you need to quit buying junk. Thinking about going into the Foreign Service has really curtailed our stuff-collecting impulses. That has been a good thing. Just knowing that soon we will have to pack it all up and ship it thousands of miles is a big deterrent. It's still hard to get rid of stuff. I am kind of envious of the younger people joining the Foreign Service who do not have much to pack.

Instead of stuff, I have been buying a lot of groceries. Soon I won't be able to do that because I know that once I leave for DC, C won't be cooking very much. I can still buy clothes because we will still need those. But in the process of trying to weed through all our extraneous possessions, I do not want to shop for clothes. When I do shop for them, everything seems to look like something I already have.

Dreaming about where we might go

Now that we have finally made it into the Foreign Service, we can spend all the time we used to spend worrying "if we would make it" now wondering "where we will go and when." To do this properly we have to spend vast amounts of time surfing the internet about random places and checking crime statistics, grocery costs, living conditions, and diversions. Our main source of information is www.talesmag.com. But we really do not discriminate and use any source. It is much easier to choose the places we do not want to go rather than deciding our top picks.

POSTS WE WANT TO AVOID based upon our late night internet surfing:

Caracas now known as murder capital of the world, but R visited it with her Mom and 3 year old son about 7 years ago and really enjoyed the trip.

Mexican border towns also many murders; one report says that you will spend all your time in some type of compound surrounded by razor wire and armed guards with all the other Americans; doesn't sound like much cultural interaction goes on there.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, unaccompanied posts supposedly off limits to first tour FSO's

Port Moresby, PNG rated as the highest hardship of any place in the world by the Economist magazine; R's brother spent time there on a mission trip and contracted malaria, from which he suffered greatly because doctors here didn't know how to diagnose it.

Countries that are reported to have a low view of women and Americans, or who have severe restrictions such as not allowing women to drive.

HARDSHIP POSTS WE THINK WE WOULD LIKE:

Freetown, Sierra Leone, because we have some friends and relatives who have been on medical mission trips there.

Guinea Bissau, West Africa, C's good friend from Anderson is now a missionary there.

Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok, Russia, because there is a lot of cultural interaction with the locals who reportedly are interested to speak to Americans, and we like following the blog of an FSO posted in Vladivostok www.240to120.com.

Lima, Peru, reportedly hard to fill post but R's brother went there last year and enjoyed it; want to try the ceviche and roasted guinea pig.

Chennai, India, because R has a friend in Anderson who was born there who says it is the best part of India.

Vietnam, because C's distant relative from Colorado was a teacher there and we love the Vietnamese food

Cuba, because we have always wanted to go there since it has not been allowed.

Guangzhou, China because that is where they do all the adoptions from China. This one city accounts for a third of all international adoptions by American parents.

Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic, because of beautiful mountain scenery.

Most of Latin America is considered a hardship post as well, but they don't sound too bad to us.

POSTS WE LIKE THAT ARE NOT HARDSHIP POSTS, in order of preference:

Japan

Eastern Europe, especially Hungary where R. went on vacation with her Mom

Western Europe, of course.

Scandinavian countries

Bahamas and Caribbean

Hong Kong

Taiwan

Australia & New Zealand

Canada

South Pacific Islands

Bermuda

Iceland

That covers about the whole world, doesn't it.

Fun on Dad's Segway

Papa CT bought a Segway a few months ago and we have had loads of fun riding it around. All of us except for brent who ended up breaking his arm and putting a golfball sized lump on his head.

Celebrating the first day of school & other good news

The girls are excited about the first day of school and so is their mama. Our son doesn't look that excited but inside he really is, it's just not cool to show it. The K4 is not open til next week, so little one will still be staying home. I hope her teacher is resting up.

In other news I just heard via email that my security clearance is now "in adjudications pending review." This is new wording from last time I checked the status, when it was "investigation still pending." There is much discussion on the A-100 yahoo board about how these emails are worded, and what they might mean. People are always discussing and comparing the wording of emails while trying to figure out how they might fit into a time line of some kind. As best I can tell the security clearance goes through several phases: (1) security interviews starting June 12, (2) paperwork processing, (3) rechecking through a case manager, (4) adjudication by the adjudicator at which point there could be follow-up information to be obtained, and (5) granting of the security clearance via a letter. Then you go through final suitability review. After that you can reach the exalted register, hopefully at a high enough number to obtain an offer.

I am hopeful for an offer to begin training in October or January. Just to keep you on edge, there was an A-100 yahoo post of someone who reached the adjudication stage and then was rejected because of a past gambling problem. How disappointing to get that far and then be rejected.

Waiting waiting and more waiting

I requested an update from security clearance customer service. The investigation is still pending. I am trying to keep this in perspective. This picture shows where we were last February (Colorado). That was six months ago. Doesn't seem all that long. In six more months we should know a lot more.

The waiting is getting harder as I get closer to the end of the process.

Morning Flight

Monday evening I flew my wife and three children down to Myrtle Beach. I decided to stay the night and get up the crack of dawn to fly back. This morning was beautiful for flying despite the low clouds and reduced visibility.

Twin Falls

We rode up here on the motorcycle. Twin Falls is about 20 miles north of Pickens, SC. You hike along the river a short way and then come to these falls. There are two here but the second is behind our heads. The water is very cold. Usually it's not crowded. It's a great place to go on a hot afternoon.

Lighthouse at Cape Florida

We climbed up inside this lighthouse and looked down to see a giant iguana laying on top of a tree. The other side of the lighthouse had a view of the Miami skyline. We walked through the keeper's house. It looked like a nice place to live, except no indoor plumbing. We do take that for granted these days.

We are having ongoing discussion of whether we should include our names in our blog. It's awkward to write without using the names. But if we put the names in, will we lose our privacy? Then forevermore if someone does a search under our names they will find all our vacation photos. So for now no names.

Looks a little like Strom Thurmond

Something about him looks a little like Strom Thurmond. This was the guitar player at Casa Panza. I will have to upload my picture of Strom Thurmond to compare them.

Casa Panza, Little Havana, Cortadillo

We are celebrating my husband's July birthday here in Key Biscayne. Last night we went to Little Havana over the bridge in Miami. We ate dinner at this Spanish restaurant where they had a live flamenco show. I bought the guitar player's CD because he really looked like Strom Thurmond, but shorter. He was a very good player. We both ate paella with chicken. I almost ordered the squid in his own ink but I chickened out. I asked our waitress what the potatas bravas was, and she said "angry potatoes." It was a little spicy.

They have a good band at our hotel every night. It has been a very nice trip and I highly recommend the Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne. Soon we may never be able to stay at such a nice hotel.

Tonight we ate at a cuban cafe right on the island. They have this coffee drink they call cortadillo, but it is just like cappucino. Our waiter said the name comes from cortar (coffee cut with milk). I have realized from this trip that my Spanish is very poor. I can understand maybe one or two phrases out of every sentence I hear. Spanish is everywhere here.

South Beach was a little disappointing, very crowded, nowhere to park, and full of tourists.

We can go back to eating what we want -- we passed our medical!

Husband and wife both have worldwide medical clearance. Not that we were worried, we're both pretty healthy. Well, husband was a little worried because when he had his chest x-ray he saw a big black spot. He looked it up on the internet and they said only be worried about white spots.

I read a funny post on the a-100 group about the chubby guy worried his weight might keep him from passing his medical. If it did, he should sue. I know a good lawyer.

To celebrate we went to the Vietnamese restaurant in Greenville - Pho Noodleville. Bubble Tea is our favorite but it's so hard to share because someone might suck all your bubbles out.

Now just waiting on security. How much more waiting? I emailed to find out and all they said was they are still checking on some leads and the target date is August 10.

Until we can go foreign, we'll bring foreign to us

We had a great time hosting a British soccer coach, Chantel, for a week of soccer camp. We kept her busy after hours going square dancing, visiting the local Irish pub (Corbett McGee's), listening to the band at Downtown Sounds, and going out on the lake.

It was really fun to talk to her about her home in Birmingham, England. She's in the U.S. all summer directing British soccer camps. The kids had a great time.

He Said--A day at Skyland Bible Conference.

This week, our family is on vacation at the Skyland Bible Conference in Dayton, TN. This conference holds a special place in our hearts because it is where my wife and I met 19 years ago!
Today, after hearing a great speaker in the morning, we spent the afternoon at Pocket Wilderness where we hiked and swam in the cold water of the mountain stream.

What a wonderful day it has been; hearing the Word of God, enjoying the beauty of his creation, and spending time with family and friends!

She Said. First Sacrifice on the Altar of Foreign Service Career

We sold our big beautiful boat today at a loss. Just the first sacrifice on the altar of the foreign service career. My husband listed it on ebay, but then sold it to someone who saw it out in the forks of the road before the end of the auction. Better to have money in hand then wait until the end of the auction and sell for less.
We figured we better sell it now at the beginning of summer rather than hold on to it and try to sell it this winter when we will probably find out if we are going or not. Even though we don't know for sure that we are going, we are trying to economize and unload some of our possessions that may not make sense if we do go overseas. We'll probably get posted to the Bahamas now and wish we hadn't sold it. The only time we drove this boat in the ocean we went to Bimini on a Bahamas boating fling sponsored by the Bahamian government. It was so much fun. We tied up at the marina and slept on the boat. Every day we went out fishing and snorkeling. They had these neat places to snorkel-- a sunken ship, a sunken plane. We walked on the beach and ate fresh conch salad.
I had my physical today for my medical clearance. My doctor had never done one for the State department before and she was really interested to hear all about it. They forgot to order one of the blood tests, a 6BCG or something like that to do with blood glucose. My doctor said she had to look it up in her manual because she hadn't ordered one in forever, maybe never, or studied about it since medical school. My husband went to the main health campus to have his blood drawn and they said they had never done one of the 6BCG before and they are drawing gallons of blood every day for people all over Anderson. There were no problems with my physical and my cholesterol was down to 204 since my last doctor visit.
One of our neighbors is retired from the State Dept. He was in the civil service and worked in maintenance for the State Dept. He worked there many years in Washington, DC, so he has been telling me all about it. We know him and his wife pretty well because they invited us to join their square dance club about two years ago, and we've been square dancing ever since. He keeps telling me how hard it is to get in and how a lot of people get excluded at every stage of the process, but he thinks I will make it. I told him that when the security investigator comes to our neighborhood he better do his part.

She Said. Ice cream scooter

We are down in Myrtle Beach for the 2009 Atlantic Coast Exposition and we saw this neat ice cream trailer being pulled by a moped. It looked like it had its own little generator and it was hooked onto the back axle of the scooter. Maybe when our son is a teenager I will let him get one for the Vespa.

He Said. Summertime at the lake

Saturday, our oldest daughter had a party and invited a few of her friends over. It was very warm and a great day to enjoy a ride on the pontoon boat. We took a slow ride of about two hours and stopped at another friends house for food and swimming.

She Said. Our garden after the big rain

Last night there was a big rainstorm and some of our tender plants washed away. I tried to put them back in and rake but the girls were impatient to get home, so I couldn't make it real pretty. The part of the garden with seeds already has some sprouts coming up. The radishes and the flowers are sending up little green shoots that look like clover.

He Said. Swimming Field Trip

This morning our middle girl's class took an end of the year field trip to the Shepherd Swim Center in Anderson. I tagged along and watched them have a good time. By the time we left, I wish I had my swimsuit!

He Said. Downtown Sounds

Each Thursday evening in the summer, downtown Anderson has a concert in the area between the old courthouse and the new courthouse which are across the street from one another. Last night my wife and I, along with our children and her parents had a picnic and enjoyed the music. As the sun set, the old courthouse reflected the light of the falling sun. I am so glad to see organized activities that bring people to a downtown that until about 3-5 years ago was totally dead.

She Said. Our garden

My sister-in-law April and I are planting a garden together. Tonight we planted seeds to go along with the plants we put in last week. The three little cousins helped so it might mean all the plants come up in one hole. Some of the seeds were so small they looked like dust - thyme especially. We planted then watered. One of the varieties was Jelly Bean tomatoes. I can't wait for them to come up. They take 80 days to harvest, so we'll be waiting quite a while. When they start coming up we will have to mind that we don't pull them up for weeds. We did buy some plants already started so we didn't go totally from seed.

I've planted tomatoes before but this is my first true garden. We had a friend with a tiller that we paid to till it up. But when we went out to plant a few things it looked like the soil was still very compacted. We had to call in the CFS yard guys to do a soil makeover. My dad got a load of manure in his truck and they got a little more, and it started to look like a real garden with soil that might actually grow something.

I bought some Thai eggplant and some Hungarian peppers at the Anderson Farmer's Market. The man that I bought them from told me that this Hungarian lady snuck the seeds in from Hungary past customs without declaring them, and they are really good peppers. It made for a good story so he got my $2.50 to try them out.

He Said. Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend our family went to the N.C. mountains and enjoyed the beauty of God's creation. Friday night we got a late start and didn't actually leave Anderson for Franklin until 9:15PM. When we arrived at the Sloan's farm, we went straight to bed. Saturday, my son and I rode the motorcycle to Bryson City where they were having a Memorial Day festival complete with live music and yummy junk food!
Around lunchtime Robin, her parents, and our girls joined us at the Deep Creek recreation area of Great Smokey Mountain National Park. What a beautiful and relaxing place. Even though I have been here many times since I was a young boy, I never tire of the relaxing sound of the rushing water. I also love taking a walk and then putting my tired feet in the icy water.

Later Saturday we walked around Bryson City and then finished the day with board games and dinner at the Fryemont Inn before the drive back to Franklin.

Sunday started with heavy rain showers before clearing and turning into a beautiful afternoon. Robin's Dad and I worked on running power down to the barn and then Robin and I ended the day with a short motorcycle ride and then a trip to the dairy queen.

He Said. Farmer's Market special Event

After work this evening Robin, baby girl, and I went downtown to a special event. Everything was sponsored by AG Credit and thus free to the public. We bought several interesting plants for our garden and enjoyed a gourmet burger, salad, and homemade strawberry shortcake. There was live music and even a visit by the SC Commissioner of Agriculture. Afterwards, we walked over to our building on Main Street that we have been remodeling. Each week, we tell ourselves that maybe next week we will finish. Redoing an older building is so much fun, but can be stressful and very expensive. Hopefully, the rent that we receive will cover most of the payment each month on the loan. This picture was taken several weeks ago and much work has been completed since.

He Said. She's Home!

Our children and I are all so glad to have wife/mama back home in Anderson. I know that we are wimps when it comes to holding the family together without her, but we are not a complete family when she is gone. She is exhausted after 12 hours on the train from Washington to Clemson. She came back with great news! She has passed the oral exam in the process of becoming a foreign service officer for the US State Department. This is quite an achievement since less than 5% of all that apply make it this far.
Next for us is passing the medical clearance (all five of us) and she will have to pass the top secret security clearance. She was told that this next step should take about 6 months and then we can be placed on the register. Once on the register, she is eligible to be invited to the A-100 class and hired by the State Department. If everything goes well, we hope to be going to our first post in about a year from now.