Two weeks down of my three-week orientation. Yay. After next week, I will not only know where I am going but also know about when I should arrive.
It looks like I will be deploying around mid-November, but
that’s speculative. We have nine posts on our bid list (one for everyone) and
one requires language. It is possible that the person who is posted there might
get Spanish lessons for as long as it takes the person’s visa to come through.
The same posting, which is in South
America, was open before but the person assigned there, after
seven months, was turned down for the visa. So that person is going elsewhere
and the position is up for grabs again.
The way it sounds, the only way anyone is staying is if they
get that post. The other eight posts are listed as “NOW” for availability. I
think we can put in for training but not hold our breaths that it will be
available.
So far, I am trying to pick up tricks of the job, and
training is one of them. Apparently you need to lobby for it every chance you
get. And this means tacking it on the end of R&R trips or home leave.
The former is a plane ticket you get to a particular city if
you’re posted in a “hardship” post. You get a ticket to that city halfway
through your two-year tour, or you can opt for your home of record or someplace
that’s the same cost (or less) of one of those.
The latter is extra accrued time, 15 days a year, that you
take either once a year (two-year posts) or after 18 months or so (three-year
posts).
The trick is, you’re supposed to lobby for training in DC to
tack on the end of those. Now, I do not understand how you’re supposed to do it
during R&R if your R&R point is, say, London.
But I will figure that kind of stuff out later.
All but one of the available posts have R&R, which is
given for hardship posts. You get the plane ticket but you have to use your own
leave time, which makes sense.
I’m not at liberty to divulge the bid list, but the R&R
points are fabulous: London, Paris,
Rome, Sydney and Miami. If I got the one
with Miami, I’d definitely go to Tallahassee instead.
Plus, that particular post has two R&R breaks, so it’d be two tickets home
in two years. Not bad.
On the bid list, I can be vague: There is one European city,
one in South America, one in Africa and one in China (I’m told there’s always
one in Africa and one in China), two in the same SE Asian city and two more in
what I consider Central Asia, plus a “Stan.”
The European city is the other that doesn’t have the
R&R. A second post has two R&Rs but I forget which one it is. It’s a Sydney one, though.
“Flag Day” is Tuesday. The do a whole little dog-and-pony
show where they call out the country and hand someone a flag, or something like
that. I’m not into dog-and-pony shows, so I’ll just grin and bear it.
People keep asking what I am hoping for, but I just don’t
care. I’m amused by some of the people because they keep telling people where
they want to “go.” It’s not “going” like on vacation. This is a job.
There are also a lot of younger people here and they’re all
stoked to be “going” to X or Y but they *really* want to “go to” Z. It’s kind
of like, wow, you’re 27. You will retire in 38 years. If you do not get
assigned to Z right now, it’s not the end of the world. There will be LOTS of time
to bid on X, Y and Z – as well as A through W.
As for me, I really can’t get excited about it. I mean, I do
want to get on with the job (and the paycheck), but I’m not going to sit and
sob if I wind up in Central Asian city instead of European City or whatever it
is.
Right now, if I had to guess, I’d say I’m destined for SE
Asian City. The career lady swears she’s never given anyone one of their “low”
bids, and for me, that was one of the Central
Asian Cities
and European City, based on the fact that those
embassies are monolithic and I really prefer smaller workplaces.
In talking to some of the other candidates, I’ve found that
people have bid high on most of the cities but so far I talked to anyone who
has SE Asian City “high,” and there are two posts available.
Since I have stressed that I don’t care – and this is true –
I figure I have a good shot at winding up there. It would be fine and perhaps
even an easier transition, because I would have an immediate support group.
Yeah, it would be the blind leading the blind and we’d be in different sections
at the embassy, but still, I would know someone right off.
Of course, now that I put that prediction out there it won’t
happen, but that’s OK.
My only wish is that they really don’t give us a flag. I am
trying to hard to continue with the downsizing I just don’t want to add
anything.
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