Just a quick note for those who read this, but don't get some other e-mails from us (feel free to identify yourselves, by the way)!
It's been a year since we updated the blog. In the intervening time, we've had grandiose plans to do a month-by-month synopsis of our activities during the year. Obviously, that never got off the ground.
The biggest news since the last posting was our assignment - and it happened not too much later. We're off to Buenos Aires next summer, after a course of Spanish in DC! Yay!
Ok, that's it for now. Hopefully, we'll have more later... Sooner than later, Inshallah (as they say here).
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Bidding
First, I want to wish Mara a very happy birthday. I'm usually pretty bad at remembering birthdays and the like, but I'm trying to get better. Happy B-day, Mar!
Second, I submitted our bidlist yesterday, so I guess I can share it today without jinxing it. Here's to hoping!
Before I get there, tho, I should explain that we have agonized over this list since July 1. We've culled through post reports, real post reports, post profiles, wikipedia articles, diplopedia articles, post info to go documents, and more to try and cull a list of 550+ positions to 20, with no repeats.
The first thing we had to do was figure out what the requirements were, and then what matters most to us; we broke this into professional considerations and personal considerations. Mind you, since we have to send this to my career development officer, we focused on my professional considerations in our summary, and Katie's in our research.
Our requirements were that we had to find a consular position for me. We also had to find one with timing that works out perfectly and includes home leave, consular training, area studies, and, possibly, language training. Those requirements took us down to about 180 positions.
My professional considerations were already mostly included in the requirements. The only other major professional consideration we had was the size of the post (yes, size does matter!) to try and find something different. Since I've worked on the Middle East for 10 years, we wanted something somewhere else, although, if any really good ME positions had worked, we would have considered them.
Our personal considerations were that we wanted to find a place where Katie could continue her career development, preferably in the private sector, but possibly as a State Department contractor. We wanted to find a place where we can take the dogs (which meant no Jamaica, among other places).
So, here's the list. CON means it's a consular position, the - means it's a rotation, POL = Political Officer, ECON = Economic Officer, and the IROG in Curacao means it's a do a bit of everything. We ranked the top 9 high, 10-16 medium, and 17-20 "Low", but we might go to any one of these, or, if the Career Development Officers (CDOs) don't like the list at all, somewhere else entirely. I like our chances for several of these, tho.
1. Amsterdam/CON
2. Warsaw/CON-POL
3. Buenos Aires/CON
4. Bucharest/CON
5. Santiago/CON
6. Lima/CON
7. Tijuana/CON
8. Bern/CON
9. Curacao/CON-IROG
10. Athens/CON-ECON
11. Frankfurt/CON
12. Montreal/CON
13. Toronto/CON
14. Panama/CON
15. Merida/CON
16. Guadalajara/CON
17. Brasilia/CON
18. Hong Kong/CON
19. Belgrade/CON
20. Belmopan/CON
Second, I submitted our bidlist yesterday, so I guess I can share it today without jinxing it. Here's to hoping!
Before I get there, tho, I should explain that we have agonized over this list since July 1. We've culled through post reports, real post reports, post profiles, wikipedia articles, diplopedia articles, post info to go documents, and more to try and cull a list of 550+ positions to 20, with no repeats.
The first thing we had to do was figure out what the requirements were, and then what matters most to us; we broke this into professional considerations and personal considerations. Mind you, since we have to send this to my career development officer, we focused on my professional considerations in our summary, and Katie's in our research.
Our requirements were that we had to find a consular position for me. We also had to find one with timing that works out perfectly and includes home leave, consular training, area studies, and, possibly, language training. Those requirements took us down to about 180 positions.
My professional considerations were already mostly included in the requirements. The only other major professional consideration we had was the size of the post (yes, size does matter!) to try and find something different. Since I've worked on the Middle East for 10 years, we wanted something somewhere else, although, if any really good ME positions had worked, we would have considered them.
Our personal considerations were that we wanted to find a place where Katie could continue her career development, preferably in the private sector, but possibly as a State Department contractor. We wanted to find a place where we can take the dogs (which meant no Jamaica, among other places).
So, here's the list. CON means it's a consular position, the - means it's a rotation, POL = Political Officer, ECON = Economic Officer, and the IROG in Curacao means it's a do a bit of everything. We ranked the top 9 high, 10-16 medium, and 17-20 "Low", but we might go to any one of these, or, if the Career Development Officers (CDOs) don't like the list at all, somewhere else entirely. I like our chances for several of these, tho.
1. Amsterdam/CON
2. Warsaw/CON-POL
3. Buenos Aires/CON
4. Bucharest/CON
5. Santiago/CON
6. Lima/CON
7. Tijuana/CON
8. Bern/CON
9. Curacao/CON-IROG
10. Athens/CON-ECON
11. Frankfurt/CON
12. Montreal/CON
13. Toronto/CON
14. Panama/CON
15. Merida/CON
16. Guadalajara/CON
17. Brasilia/CON
18. Hong Kong/CON
19. Belgrade/CON
20. Belmopan/CON
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Bad Bloggers! Bad!
I can't believe it's been over a month since we last posted a blog. I guess we've been busy.
We've spent most of our free time doing research into our next post. Yup, we've been here for not quite 10 months, and we're already trying to figure out where we're going next. We got the list of available positions on July 1, and it got pared down again about 10 days ago. On Monday, we finished our draft bid list of the top 20 places that we'd like to go. We submit the final next Wednesday. Hopefully we'll know where we're going by mid-September.
I know everybody always wants to know what's on our short list, but I don't wanna jinx it. Let's just say that countries in the Middle East, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia aren't, but the rest of the world is pretty much fair game. How long we'll be in DC, and when, depends largely on where we go next.
The dogs are still misbehaving, but I think they're acting out of a desire for more love and attention. They sort of listen at least some of the time. They haven't grown much bigger, but they're still chewing up their toys. We're not giving them any more ropes or rubber toys - the pieces end up all over the house. They're also not allowed on the couches, but they think it's a game to jump up on a chair and wait for us to tell them to get down. We've tried putting aluminum foil on the couches; it worked until they started eating the foil. Katie often tells them, "It's a good thing you're so cute." It really is nice to have them waiting for us when we get home. They follow us around the house, and often seem torn as to which of us to follow.
No pictures this time, maybe later.
We've spent most of our free time doing research into our next post. Yup, we've been here for not quite 10 months, and we're already trying to figure out where we're going next. We got the list of available positions on July 1, and it got pared down again about 10 days ago. On Monday, we finished our draft bid list of the top 20 places that we'd like to go. We submit the final next Wednesday. Hopefully we'll know where we're going by mid-September.
I know everybody always wants to know what's on our short list, but I don't wanna jinx it. Let's just say that countries in the Middle East, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia aren't, but the rest of the world is pretty much fair game. How long we'll be in DC, and when, depends largely on where we go next.
The dogs are still misbehaving, but I think they're acting out of a desire for more love and attention. They sort of listen at least some of the time. They haven't grown much bigger, but they're still chewing up their toys. We're not giving them any more ropes or rubber toys - the pieces end up all over the house. They're also not allowed on the couches, but they think it's a game to jump up on a chair and wait for us to tell them to get down. We've tried putting aluminum foil on the couches; it worked until they started eating the foil. Katie often tells them, "It's a good thing you're so cute." It really is nice to have them waiting for us when we get home. They follow us around the house, and often seem torn as to which of us to follow.
No pictures this time, maybe later.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
More puppies!
You may remember the above little puppies from pictures a few months ago. Well, we've finally gotten back to taking pictures.
The monsters aren't so small anymore. George is about 45 lbs. Gracie's a bit smaller, about 35 lbs.
At 6 months, the monsters were converted to impotent dogs. Gracie kept licking her surgery site, so the vet told us to put her in a shirt to protect the wound. Our next door neighbor's daughter, happily loaned Gracie her shirt!
George was jealous that he wasn't getting a new pic, so here he is!
See more pics here:
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| Dogs |
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| Dogs |
Thursday, June 19, 2008
How do we get there?
As most of you know, when I get and give directions, I like to use landmarks - road names - hah! I don't need no stinking road names!
Well, boy did I come to the right place. The only way you can give directions here is by landmarks. The secondary raods here are all numbers - there is no Oak Street or Maple Lane. You would live at Road 3435. And good luck finding the sign for it.
The main roads are like the States - named after famous people. But for most of us Westerners, who are used to Martin Luther King Blvd. being shortended to MLK and Thomas Jefferson Avenue being just Jefferson, it can get a little confusing when the names are hard to shorten because they are so similar like "Shiekh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Salman Highway". All different roads (and different people). Like naming one road John Adams Aveune and the one right next to it John Quincy Adams Avenue.
Anyways, yesterday we received an invitation for directions to a friends house. The directions were so funny and typical Bahrain. Below is a modified version:
"Take Highway that leads to Saudi to the KFC roundabout (that is what I call it). Turn on Jazayer or Jazier road (it doesn’t have a sign so it really doesn’t matter how I spell it). Once you pass the Jazayer Mosque take the first right (You can’t actually see the road-thanks to the sand, so my landmark is the gas station across the street). Follow that road (known as road 4231 – but you won’t see that sign for a while)… as I said, follow that road, it will curve to the right, go over a speed bump, you’ll pass an abandoned shop, go over 1 more speed bump and then my compound will be on the left. I’ll try to put a few balloons outside but I’m not sure how long they’ll last out there."
These are actually really good Bahrain directions - we should have no problem finding it!
Well, boy did I come to the right place. The only way you can give directions here is by landmarks. The secondary raods here are all numbers - there is no Oak Street or Maple Lane. You would live at Road 3435. And good luck finding the sign for it.
The main roads are like the States - named after famous people. But for most of us Westerners, who are used to Martin Luther King Blvd. being shortended to MLK and Thomas Jefferson Avenue being just Jefferson, it can get a little confusing when the names are hard to shorten because they are so similar like "Shiekh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Salman Highway". All different roads (and different people). Like naming one road John Adams Aveune and the one right next to it John Quincy Adams Avenue.
Anyways, yesterday we received an invitation for directions to a friends house. The directions were so funny and typical Bahrain. Below is a modified version:
"Take Highway that leads to Saudi to the KFC roundabout (that is what I call it). Turn on Jazayer or Jazier road (it doesn’t have a sign so it really doesn’t matter how I spell it). Once you pass the Jazayer Mosque take the first right (You can’t actually see the road-thanks to the sand, so my landmark is the gas station across the street). Follow that road (known as road 4231 – but you won’t see that sign for a while)… as I said, follow that road, it will curve to the right, go over a speed bump, you’ll pass an abandoned shop, go over 1 more speed bump and then my compound will be on the left. I’ll try to put a few balloons outside but I’m not sure how long they’ll last out there."
These are actually really good Bahrain directions - we should have no problem finding it!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Working 9 to 5 . . .
So I officially have a job in my field! Yeah!
I am working for Gulf Holding Company as a Project Manager. GHC is a development company here in Bahrain, so I am the client - sweet - nice to be in charge. The project I am working on is called Al Areen Downtown. We are the developers of a parcel of land within a master development. The land will be developed with shops, retaurants, a hotel, apartments, villas, townhomes, a spa, a fitness center, mosque and school. We have started construction of the first phase and have started the design on the 2nd and 3rd phases, so I get to see both processes, which is great. I really enjoy what I am doing.
My company is pretty much a mini UN of different nationalities. My boss is from South Africa, and the Senior Project Manager who is basically training me is a Brit. My boss' boss is Kuwaiti. The VP of operations is a woman from Jordan. We have people from Bahrain, Lebanon, India and Pakistan and all over south-east Asia.
So, a few things that are funny about work. First off, because Bahrain used to be a British protectorate, so everything in English is spelled the British way. I have already been corrected on my spelling, "''Color' should be spelled 'c-o-l-o-u-r' in your report."
There are also a lot of construction terms that are different. My favorite one for this week was punch list. This is the list the Architect makes of all of the things that need to be fixed before they will accept a building. So, when my boss kept talking about the "snag list", I had no clue what he was referring to.
They other thing that is weird is that all of the offices I have been in have a butler. It is this guy that brings you water, coffee and tea all day long. You can have European or Arabic coffee or tea. He will also take your lunch in the morning, and if it needs to be heated, will bring it to you at lunch time when you call. It is very weird. There are also no water coolers because you can get water from the butler.
The Master Developer of the project (the company we bought our land from) had the coolest set up -they actually have a Costa coffee kiosk in their office. So, when you are in a meeting and the butler asks what you would like, you can totally say "I would like a double shot, non-fat, non-caf, vanilla, no foam cappuccino" and you could get it. I say could, because everyone else is ordering stuff too, so something that complicated will probably come back wrong. Since our last meeting was in the afternoon, my co-worker recommended a hot chocolate - yummy.
I am working for Gulf Holding Company as a Project Manager. GHC is a development company here in Bahrain, so I am the client - sweet - nice to be in charge. The project I am working on is called Al Areen Downtown. We are the developers of a parcel of land within a master development. The land will be developed with shops, retaurants, a hotel, apartments, villas, townhomes, a spa, a fitness center, mosque and school. We have started construction of the first phase and have started the design on the 2nd and 3rd phases, so I get to see both processes, which is great. I really enjoy what I am doing.
My company is pretty much a mini UN of different nationalities. My boss is from South Africa, and the Senior Project Manager who is basically training me is a Brit. My boss' boss is Kuwaiti. The VP of operations is a woman from Jordan. We have people from Bahrain, Lebanon, India and Pakistan and all over south-east Asia.
So, a few things that are funny about work. First off, because Bahrain used to be a British protectorate, so everything in English is spelled the British way. I have already been corrected on my spelling, "''Color' should be spelled 'c-o-l-o-u-r' in your report."
There are also a lot of construction terms that are different. My favorite one for this week was punch list. This is the list the Architect makes of all of the things that need to be fixed before they will accept a building. So, when my boss kept talking about the "snag list", I had no clue what he was referring to.
They other thing that is weird is that all of the offices I have been in have a butler. It is this guy that brings you water, coffee and tea all day long. You can have European or Arabic coffee or tea. He will also take your lunch in the morning, and if it needs to be heated, will bring it to you at lunch time when you call. It is very weird. There are also no water coolers because you can get water from the butler.
The Master Developer of the project (the company we bought our land from) had the coolest set up -they actually have a Costa coffee kiosk in their office. So, when you are in a meeting and the butler asks what you would like, you can totally say "I would like a double shot, non-fat, non-caf, vanilla, no foam cappuccino" and you could get it. I say could, because everyone else is ordering stuff too, so something that complicated will probably come back wrong. Since our last meeting was in the afternoon, my co-worker recommended a hot chocolate - yummy.
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