Okay, so, Steve and I swore that we would get better then posting once a month. . . and then the POTUS storm hit.
We got word in mid-December that the President and the Secretary of State would be coming to our little island for part of their visit to the Middle East. The party would show up on January 12th and stay the night.
What we saw next was pretty amazing - the embassy was whipped up and organized and everyone took on some sort of responsibility (along with their daily jobs they have in the embassy). The people who had experienced a presidential visit warned us of long hours, vacations being re-scheduled and weekends spent working.
The embassy staff spent the first couple weeks of planning in an extremely busy, but relatively quiet state. The teams were planning and working with Washington on locations and events.
Right around New Year's though, the storm really started. Advance people from all of the different agencies started coming in and everyone in the embassy had a group in town that they were working with.
Steve ended up with a bunch of different responsibilities. The first was that he was the Control Officer for the Advance Staff. So basically, he was the point of contact for the White House advance team. This was one of many positions Steve was assigned to. He was also in charge of the gifts and the Control Officer for some of the other people coming in on the 12th.
The embassy had Site Officer for the different locations the president would be who would make sure all of the logistics were taken care of, we had a point of contact for all of the security team's questions, the communication's team's question. There were people in charge of different areas of logistics - transportation, customs and immigration, the hotels, etc.
I ended up working with the person from the State Department office that is in charge of international Presidential travel. I ended up making and updating the spreadsheets for all the hotels and who was in which one. It actually became pretty challenging - mostly because there is no hotel in Bahrain large enough to house the President and the 700+ of his closest friends who would be in town on the 12th, so we had four different hotels we were using.
And here is where the dorky Architectural Engineer comes into play - one of the things we needed to do when assigning rooms to people was see where the rooms were on the floor layout. Of course we don't have CAD (which would have made life easy, because the hotel did have an electronic copy of their drawings) so I ended up making a floor plan out of text boxes so we could layout where people were and type their names in each room. It made life a lot easier and everything was easy to update and check against out master list - I know - I am a dork....
For the two weeks before the visit Steve and I both were logging in 80 hours a week for work. We didn't have a day we weren't working from December 29th until January 17th. It was a little bit nuts.
Stay tuned for the next post about the actual visit.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Has it really been a month?
Wow, time flies.
I really thought it'd only been a week or two since we last posted. How much has happened in the last month? The easy answer: A lot.
In terms of home goods, we got our first shipment of stuff. That's the 450 pounds of stuff that we wanted here before the rest of our stuff gets here. We had packed our clothes, towels, sheets, and shoes, and some kitchen stuff. We're excited to have it, but, almost every night look at each other as we realize we can't really cook the stuff we want to cook and say, "I can't wait for our stuff to get here." When will it be here, you ask? Well, it's supposed to arrive in country on Dec. 25 at about 9 pm. We're hoping we have it in hand the first or second week of January. That'll be good.
Work? Work's good, but really busy. I actually made the paper - once in a picture about somebody else, and once as the "Embassy officer responsible for the annual human rights report." Hey, it's something! Some of our recent visitors included Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Homeland Security secretary Robert Chertoff, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert Kimmitt (anybody else noticing a pattern or am I just screwing up the first names? Mom just pointed out I screwed up Chertoff's name, it's Michael. Sorry Mr. Chertoff!), and several congressmen, none of whom were named Robert.
Katie's started working at the embassy part time, although it doesn't seem to be part time anymore. We drive in together, and, more often than not, leave together, too. The unfortunate part is that she's working in the basement and therefore doesn't get a signal from her cell phone, so if any of the private sector jobs call her, she doesn't even find out about it.
Which brings up another point - voicemail. They don't seem to have it on their cell phones here. I don't get it. how the heck are you supposed to know who called you and about what without voicemail?
In the interest of keeping this entry short I'll just add two more paragraphs - one about Thanksgiving and one about Chanukah.
We had Thanksgiving at my boss' house with some other of my boss' friends. He and his wife (Steve and Stephanie) are both from Kentucky, and turkey day showed it! We had dressing, turkey, oyster dressing, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese! What a great day! Our next door neighbor, who also works at the embassy, was going to come, but her daughter got sick. So, on the way back, we stopped by with a box of leftover desserts and two unfinished bottles of wine. While it didn't compare with being home with our friends and family, it was still a good Thanksgiving!
I forgot about the first night of Chanukah amidst the SecDef's visit. I remembered on the second night, and every night thereafter we lit candles. On the eighth night of Chanukah, Katie surprised me with a Chanukah dinner - including her first Kugel and Latkes! It was really good, and I had no idea it was coming!
Told you it'd only be 2 more paragraphs! We hope everybody's well!
I really thought it'd only been a week or two since we last posted. How much has happened in the last month? The easy answer: A lot.
In terms of home goods, we got our first shipment of stuff. That's the 450 pounds of stuff that we wanted here before the rest of our stuff gets here. We had packed our clothes, towels, sheets, and shoes, and some kitchen stuff. We're excited to have it, but, almost every night look at each other as we realize we can't really cook the stuff we want to cook and say, "I can't wait for our stuff to get here." When will it be here, you ask? Well, it's supposed to arrive in country on Dec. 25 at about 9 pm. We're hoping we have it in hand the first or second week of January. That'll be good.
Work? Work's good, but really busy. I actually made the paper - once in a picture about somebody else, and once as the "Embassy officer responsible for the annual human rights report." Hey, it's something! Some of our recent visitors included Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Homeland Security secretary Robert Chertoff, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert Kimmitt (anybody else noticing a pattern or am I just screwing up the first names? Mom just pointed out I screwed up Chertoff's name, it's Michael. Sorry Mr. Chertoff!), and several congressmen, none of whom were named Robert.
Katie's started working at the embassy part time, although it doesn't seem to be part time anymore. We drive in together, and, more often than not, leave together, too. The unfortunate part is that she's working in the basement and therefore doesn't get a signal from her cell phone, so if any of the private sector jobs call her, she doesn't even find out about it.
Which brings up another point - voicemail. They don't seem to have it on their cell phones here. I don't get it. how the heck are you supposed to know who called you and about what without voicemail?
In the interest of keeping this entry short I'll just add two more paragraphs - one about Thanksgiving and one about Chanukah.
We had Thanksgiving at my boss' house with some other of my boss' friends. He and his wife (Steve and Stephanie) are both from Kentucky, and turkey day showed it! We had dressing, turkey, oyster dressing, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese! What a great day! Our next door neighbor, who also works at the embassy, was going to come, but her daughter got sick. So, on the way back, we stopped by with a box of leftover desserts and two unfinished bottles of wine. While it didn't compare with being home with our friends and family, it was still a good Thanksgiving!
I forgot about the first night of Chanukah amidst the SecDef's visit. I remembered on the second night, and every night thereafter we lit candles. On the eighth night of Chanukah, Katie surprised me with a Chanukah dinner - including her first Kugel and Latkes! It was really good, and I had no idea it was coming!
Told you it'd only be 2 more paragraphs! We hope everybody's well!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Camels and Cows and Horses, Oh My!
When we got to our house the first night in Manama, we were greeted by about six cats, and the amount of animals we have seen since then keeps on growing.
So, there seems to be a pack of neighborhood cats that live in our complex. There are about four black kitties, a white and black calico and an orange tiger kitty that seems to hang around our place, even though we don't give them food. They seem to be pretty used to all of the people and cars. This morning one of the kitties just laid in the road taking a rest in front of our house. She seemed to feel I could get my car around her, which I could, and did not bother to bat an eye as I drove past.
Along with our everyday visits from the kitties, we have also been seeing a bunch of different animals as we drive around. I have seen people walking their goats and donkeys along the side of the road. I have seen some sheep and bunnies too. We went to the outdoor market the other day and saw some chickens and ducks. Unfortunately for them, I don't think they had that much longer to live since we saw them outside of a poultry butcher stand.
Bahrain is known for its horse racing and riding and a lot of the well to do Bahrainis have horses. Last week I saw three Arabian horses being walked along the road in one of the developments near our house.
Last week I saw a cow and, this morning during rush hour, I saw a camel in the back of a pick-up truck. The truck has these rails around the bed that are about five feet high so that the animal cannot fall out. In case you were wondering, the camel was definitely smarter then the cow. The camel was sitting down in the back of it's truck, so that when the traffic stopped and started it didn't go flying around. The cow stood up for the whole time we saw her. I felt bad for it because every time the truck started or stopped the cow almost fell over.
So, there you have it - the animals you can see when driving the roads of Bahrain.
So, there seems to be a pack of neighborhood cats that live in our complex. There are about four black kitties, a white and black calico and an orange tiger kitty that seems to hang around our place, even though we don't give them food. They seem to be pretty used to all of the people and cars. This morning one of the kitties just laid in the road taking a rest in front of our house. She seemed to feel I could get my car around her, which I could, and did not bother to bat an eye as I drove past.
Along with our everyday visits from the kitties, we have also been seeing a bunch of different animals as we drive around. I have seen people walking their goats and donkeys along the side of the road. I have seen some sheep and bunnies too. We went to the outdoor market the other day and saw some chickens and ducks. Unfortunately for them, I don't think they had that much longer to live since we saw them outside of a poultry butcher stand.
Bahrain is known for its horse racing and riding and a lot of the well to do Bahrainis have horses. Last week I saw three Arabian horses being walked along the road in one of the developments near our house.
Last week I saw a cow and, this morning during rush hour, I saw a camel in the back of a pick-up truck. The truck has these rails around the bed that are about five feet high so that the animal cannot fall out. In case you were wondering, the camel was definitely smarter then the cow. The camel was sitting down in the back of it's truck, so that when the traffic stopped and started it didn't go flying around. The cow stood up for the whole time we saw her. I felt bad for it because every time the truck started or stopped the cow almost fell over.
So, there you have it - the animals you can see when driving the roads of Bahrain.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Hooray!
So, the internet is up at home! And, you know what that means - No, not porn, but Vonage! That's right, for a limited time only (as in as long as we're here/at home), you can call us just as if we were in the States! Please, please, please check the clock on the blog before you make that fateful call, though. Nobody wants to talk to me after waking me up in the middle of the night, not even Katie.
So, for those of you who know, we came up with a great way of determining if we're awake (outside of using the blog clock). It's really quite simple, we call it the James and Erica method. If Erica is going to bed, we're waking up. When James is going to work, I'm getting home. When Erica's normally scheduled workday is done, we're going to bed! See, it's simple!
Ok, so on to some other news. Some work news, perhaps?
On Thursday, we attended a reception at the Japanese Ambassador's residence for the new Japanese Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM). The DCM is the second in charge of the embassy, and, when the Ambassador's out of the country, acting Ambassador, or Charge' de Affairs. So, we went to this reception, and had a love-ly time. While not quite the most junior there in rank, we probably were in age! There were a number of ambassadors, DCMs, and various individuals from some small embassies. I got to use my Arabic, and Katie "got" to sit and chat with the ladies all night. What fun! The best part was that they had sushi! Unfortunately, some of the Arabs didn't know how to use chopsticks, so we helped as best as we could.
There are 3 Steve's in my office. There's Steve B., S., and J. We've been going by full names, "Hey, Steve Jacob, I got something for you!" But, I've come up with a better way: Steve B - the Boss. Steve S - Senior, and Steve J - Junior! There's another Steve in a different section, but he's Steve M., and I can't figure out how to work that in.
There's also a Steve Jacobs. Steve Jacobs is a Tunisian street dog. I haven't met him, yet, but I'm looking forward to it, even if his mommy says he's mean.
So, for those of you who know, we came up with a great way of determining if we're awake (outside of using the blog clock). It's really quite simple, we call it the James and Erica method. If Erica is going to bed, we're waking up. When James is going to work, I'm getting home. When Erica's normally scheduled workday is done, we're going to bed! See, it's simple!
Ok, so on to some other news. Some work news, perhaps?
On Thursday, we attended a reception at the Japanese Ambassador's residence for the new Japanese Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM). The DCM is the second in charge of the embassy, and, when the Ambassador's out of the country, acting Ambassador, or Charge' de Affairs. So, we went to this reception, and had a love-ly time. While not quite the most junior there in rank, we probably were in age! There were a number of ambassadors, DCMs, and various individuals from some small embassies. I got to use my Arabic, and Katie "got" to sit and chat with the ladies all night. What fun! The best part was that they had sushi! Unfortunately, some of the Arabs didn't know how to use chopsticks, so we helped as best as we could.
There are 3 Steve's in my office. There's Steve B., S., and J. We've been going by full names, "Hey, Steve Jacob, I got something for you!" But, I've come up with a better way: Steve B - the Boss. Steve S - Senior, and Steve J - Junior! There's another Steve in a different section, but he's Steve M., and I can't figure out how to work that in.
There's also a Steve Jacobs. Steve Jacobs is a Tunisian street dog. I haven't met him, yet, but I'm looking forward to it, even if his mommy says he's mean.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Made it to Manama
So, we have made it to Manama!
We still do not have Internet, so I cannot post any pictures yet. I am posting this from the embassy today. As soon as we get the Internet up we will post some pictures.
So, a little about the trip here and the first week settling in. The actual travel to Manama was pretty uneventful. I actually slept most of the way and Steve wasn't that far behind me on the hours of sleep. When we switched planes in Frankfurt it was about 45 degrees there. When we got off the plane in Manama is was about 85 degrees here!
Our sponsors picked us up and took us to our new home, which is is a quiet gated neighborhood in the suburbs of Manama. We arrived at the beginning of the Bahrain weekend, so we actually had two days to explore before Steve had to start work. On Friday we were taken out by our sponsors for lunch and a trip to the Navy Base, which has a Navy Exchange on it - a great place to buy some American things. On Saturday we drove around and got a little lost in Manama - we ended up driving through the Souk, which is one lane and surrounded by shops and people walking around. Locals do not drive through there - we felt a little silly!
Sunday was Steve's first day of work, and I was suppose to come along to get badged in and meet some of the embassy personnel. Everyone has been extremely nice to us here, and very helpful.
So, some of you have already received some of these interesting tidbits, but I have tried to add some new ones:
1. Driving here is CRAZY! The Bahrain people are very nice, but once you get on the road with them - watch out! The best is that the roads have tons of roundabouts - thanks to the British influence here - so along with crazy driving, we have to deal with those too. They also have the traffic lights that flash yellow before the green light comes on, and the zig-zag lines before a stop light like in London. The main difference from the Brits is that they do drive on the right side of the road here.
2. The island is very small. It is about 3 times the size of DC, so if it takes you more than an hour to get somewhere, you are probably lost. It takes us about 20-30 min to get to the embassy. Everyone here complains about how long it takes to get in from where we live - I think it is great though - that commute from Washington to Baltimore has made me jaded about traffic!
3. The grocery stores "on the economy" (which means not at the Navy Base) do serve Western food, but most of it is British. It is like shopping in a weird version of the supermarket in Leeds. All the same biscuits and candies and things like that. Vegetables are very expensive at the grocery stores though - I think we paid about four dollars for two peppers, and a small container of raspberries is about six dollars.
Let's see - in other news, we have received our local cable TV - it is called Orbit. We watched Meerkat Manor last night on Animal Planet. Cori and Jason told us about it (hi Glucks!), and so we got a little hooked last night. It is this goofy show that follows the life of these Meerkats in the wild. Think soap opera - Animal Planet style. There are about 16 English channels. They showed Gilmore Girls too (that information is for Grammy L.) - but they showed it with subtitles in Arabic - you would have to be the world's fastest reader to understand. We are waiting for our AFN box from the Navy - it takes some time - but after we get that we can get ESPN and some other US channels - go FOOTBALL!!!!
Anyways - I have to run, my ride is leaving the embassy, but I will post a part deux soon......sorry so long - we will try and be more frequent and slower.
We still do not have Internet, so I cannot post any pictures yet. I am posting this from the embassy today. As soon as we get the Internet up we will post some pictures.
So, a little about the trip here and the first week settling in. The actual travel to Manama was pretty uneventful. I actually slept most of the way and Steve wasn't that far behind me on the hours of sleep. When we switched planes in Frankfurt it was about 45 degrees there. When we got off the plane in Manama is was about 85 degrees here!
Our sponsors picked us up and took us to our new home, which is is a quiet gated neighborhood in the suburbs of Manama. We arrived at the beginning of the Bahrain weekend, so we actually had two days to explore before Steve had to start work. On Friday we were taken out by our sponsors for lunch and a trip to the Navy Base, which has a Navy Exchange on it - a great place to buy some American things. On Saturday we drove around and got a little lost in Manama - we ended up driving through the Souk, which is one lane and surrounded by shops and people walking around. Locals do not drive through there - we felt a little silly!
Sunday was Steve's first day of work, and I was suppose to come along to get badged in and meet some of the embassy personnel. Everyone has been extremely nice to us here, and very helpful.
So, some of you have already received some of these interesting tidbits, but I have tried to add some new ones:
1. Driving here is CRAZY! The Bahrain people are very nice, but once you get on the road with them - watch out! The best is that the roads have tons of roundabouts - thanks to the British influence here - so along with crazy driving, we have to deal with those too. They also have the traffic lights that flash yellow before the green light comes on, and the zig-zag lines before a stop light like in London. The main difference from the Brits is that they do drive on the right side of the road here.
2. The island is very small. It is about 3 times the size of DC, so if it takes you more than an hour to get somewhere, you are probably lost. It takes us about 20-30 min to get to the embassy. Everyone here complains about how long it takes to get in from where we live - I think it is great though - that commute from Washington to Baltimore has made me jaded about traffic!
3. The grocery stores "on the economy" (which means not at the Navy Base) do serve Western food, but most of it is British. It is like shopping in a weird version of the supermarket in Leeds. All the same biscuits and candies and things like that. Vegetables are very expensive at the grocery stores though - I think we paid about four dollars for two peppers, and a small container of raspberries is about six dollars.
Let's see - in other news, we have received our local cable TV - it is called Orbit. We watched Meerkat Manor last night on Animal Planet. Cori and Jason told us about it (hi Glucks!), and so we got a little hooked last night. It is this goofy show that follows the life of these Meerkats in the wild. Think soap opera - Animal Planet style. There are about 16 English channels. They showed Gilmore Girls too (that information is for Grammy L.) - but they showed it with subtitles in Arabic - you would have to be the world's fastest reader to understand. We are waiting for our AFN box from the Navy - it takes some time - but after we get that we can get ESPN and some other US channels - go FOOTBALL!!!!
Anyways - I have to run, my ride is leaving the embassy, but I will post a part deux soon......sorry so long - we will try and be more frequent and slower.
Friday, October 5, 2007
New Format
You've probably noticed new additions to our little Blog. This is, as always, a work in progress. If you have other recommendations on things to add, let us know, and we'll do our best to figure out how to put them up here. (Yup, we're talking about a Flickr account so we can post more pictures!)
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Back to Arabic
Ladies and gentlemen, the backlog is gone! That's right, you can get your very own new passport, and quickly, too!
Why do we mention this?
Well, the answer is because it means Steve is back in class, learning (or relearning, as the case may be) Arabic. His new test is on October 18, so wish him much luck and success, because there's $$ in it for him if he does really well.
Tomorrow is Katie's last day at Barton Malow. This company, where she's worked since graduating, is sorry to see her go, but has been wonderful about helping her find employment in Bahrain and beyond.
After numerous SNAFUs with State Department Medical, they have Katie's records and promise us a clearance in the next few days. This is good, because when that's done, we should get orders, which we need in order to get Diplomatic Passports, get State to pay to pack up all of our stuff, and to get our tickets.
We just recieved pictures of all of our furniture in the new home - most of it's "18th century", a lot of dark wood and the like. It'll probably look even better in person! Now, we just have to go through all of our stuff and find out what we're going to take with us.
Why do we mention this?
Well, the answer is because it means Steve is back in class, learning (or relearning, as the case may be) Arabic. His new test is on October 18, so wish him much luck and success, because there's $$ in it for him if he does really well.
Tomorrow is Katie's last day at Barton Malow. This company, where she's worked since graduating, is sorry to see her go, but has been wonderful about helping her find employment in Bahrain and beyond.
After numerous SNAFUs with State Department Medical, they have Katie's records and promise us a clearance in the next few days. This is good, because when that's done, we should get orders, which we need in order to get Diplomatic Passports, get State to pay to pack up all of our stuff, and to get our tickets.
We just recieved pictures of all of our furniture in the new home - most of it's "18th century", a lot of dark wood and the like. It'll probably look even better in person! Now, we just have to go through all of our stuff and find out what we're going to take with us.
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