No More French!

Alright, so I know it’s been over 3 months since I wrote my last post. I’m going to blame that on French classes, which turned out to be a whole lot of work. I mean, I knew that learning another language would be hard, but having to spend 5 hours a day at school speaking French, plus 2-3 hours each night at home studying really does drain your energy.

In the end, I did not get my 3/3 on the first attempt, but instead got a 2+/3. And luckily, since I work for USAID and not the State Department, I only had to retake the speaking part of the exam. So, after another 4 weeks of training, I passed the speaking part last week! Hooray!

Now it’s on to preparations for moving…which is more complicated than I expected. To go overseas, you have to have book your tickets and schedule the movers to come pack up the 4 different shipments – Household effects (HHE) which take a month or more to arrive, Unaccompanied Air Baggage (UAB) which hypothetically arrives in a couple weeks, Consumables (food/toiletries/etc that are generally unavailable or too expensive at post), and Long-Term Storage.

BUT, before you can buy the tickets or get packed up, you need your Travel Authorization (TA). And, before you can get your TA, you need to have your Memorandum of Agreement with budget from post and complete a couple of trainings. BUT, before you can take the trainings, you need to pass your language test and get the scores over to USAID.

So anyway, I’m working on all that stuff for the next few weeks. I have our tickets tentatively booked for December 19^th, and our stuff will tentatively get packed up on the 12^th…everything in life is tentative right now. Except for our trip home for Thanksgiving – that will definitely happen and we’re looking forward to it.

Stay tuned for exciting updates now that life includes more than French again!

Catinca

So, shortly after Chris arrived in DC, we decided to look for a new friend for Wally. Since Tiger's departure, Wally has been a little extra needy (read, annoying) and so we started our search. Probably more accurately, Chris started the search. For those who aren't aware, Chris is a maximizer, so he put a lot of time into looking at cats online. Eventually, we agreed to go visit one who was in a foster home nearby. He was super cute and friendly, so we tried to adopt him. Unfortunately, the rescue group had some crazy conditions, such as feeding only wet, grain-free food to the cat, and when I said we wouldn't do that, we were doomed. After another week of calling every vet we'd ever been to, they told us we were denied because our cats hadn't been to the vet every 12 months. (Yes, I admit, sometimes it was more like 18 months between their vet visits. I'm an awful pet owner).

So after that awful experience, we decided to go back to the Humane Society, where we'd gotten most of our other cats. We went to one over in Virginia that had lots to choose from, and after our first visit, we hadn't decided which cat would fit best with us and Wallace. So Chris went back a few days later on his own and came home with the beautiful kitty below:

This is Catinca!

We named her Catinca to go along with Wallace's "The Fall" themed name. Catinca is the name of the actress who played the little girl in the movie (not many female characters in the movie...).

She has been an awesome addition to our family. She gets along well with Wally and she loves attention and cuddling. She was rescued from a house that was keeping her in the garage, where she had fleas and mange and wasn't in good health. Now she's happy and loved, despite the fact that we don't feed her grain-free food :)

Until next time...

Georgia on my mind...and French of course....toujours le français

So today was interesting because my future supervisor that I'll be working with in Georgia is in DC for a few days, so we met up after I finished French class today. It definitely reaffirmed for me that I am going to one of the most amazing countries and will have some great opportunities while I'm there, both for work and for play! I'm going to get to be involved in the whole process of program design, procurement, and implementation, as well as lots of opportunities for training and travel, both in Georgia and to other countries, for work! Not to mention lots of great places close enough to make for interesting weekend trips. Plus, my boss reminds me a lot of our friend, Matt Allen (yes Matt, I think you have a long-lost relative working for USAID). Plus, my two colleagues who have already made it over to Georgia have been emailing lots of info and posting great pictures. I can't wait to go!

Last week, I had my 12-week French evaluation. I got a 2/2, which is where I'm supposed to be at this point. I was so relieved to get it over with. Learning French at FSI has been...interesting. Particularly since it's not a language I'll be using once I get to my mission. I feel slightly disadvantaged because the others have a real motivation to learn since it'll be important for their everyday lives, not to mention their job. For me though, it's just a box I need to check before I can go out to post. I'm still trying to take advantage of the opportunity and get as much as I can out of it, but some days I have no motivation. I'm on my third teacher now. The teaching styles are quite different and can be very hard to get used to...I know some people have had teachers they've absolutely hated. I haven't had that experience (yet), but I can see how could happen. The whole system seems a bit strange...lots of people don't successfully pass their language test on the first try, which leads to additional weeks of training. And since USAID pays for our training by the week, it seems like it's to their benefit to keep us there a little longer than originally planned. I'm hoping that I can get my 3/3 on the first try, but I won't hold my breath. I still have a long way to go...

I'm Still Alive!

Well, nearly three months have passed since my last post and a lot has happened since then. Most notably, Chris moved to DC on June 1st! Here's a quick run-down of life until Chris got here. I'll write about what's happened since in my next post.

Mid-April: My kitty, Tiger, wasn't acting like himself. I got worried at about 8:00pm and took him to the emergency vet (in a cab - awesome). Unfortunately, he was suffering from kidney failure and in a lot of pain, so I had to say goodbye to him :(

The following weekend: Erin came to visit! Hooray! We went to a club Friday night, saw a movie, had some Georgetown cupcakes, and went to the zoo to see the baby lions.

The next day: French classes started. Life basically ended.

End of May: Mom and Dad spent a week in DC. We went to Arlington Cemetery, rode a canal boat in Georgetown, saw Hangover 2, went to the Memorial Day concert at the Capitol, went on a moonlight monument tour (photos), ate at the fish market...actually, ate at a lot of places.

The next day: Chris arrived!

Check back soon for more info on life since Chris moved to DC and my thoughts on French training at FSI...

Catching Up

Wow, I haven't posted anything in a long time....I guess I've been busy. Since then, I got my diplomatic passport, Chris came to visit for a week, all of my NCAA brackets were failures, and baseball season has started. I guess that about sums it up.

So, this weekend has made me feel old, but it was fun. I went to happy hour with some friends after work on Friday and had a few drinks. Yesterday, I met up with some friends to go down to the Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks. Unfortunately, the weather was not so great, so lots of the vendors and activities were closed, and it was freezing. So we aborted and went back to one of the girl's apartments to make some food and get ready to go dancing. And, at 3:30am, I finally made it home safely, after nearly dying in the cab on the way home. Today, my legs are killing me and I feel partly deaf...hopefully, both of these will go away soon. I was able to enjoy my brunch this afternoon though, and now I'm catching up on all the things I should've been doing this weekend.

And, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures from Chris's visit...

Bowling at Lucky Strike

Fish Boxes at Waterfront Fish Market

Cherry Blossoms

Fire in the RRB, popping balloons, and more fun in DC

It was an eventful week here in DC. Tuesday morning I woke up to the news that there was a fire in the Ronald Reagan Building, which is where most of the USAID offices are. A fire that started in the food court had spread in the ventilation system, so we couldn't get into the building until about noon. I spent the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday in a training course. There were a couple of fun activities in the training, including a game in which we had to pop balloons...I had some issues with my balloon popping ability, resulting in the photo below:

We could clearly count 13+ marks from my pen on the balloon where I attempted to pop it before I switched balloons with my neighbor, who created the lovely artwork.

Wednesday night I made cookies and brownies, which I shared with my DLI colleagues in my bureau on Thursday. Thursday was also the day that I realized that change is going to be a constant part of my life now when one of my cube-mates packed up his stuff to start language school in Arlington next week. It's only been a little over two months and already some of my classmates are off to language training, and a few are even beginning preparations to leave for their first posts. I'm wondering how I'll feel in 10 months or so when most of my classmates are (likely) gone and I'm still here in DC...it makes me motivated to work on my French as much as possible before I start class in April and I'm hoping I'll still be motivated enough to dedicate a lot of time outside of class to practicing. We'll see how I feel then.

I also got news on Thursday night that someone slashed all 4 tires on the Vue, which we had just listed for sale. Chris took care of the police report and getting the tires replaced on Friday, but it's frustrating that things like that happen. Luckily, Chris moved out of the city to South County and is now living with my sister, where hopefully there won't be any more problems like that.

It's a long weekend and I'm hoping to get out to explore the city a bit (if the weather stays nice)! I'll let you know how I decide to occupy my time...

Surreal weekend

This weekend was great for lots of reasons - most of all, because Chris was here. Even the most mundane things, like changing light bulbs or cleaning the kitchen, are much more fun when there’s someone else around to do them with. Chris got here on Friday night and we had some Thai food delivered to the apartment (first time since I moved to DC that I’ve called out for dinner) and we watched Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock, and The Office. Saturday we made some bacon and eggs for breakfast, then went downtown to see a movie (Cedar Rapids – I’d recommend it) and do some shopping before our big dinner at Komi.

So, Komi has been ranked the #1 restaurant in DC by the Washingtonian magazine for the past 3 years. Reservations are available exactly one month out, starting at noon sharp, for the dozen or so tables in the restaurant. Apparently, Chris called at noon and couldn’t even get through. We ended up with a 9:30pm reservation for dinner (luckily, someone earlier cancelled, so we ended up getting in at 8:45 instead). Anyway, so there is no menu at Komi…you sit down and are asked if there are any foods you don’t want to (or can’t) eat, and then the waiters just bring plate after plate of food (15 plates to be exact on the day we were there). They have a no photography policy, so no pictures, but here’s the run-down of what we ate, as far as we could remember:

1 – amuse bouche of some delicious pastry with house-made cheese and salmon roe
2 – crudo plate of whitetail tuna with chives, ? with toasted caper berry, and hamachi with wasabi
3 – scallops two ways – one thinly sliced with blood orange and one diced with coconut and cilantro
4 - lobster on pear & celery puree with diced pear, slivers of tumeric and Japanese mint
5 – spanakopita – liquid center of spinach, cheesy deliciousness in a yummy toasted pastry shell
6 – egg yolk raviolo with sturgeon caviar and chives
7 - foie gras with cranberry puree and ginger vinagrette
8 - half-smoke with relish and old bay chitterling
9 - dates stuffed with marscapone cheese sprinkled with parmesan and fleur de sel
10 - pasta with lamb ragu and arugula with shaved black truffle
11 - sliced Wagu beef with housemade pita and a variety of condiments (tzaziki, eggplant, pickled cabbage, hot sauce and herb salt)
12 - tiny little biscuit with slice of honeycrisp apple and quince with a delicious cream and thin-shelled chocolates filled with cardamom caramel
13 - 'lemon meringue pie' - lemon sorbet with shortbread biscuits and thyme
14 – peanut butter, salted caramel chocolate bar with crisp rice bottom with coconut foam and banana puree
15 - salty lime lollipop


Sunday we had a great brunch at Ted's Bulletin - a 30's diner famous for their shakes and homemade pop-tarts. Then we walked up to Eastern Market to browse before walking home. All in all, a great weekend. When I woke up Monday morning, it felt like it had all been a dream...