criplomats

So, after five years of taking the Foreign Service exam, we have finally arrived in Falls Church to our new temporary home. John, the two cats and I drove out this past Wednesday and checked into our new temporary digs on Thursday. On Saturday, we were both diagnosed with strep throat, so we are taking it easy this weekend and trying to get well before class starts on Monday.

Our first packout was interesting. The packers packed on Friday and Monday. During that time, John had two River City Men’s Chorus concerts (wonderful!). On Tuesday, our huge moving van got stuck on a hill in our neighborhood and almost slid into a house – yikes! The guys were great, though, and got us loaded into the van as scheduled that day, despite a 5 hour setback.

The cats did great on the drive out. Noodle found a spot in the backseat floorboard and slept the whole way. Flavia was tranquilized and also slept. She did a fun disappearing act the morning we departed – we have no idea where she hid for 45 minutes, because the house was totally empty.

It was weird to drive away from the empty house on Saddle Hill!

Well, at least I don’t think so yet.

Five years ago, my husband and I started the process of getting in the U.S. Foreign Service. It’s taken a while, but we finally have offers (both of us) and are starting the A-100 class on April 30th in Washington DC (“our nation’s capitol,” as our 7-year old nephew Andrew reminded us yesterday).

You may wonder why it took five years to get in. Well, so do we. It mostly had to do with passing tests and tests, or not passing, as the case may be. But we won’t dwell on that.

We finally did pass “the” test in Chicago on October 26, 2006, and the medical and security clearances came pretty quickly after that. And then the job offers. So now we are selling the house and getting ready for our move.