So many things have occurred in the last two weeks since my last blog action, I don't even know where to begin. I always have grand designs on writing in-depth poetic stories about individual enlightening events, like my recent old-fashioned haircut (scissors), shave (straight razor), and head and face massage for 2 dollars. Or my trip to the Last Resort near the border with Tibet. Don't worry, I didn't do the bungy jump...the 3rd highest in Asia. But I did take a short hike up the hill (a mountain in the U.S.) where I received this text message from Big Brother:
I could also post about our trip to the Nepali touristy lake town of Pokhara where my paddle boat was overrun by naked Nepali pirate children.
But how can I make the time for all of that when the BID LIST IS OUT??!!!!! Yes, the bid list, the Foreign Service Officer's equivalent to an official Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock. It's all we can think about. And it is finally here. Thank you Santa. What is the Bid List, you ask? It is only the most exciting thing in existence for a young Foreign Service Officer: a list of every possible post and job for our next tour. Even though we've only been here for 8 months, the State Department must plan for future tours at least one year in advance. We received our bid list about a week ago and have attended to little else since, much to the chagrin of my 3-month old daughter. She's tired of changing her own diapers, but she's a natural. Our bid list is large, with 455 discrete jobs. That is a lot of diplomacy. How to parse so many options? With a fancy, high tech spread sheet of course. Luckily Elyse is a wizard with Excel. I think she sees the world kind of like Neo in the Matrix...everything is just cells, columns, and rows. With her Excel wizardry we sliced and diced the list like the Slap-Chop dices an onion. But even once you remove the impossible posts (e.g. too early, too late) or the places you don't want to go (e.g... I can't give a funny example because I'd get in trouble with some country in the future), there are still 50 or 60 left. After still more discussion and child neglect, we've finally narrowed it down to the requisite 30. I'm not going to name them all, or tell you the order, but here is a random sampling of cities on our Bid List: Oslo, Istanbul (was Constantinople), Lisbon, Quito, Canberra, Praia, Montevideo, Riga, Bratislava, Brasilia, Baghdad, and Ljubljana. Ever heard of the last one? Can you pronounce it? Neither could we. But thanks to Wikipedia, it made the cut. Oh, and Baghdad was a joke. Good one, huh Gale? I thought so too. We will submit our list in late June and find out a few weeks later. We'll keep you posted on where they keep us posted.
But how can I make the time for all of that when the BID LIST IS OUT??!!!!! Yes, the bid list, the Foreign Service Officer's equivalent to an official Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock. It's all we can think about. And it is finally here. Thank you Santa. What is the Bid List, you ask? It is only the most exciting thing in existence for a young Foreign Service Officer: a list of every possible post and job for our next tour. Even though we've only been here for 8 months, the State Department must plan for future tours at least one year in advance. We received our bid list about a week ago and have attended to little else since, much to the chagrin of my 3-month old daughter. She's tired of changing her own diapers, but she's a natural. Our bid list is large, with 455 discrete jobs. That is a lot of diplomacy. How to parse so many options? With a fancy, high tech spread sheet of course. Luckily Elyse is a wizard with Excel. I think she sees the world kind of like Neo in the Matrix...everything is just cells, columns, and rows. With her Excel wizardry we sliced and diced the list like the Slap-Chop dices an onion. But even once you remove the impossible posts (e.g. too early, too late) or the places you don't want to go (e.g... I can't give a funny example because I'd get in trouble with some country in the future), there are still 50 or 60 left. After still more discussion and child neglect, we've finally narrowed it down to the requisite 30. I'm not going to name them all, or tell you the order, but here is a random sampling of cities on our Bid List: Oslo, Istanbul (was Constantinople), Lisbon, Quito, Canberra, Praia, Montevideo, Riga, Bratislava, Brasilia, Baghdad, and Ljubljana. Ever heard of the last one? Can you pronounce it? Neither could we. But thanks to Wikipedia, it made the cut. Oh, and Baghdad was a joke. Good one, huh Gale? I thought so too. We will submit our list in late June and find out a few weeks later. We'll keep you posted on where they keep us posted.
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