The past six months have flown by far faster than I would have imagined. When I arrived, I was unsure of myself and the direction I was headed in – I made a few acquaintances and learned to cope with it. I got over the worst of it – those first few weeks, where every day is a huge drain, you’re struggling to keep your head above water, and stave off loneliness and despair. It eventually ebbs, things come around and start to feel normal, and eventually start looking up.
My classmates became my friends. With some of them, such a rapport developed to rival longstanding friendships I’ve had back home. I learned to thoroughly enjoy the life in limbo characterized the time spent in D.C. at FSI. Though the apartment I lived in never felt like a home, the companionship I found helped to bridge that gap. I will cherish many of the connections I made, and the people I met during this time. As my impending departure loomed ever closer, I found myself wishing I had more time to spend with these individuals.
Arlington National Cemetery – a great place for a long walk
Leaving a place is never easy. Abandoning the routine for the unknown puts me ill at ease. Some people find this exciting, but for me, it was terrifying. Ironically, I felt the same way about downhill skiing when I first tried it a few years, and now I really enjoy it. One less thing I’ll be doing in Cairo, but I hear they have an indoor ski slope. Anyway, I digress…
The last few weeks have been spent checking off some of the final things on the to-do list. I attended FACT, which would make for a great blog entry of it’s own, but is probably best left as something experienced, rather than documented. A few other gap days and seminars, and you’ll find yourself running around on your consult days getting all you’re pre-departure work done, wondering where the time has gone.
A snow day in my neighborhood during training at FSI
Departure from the US to your first assignment involves a long laundry list of checkout and preparation activities that one has to muddle through first, and not all of it is straightforward. There are some pretty good resources that will guide people most of the way, or help them make a through-looking departure checklist, but I haven’t found a complete or definitive departure guide. By the time you’re thinking about checking out, you’ve hopefully already taken care of your shots, travel arrangements, and visa. On top of this comes transferring accounts, final checkout procedures, returning equipment, coordinating with the gaining post, and a whole host of other activities. On the personal side, you’re probably already freaking out about packout, packing, family stuff, pets, checking out of accommodations, and any number of other things. The good news is that this all happens surprisingly fast, and once you get on that plane, it all becomes much easier and those responsibilities take a backseat to the reality that you’re finally heading to post.
Things in the State Department seem to move at glacial paces at times, yet they also happen surprisingly quickly when they want to. Such was the case with my initial orders to D.C., which arrived only a day or so before my scheduled flight. This time around things were quite a bit less hectic. Everything seemed to line up rather nicely for me, while some of my colleagues were poised to be spending several more weeks in limbo at FSI. Still, we made the most of the time we had, going out for dinners together, celebrating birthdays and time well spent, segueing into late nights together playing board games and chatting. I knew I was going to miss time spent like this, in the company of those I had come to know – but the next big adventure was not to be kept waiting (unless post screws up your housing assignment). When the evening of my flight rolled around I departed for the airport with a cherished colleague, who saw me to the ticketing counter and finally parted ways at the security check – leaving me only with a cross of jittery sadness, and the dawning realization of being headed into the unknown. My most prevalent thought, and not for the first time, was “what the hell am I getting myself into?”. Only time will tell.
As a non-essential government employee, myself and many others have entered furlough territory – that is, a period of time in which government funding for the department lapses and we’re forced to take an unplanned “vacation”. The same has happened for thousands of other non-essential Federal employees in affected agencies – including those charming TSA agents that frequently grace our trips to the airport, and more importantly the ATC (Air Traffic Controllers) which maintain communications and control the airspace to ensure that civil aviation disasters are kept to a minimum. Of course, this is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a government shutdown.
Folks in these and many other positions will go without pay for the duration of the shutdown, and while historically back-pay has been provided for those affected by such events, it’s not always assured. In the meantime, bills and the costs of life pile up, which can put some families in tight spot – especially around the holidays. To further this, important services go neglected or otherwise unfulfilled and businesses that catered to the Federal workforce will likely see a drop in business. Essential Federal employees are working without pay, and the contractors won’t get paid at all even if back-pay is granted. As for myself, I’ll be missing out on some important training that will be needed to perform my role overseas. It’s a Kobayashi Maru – a no-win situation.
This image in no way represents the current state of the Federal government
I am fortunate enough that this income interruption does not affect me adversely, but I am sensitive to the situations and hardships that those other than myself will face due to this lapse in funding. On the other hand, there’s unfortunately nothing that we can do about the situation that will affect it in any meaningful way. The inevitable result of this has been no small amount of griping from colleagues and others affected by the shutdown, lamenting the wasted time and otherwise being unable to curb their boredom. It’s at this point where I tend to lean towards a different perspective than others in my class.
While it is a shame to miss out on valuable training, I will never complain about being provided free time; inevitably, time is the limiting factor for what we are able to experience and accomplish in life. Washington D.C. is an area rich with history, monuments, museums (the ones that remained open, anyway), and activities and we’ve been handed an unexpected chunk of time. It seems only fitting to try to make the best of it, especially given our lack of power in the current situation. Carpe diem rather than per diem!
To that end, I’ve tried to make the most of it, catching up on personal interests, steam backlogs, gatherings with friends, spending time with those I care about; generally trying to enjoy and make the best of an unfortunate situation. I’m more likely to look back fondly and cherish the memories I’ve made during my time in furlough, rather than the humdrum of training we would have otherwise had – but it’s important that we get back on track soon, so to that end I hope the funding situation is sorted out quickly so we can get back to doing what we ought to be doing. But until then, I’ll be making the best of it!
Arlington National Cemetery. Just one of the many sights to see around D.C., even during the shutdown!
Okay, so it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet, but it’s getting close! Our training has started taking a turn towards the technical side of things – which is an enjoyable change for us. Of course, we’ve also “enjoyed” some schedule revisions that make it seem like we’re constantly trying to hit a moving target too. Like any other organization, the State Department wants to make the most efficient use of time when getting new hires up to speed. As such, it’s constantly evaluating and assessing the training mechanisms and requirements of lengthy onboarding processes. In some cases where content has been deemed lacking, entire courses have been built up to address the deficit; while they’ve shortened others that may not provide as much value or return on investment for the time allotted. This process is a necessary part of ensuring that we receive the required training in an appropriate timeframe.
Unfortunately, this means trainees may find themselves under-instructed in some categories and over-prepared in others as the training officers pursue an appropriate balance. This balance can be further upset when other factors impose their will.
In this particular instance, we’ve been enjoying some off-site technical training. This had previously been a weeklong course, but we’re getting an express 3-day version. By sheer coincidence, mother nature has been threatening the area with snow and has over-delivered today(as she is keen to do as of late). This results in the closure of the facility, which sends us home short a few more hours of training while being expected to take a proficiency test the following day. I’m confident that this won’t create a significant knowledge gap in our case, but compound this with larger class sizes, varied levels of trainee experiences, tight schedules, etc. and the problems start presenting themselves.
Unfortunately, I don’t see any easy solutions for this. It’s a product of trying to find the aforementioned balance, the solution to which is constantly changing as the needs of the department evolve. I have some trust that the feedback cycles in place will allow our voices to be heard in order to strike that balance.
So, onto the real meat of this entry. Turkey!
Mmm… Turkey
As luck would have it, the facility we’re training at has a genuinely good cafeteria! That’s not to say that the cafeteria at FSI or HST is bad, but I don’t expect them to have the spread that accompanied the above image. We’re talking about a mouthwatering combination of turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, butternut squash soup, and a fine selection of pies. That’s not even the whole of it, but with a heaping plate of the delicious items listed above, I simply didn’t have room for anything else. It was all good, but the butternut squash soup was superb (I don’t even like squash and I’m a fan). I was also particularly impressed by the pumpkin pie, they did it the appropriate justice in the spice department, which the baker in me appreciated. Top it off with a warm hot cocoa to go as the snow came down outside and it was a remarkable and memorable meal – as far as cafeteria meals go. (My colleagues claim it was freezing hail coming down, not snow. I’ll prefer to remember it as snow and tease them for being big babies).
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so we’ll see how our Foreign Service Friendsgiving goes!
The introduction and orientation for the Foreign Service typically starts bright and early on a Monday morning, so the weekend before is generally spent traveling to Washington D.C. and getting settled in to the roller coaster ride that will be the next few weeks of Foreign Service life. For local hires this doesn’t amount to much, but the majority that are relocating for the opportunity will generally either drive or fly to D.C. Coming from the opposite side of the continental United States and having an older vehicle that wasn’t going to come with me, flying was the obvious choice.
I spent my weekend in much the manner one might expect; a last hurrah with friends, family, and loved ones, quietly contemplating the life I had embarked upon while en route to my destination, and attending the traditional mixer the night before orientation. That is, the previous group of Specialists are tasked with hosting a meet and greet for the incoming group. I was eager to meet my new colleagues, so as soon as I dropped off my bags at the apartment I was provided, I caught a ride down to the venue where it was being held.
I met and mingled with other members of the incoming class, as well as the veterans of the specialist class before us. From the specialists before us, we heard all about where their first assignments would be and the training they had received. Getting to know some of my own specialist colleagues revealed that regardless of which walks of life we came from or what our background was in, what tied us to this opportunity was the sense of adventure that we all shared. The meet and greet was a good way to put some names to faces and provided a good opportunity to make a few acquaintances before the start of Orientation.
Orientation began bright and early the next morning. I made a quick stop at the Filterhouse – the same coffee shop that I had visited before my Oral Assessment a year prior. I then met with my other colleagues in the lobby of the State Department building, all of us sharply dressed in suits and other professional attire. The first day is all about the necessities of administrative stuff, badging, benefits, and what not. However, it’s the second day which sets the pace for the rest of the orientation and gives an accurate example of what one can expect for the next few weeks.
National Foreign Affairs Training Center – also know as “FSI”
During this time, one will be expected to arrive on time and appropriately dressed, to conduct themselves properly, be attentive, respectful, and professional. Embody the expectations that one has for a public servant and a representative of the United States abroad, and encourage the same from your colleagues. Be your best self and exhibit the 13 dimensions of Foreign Service personnel.
The orientation period itself is blistering. The schedule is packed with different presentations, information sessions and speakers from 8 to 5. Breaks are provided, but with everything going on this rarely leaves you with the time to catch up on everything. Myself and other incoming specialists struggled to find time for a proper lunch. Thankfully, my appetite had also dropped off considerably, whether this was due to moving across the country and other considerable changes in my life or something else, I do not know.
Alternatively, on the information front we were well-fed, even overfed. The phrase “drinking from a fire hose” has been used to describe this period of the training process, but does little to indicate just how much information one is presented – much of which I now struggle to remember, despite taking ample notes. Death by PowerPoint is real possibility, but one can also expect to take a field trip or two, as well as an overnight off-site if they’re lucky. Weekends become a grateful and much-needed reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the week.
It’s during Orientation that one receives their first directed bid list, and their first assignments are announced. Post research and other mandatory training spilled into my evenings during Orientation, but it also provided the opportunity to make my first real friends and connections among my colleagues. We came to rely on one another for help, learned from each others experiences, and were able to ask questions without the fear of judgement from those that were guzzling from the same fire hose. It’s an opportunity to make lasting impressions and friendships with people you might be serving with in the future, and build relationships that will follow you throughout your life.
It doesn’t seem like it at the time, but those weeks will pass quickly. You’ll get your first assignment at flag day, you’ll get sworn in, and you’ll find yourself in the next portion of your training along with the other specialists of your type. So take heart and don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by the orientation, it’ll be over before you know it.
For the uninitiated, Flag day is the highly anticipated day on which new Foreign Service personnel receive their first directed assignments. In other words, they discover where they’re going to be spending the next two years. An event of such significance always comes with some ceremony, so these assignments are individually revealed to the entire orientation class, along with assembled Foreign Service staff and invited family members.
Worldwide availability is a clause we’re frequently reminded of when it comes to assignments. Unless you or members of your household have medical conditions that require certain accommodations, one is expected to serve anywhere in the world where they are needed. Thus, Flag day can be a source of great anticipation, or anxiety – depending on which assignments were up for bidding. We had heard stories of Flag day assignments which caused accompanying spouses to run out of the room screaming in distress. Though we had also been told that if one had received a particularly undesirable assignment that they’d usually be notified of it beforehand so that these lapses in composure didn’t occur.
Of course, given our bid list I don’t think any of the specialists in my cone were particularly worried about where their first assignment would be. Still, it’s only natural to feel some anxiety over an announcement that will shape your life for the next two years. As with all significant turning points in life, some people tend to worry about it more than others – however having already submitted our bidding preferences, we no longer had any ability to affect the outcome ourselves, so whatever the outcome of this process was, it was out of my hands and not worth worrying about until I knew where I was going.
Our daily orientation activities concluded early on Flag day, and the entire specialist class assembled with a crowd of other invitees and onlookers at the designated reception hall. At the indicated time we took our seats and squirmed through the speaker introductions as we awaited the actual declaration of assignments. When the speakers felt like they had teased us along far enough, they began the announcements and we collectively sat on the edge of our seats to hear where our first post would be
As assignments were read, a flag of the receiving post would be displayed on the projector, the location identified by the speaker, and a colleague from our specialist class would be announced for the assignment. The lucky individual would rise and walk to the front of the room to receive their miniature flag, a handshake and a information packet with further details about their assignment.
Of course, having a basic idea of how the others in my cone had ordered their bid lists, I wasn’t expecting any big surprises. I had written off my number one pick, as there was another individual in my specialty that had also ranked it as their number one, and had a wife and pets in tow (whereas I have neither). It seemed like it really was a question of where I’d be assigned given that my second choice was also hotly contested. So my surprise came when the colleague who shared my number one bid was assigned to a different post. It was at that moment that I knew where I was going, which was confirmed a minute or two later when I was called up to receive my first post assignment – Cairo, Egypt.
“All Giza Pyramids” by Ricardo Liberato is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
To say that I was pleasantly surprised was an understatement. I was elated! I had heard so much about Cairo from other Foreign Service Officers which had served there. The person who I had spent the last 6 years in a relationship with had attended college there, and would be able to recommend all manner of activities and restaurants, as well as put me in touch with the community of expats that she knew and still lived there. No to mention the rich and astounding history of the region that would be at my fingertips. I couldn’t imagine a more fortuitous first assignment that jived so well with what I had heard about the Foreign Service and the experiences of those that had introduced me to it.
We capped off the afternoon with a happy hour at a nearby establishment; meeting and mingling with other specialists and attending family members, discussed our post assignments, and tried to contain the giddiness many of us felt. Tomorrow would be just another day of orientation, but for the time being we were getting the first taste of the adventure we had all signed on for.
The weeks leading up to orientation were spent in a flurry of preparation. Of immediate importance was providing notice to my current employers, transferring ownership of tasks and systems management to other employees, bringing them up to speed on processes they are unfamiliar with and performing general knowledge transfers. While giving my notice wasn’t difficult, it was emotional. I’d been with my previous employer for many years and had formed strong working relationships with those within and without my department alike. My manager and coworkers were a pleasure, and I genuinely enjoyed the work I performed as well as the flexibility offered by my position. The looming change before me was intimidating not only because of the uncertainty of the future it offered, but also because I knew what I was leaving behind. Still, I had been there long enough to know that complacency was kicking in, and I was overdue for a change. It didn’t make it any easier.
My last two weeks flew by, and when I wasn’t at work I was spending my time going through my effects, cleaning up, packing, figuring out what to keep, and what to part with. Many cones in our class of specialists only received around three weeks of notice before they were scheduled to start orientation in Washington D.C., which after providing notice to previous employers only provided about a week or so of downtime to sort out the myriad of loose ends this life change would inevitably leave. Of primary importance during this time was maintaining communication with the State Department HR folks, and other staff resources which were assisting with the impending move, and sorting personal belongings for packout.
At this point, new hires have already received and responded to an initial offer letter and are waiting on or following up with a number of other forms and documents required to complete the employment on-boarding process and get themselves to D.C. Sometime after responding to the initial offer, candidates should receive the highly anticipated e-mail that contains their grade, stepping. and salary information. New hires are responsible for researching the various direct billing housing facilities available to them and making the appropriate arrangements for the duration of their training. They’ll also need to schedule and arrange a packout with with an approved moving agency. While the packout can be scheduled before receiving orders, travel orders must be issued and on-hand for the packout to occur. All of the information needed to complete this should be available to the new hires via the resources provided and communicated to them from HR and their orientation coordinators.
A simple sticker/tape labeling system to keep track of my posessions
On the home front, new hires will be referring to their packout guide for the complete details regarding the process and answers to many of their obscure questions. In general though, items will fall into one of the following categories:
Carry-ons and Baggage
Unaccompanied Air Baggage (UAB)
Household Effects (HHE / Storage)
Leftover junk that you don’t want to take with you
Obviously one must attend to packing their own carry-ons and other baggage they intend on traveling to D.C. with. These are the essentials, clothes, professional attire, toiletries, and other necessary objects of life that one cannot go without for several weeks. Next up is Unaccompanied Air Baggage, which has a hard size restriction and a weight restriction based on the number of people in your household. Generally, UAB will be the first of your personal effects to arrive independently at post – and it will be the only shipment you’ll get while you’re in D.C. – so you’ll want to use the UAB allowance for the things you’ll want and need that wouldn’t fit into your baggage, as well as other comforts (favorite kitchen appliances, entertainment, favorite household fixtures, stuff that couldn’t fit on your carry-on or baggage for travel).
Household Effects (HHE) will contain the bulk of your possessions. Furniture, appliances, clothes, kitchenware, television, and all of the other fixtures that make you feel at home. Basically, anything that you want to keep. Your UAB and HHE will be packed out at the same time, with UAB eventually being delivered to your housing in D.C., and HHE being placed into storage until you arrive at your first post. At this point, you can determine which items in your HHE will follow you, and which will remain in storage. The major exception to this is D.C. posts, in which all of the items you have in storage will come out with your HHE. WHen you’re serving at post you’ll have the option to keep items in storage rather than have them delivered to you in your HHE shipment.
Now, for the most part you can rely on the moving company to do the heavy lifting for you. They’ll make sure things are packed according to their own policies, they may make an inventory, disassemble and move heavy furniture, etc. I would encourage new hires to take it upon themselves to be self-reliant when it comes to the documentation and packing of their desired effects. If the movers end up repacking it to suit their needs, so be it – but no one is going to care more about your effects than you are, so be diligent and don’t blindly trust in a third party to treat your possessions as if they were their own. I would also encourage new hires to create and maintain an inventory of their possessions and pick up the appropriate renter’s insurance. Diligence of this sort will come in handy if anything ever goes awry with your move and you need to account for lost, missing, or damaged items.
In my case, the schedule was so compacted that my pack-out date was scheduled for after my departure. This complicates things a bit more, but as long as you have a friend or family member willing to oversee it, it doesn’t pose too much of a problem. I’d definitely recommend giving the “It’s your move” guide a glossing over in order to fill in the gaps and get a better idea of the process. Don’t forget to provide some refreshments for your movers, they’ll really appreciate it and it will hopefully encourage them to go the extra mile for you!
Given that I wasn’t even able to attend my own packout, its probably not something I’m entirely qualified to write about – and I haven’t even seen the results of my HHE, and won’t until I get to post! I’ll definitely provide an update at that point, but until then I hope this is informative or helpful to some of you and I wish you the best of luck on your own packouts!
