What I wish I knew 6 months ago or Lessons Learned Joining the Foreign Service
We really did it. I think my mind is still trying to wrap itself around the fact that we are really at a foreign post as diplomats representing the United States of America. Whaaaaat? US? Are you serious?
It really seems like just yesterday we were dreaming about it. And it's truly been only a little over 6 months since we left Atlanta. Don't get me wrong, the living in a Chinese city thing and the being in a different time zone on the other side of the world from family & friends thing feels very real.
Slowly we're starting to understand what we've actually been called to. What shape our days, weeks and months will take at least for this short season. There have been so many little things along the way that I've been glad we knew & that I wish we'd known. So here's my attempt at capturing what we've learned in the last 6.5 months.
1- Changes this big, this quick involve freaking out. R & I typically freak out in very different ways and at different times (thankfully). From leaving a job I loved for 9 years to leaving our fate in the hands of the US government to language learning to selling all of our cars to a dreadful winter. Plenty of freak outs to be had, usually they were triggered by something inconsequential, we just had to ride them out and dig down to figure out what the real issue was. What I'm coming to see is a big help on this one is not blaming one another- I can't tell you how easy it is to let this happen when we're feeling out of control. I especially have to work to remind myself that we are a team and R is for me.
2- I wish I knew how difficult the first couple weeks of life in a new foreign city with no friends and no job would be AND how quickly that would change. My first couple weeks were pretty rough, but now life feels full (I can't say busy, but full and not boring), and I have friends and it's only been 11 weeks total. I am excited to see what it looks like 6 months in & after a whole year. The consulate community in particular is constantly changing with people coming and going nearly every month. My favorite foreign service blogger Dani wrote a GREAT series on living overseas and making friends and it has been so helpful being new to this small expat community. If you are going abroad I HIGHLY recommend you read it! http://hotpotdc.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/life-lessons-from-overseas-an-awkward-turtles-practical-guide-to-making-friends-part-2-of-2/ (Not to mention all her other posts in her "Life Lessons from Overseas" series).
3-I wish I realized that everything we took from Atlanta to DC whether by car or in our first UAB shipment would have to come to post with us. I didn't realize that we wouldn't be able to add anything to what's in storage, only take things out of it once we were headed to post.
4-That being said, I'm really glad we brought all of our kitchen stuff to Shenyang. GSO provides converters for all of our appliances and it's so nice to have them. We have cooked for others or with others several times already and it's great to have the right tools to do so.
5- I wish I brought some of our spices in our checked luggage from America. It literally transformed my cooking when we received our consumables shipment and I should have just packed a few of them in our suitcases. When we got to post, I knew we had a lot of them on the way but I couldn't bring myself to order any or purchase more than the basics before our consumables arrived. We wore out the combinations of salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper, italian seasoning and cinnamon during the first nine weeks. Next time I'm packing them in the suitcase!
6- Transition & living in another culture makes you tired. Ok, maybe I was already well aware of this fact, but because China is familiar sometimes I forget that it still takes work. Our physical location in Shenyang is considerably more convenient than where we were in our last city in Chiner & it always surprises me how much I can get done in a day. Still I'm exhausted easily by a day out and about, much more so than in America. Maybe it's the language, maybe it's strategizing the quickest route through the other 8 million people that live here, maybe it's drawing stares everywhere we go, maybe it's the pollution? Whatever it is, we are both in need of extra rest here.
I'm sure there's more I'm learning but for now that's all I've got. Thanks for reading!
It really seems like just yesterday we were dreaming about it. And it's truly been only a little over 6 months since we left Atlanta. Don't get me wrong, the living in a Chinese city thing and the being in a different time zone on the other side of the world from family & friends thing feels very real.
Slowly we're starting to understand what we've actually been called to. What shape our days, weeks and months will take at least for this short season. There have been so many little things along the way that I've been glad we knew & that I wish we'd known. So here's my attempt at capturing what we've learned in the last 6.5 months.
1- Changes this big, this quick involve freaking out. R & I typically freak out in very different ways and at different times (thankfully). From leaving a job I loved for 9 years to leaving our fate in the hands of the US government to language learning to selling all of our cars to a dreadful winter. Plenty of freak outs to be had, usually they were triggered by something inconsequential, we just had to ride them out and dig down to figure out what the real issue was. What I'm coming to see is a big help on this one is not blaming one another- I can't tell you how easy it is to let this happen when we're feeling out of control. I especially have to work to remind myself that we are a team and R is for me.
2- I wish I knew how difficult the first couple weeks of life in a new foreign city with no friends and no job would be AND how quickly that would change. My first couple weeks were pretty rough, but now life feels full (I can't say busy, but full and not boring), and I have friends and it's only been 11 weeks total. I am excited to see what it looks like 6 months in & after a whole year. The consulate community in particular is constantly changing with people coming and going nearly every month. My favorite foreign service blogger Dani wrote a GREAT series on living overseas and making friends and it has been so helpful being new to this small expat community. If you are going abroad I HIGHLY recommend you read it! http://hotpotdc.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/life-lessons-from-overseas-an-awkward-turtles-practical-guide-to-making-friends-part-2-of-2/ (Not to mention all her other posts in her "Life Lessons from Overseas" series).
3-I wish I realized that everything we took from Atlanta to DC whether by car or in our first UAB shipment would have to come to post with us. I didn't realize that we wouldn't be able to add anything to what's in storage, only take things out of it once we were headed to post.
4-That being said, I'm really glad we brought all of our kitchen stuff to Shenyang. GSO provides converters for all of our appliances and it's so nice to have them. We have cooked for others or with others several times already and it's great to have the right tools to do so.
5- I wish I brought some of our spices in our checked luggage from America. It literally transformed my cooking when we received our consumables shipment and I should have just packed a few of them in our suitcases. When we got to post, I knew we had a lot of them on the way but I couldn't bring myself to order any or purchase more than the basics before our consumables arrived. We wore out the combinations of salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper, italian seasoning and cinnamon during the first nine weeks. Next time I'm packing them in the suitcase!
6- Transition & living in another culture makes you tired. Ok, maybe I was already well aware of this fact, but because China is familiar sometimes I forget that it still takes work. Our physical location in Shenyang is considerably more convenient than where we were in our last city in Chiner & it always surprises me how much I can get done in a day. Still I'm exhausted easily by a day out and about, much more so than in America. Maybe it's the language, maybe it's strategizing the quickest route through the other 8 million people that live here, maybe it's drawing stares everywhere we go, maybe it's the pollution? Whatever it is, we are both in need of extra rest here.
I'm sure there's more I'm learning but for now that's all I've got. Thanks for reading!
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