myretroperspective

That's right, and you thought I was just making an awful attempt at being a full-time blogger, didn't you? No as it turns out I've been waiting for the perfect job at the consulate and for all of the wheels to turn, turn, turn... I am now the Human Resources Assistant at the US Consulate in Shenyang! It only took 8 months after arriving at post to start my job but that's considerably less time than it took R to join the foreign service so I can't say I'm at all surprised. If you haven't noticed, I like context and details so I'll share a little bit about the step by step process assuming that at some point some EFM (eligible family member- technical term for spouses/kids in the state department) will be keeping warm in a high rise apartment listlessly wondering if or when he/she might get a job and trolling the internet in search of hope! When we were assigned to Shenyang in October we started getting emails from the CLO (community liaison office) about ...

So I've been taking this training class called "Congen" that is required for all consular officers, on the off chance that I might want to adjudicate visas during our little stint at a consulate. (side note- if you've never learned the word adjudicate before, I won't judge you.  Up until 3 weeks ago, I hadn't either.) It's a good opportunity to learn about what will fill R's days, and it is one of the qualifications for one of the jobs spouses can apply for in the consulate.  So while I have nothing better to do, I figured I'd take it. They have been very clear that everything about congen is TOP SECRET, but since I have to write something on this blog over these next 5 weeks and as future students might be interested I can give you a few descriptions of class after week 1: 1-Holy Acronyms, Batman! There are A LOT of acronyms.  So much so that I thought I wound up in the language department learning some unheard of tongue.  Prepare yourself to abs...

Well, FRANKENSTORM threw off our week a little.  R didn't have classes Monday-Wednesday which was okay considering seester was visiting.  We really just caught up on sleep and baked for a day and a half while the winds whipped outside our little apartment.  There are a few trees down in the area but it seems the DC metro was absolutely spared. Since arriving in Falls Church 8 weeks ago, I've had quite a bit of flexibility with my schedule.  After the first week of settling in, I continued to serve with Cru from a distance.  This turned out to be the perfect way to wrap up responsibilities and support those on my team in Atlanta after such a quick transition. October 16th was my official last day working with Cru in that capacity, so I've had 2.5 weeks of pure leisure.  Well, okay, leisure might be a bit of a stretch.  We've hosted family members , celebrated a birthday & swearing-in, weathered FRANKENSTORM, and I sort of temped last week at a fri...