05.21.08
Bureaucrats vs. Bureaucracy
I’m still in DC. Yes, I should be in Mumbai (or somewhere between here and there) by now, but I’m still in DC.
Why, you ask? Because of bureaucracy, of course. As my husband has recently noted, our visas to go work in India were held up for an unexpectedly long period in some kind of opaque bureaucratic process in New Delhi.
Some of my former visa applicants would be gleefully talking about poetic justice if they knew - schadenfreude at its best. I can’t tell you the number of times I had to say, “we need to do some further processing before we can issue your visa,” knowing full well that this could mean major delays in visa issuance. Yes, in a bizarre twist on the “trick the trickster” theme, a pair of visa bureaucrats’ plans have been thwarted by bureaucratic visa processes.
But there’s a light at the end of this tunnel. After several weeks of no real news, we were informed today that our visas would be issued, and that we should have them in hand by the end of the week. So next week, it’s destination India (insh’allah). Better dig through the bags for some lightweight clothing!
05.06.08
A what? Where?
Today I was sitting in class, listening to someone talking about something related to preventing fraud and malfeasance in a consular section, and all of a sudden there was a rumble, then a brief vibration, then nothing. Nobody moved, and the speaker didn’t even miss a beat in his speech. I’m sitting there, wondering at my knee-jerk urge to crawl under a desk, thinking to myself, “Hm - that sounded and felt an awful lot like a small earthquake. But that couldn’t be, because I’m in DC, and there are no earthquakes over here. Impossible. Must’ve been construction.” And I left it at that. Nobody in class mentioned anything at all when the break came, or when we left for the day. So imagine my surprise when I come home to find that, indeed, the impossible did actually happen. Huh - whaddaya know?
06.01.07
Whirlwind
I’m suffering from a serious bout of jet lag. This week I went from Seoul to DC (via San Francisco and Chicago) to Seattle and back to Seoul. I left on a Wednesday morning and came back on a Tuesday evening, but I only spent four and a half actual days anywhere I wanted to be. It was so worth it, though. The recap:
I escorted a 7-month-old baby girl to meet her new parents, allowing me to cut down significantly on the price of tickets (since I’m not independently wealthy, am not making extra money through hardship or danger pay differential, and am not generally allowed to work or claim any overtime, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it back to the U.S. before the wedding without some kind of help). By now, she’s a resident of Kentucky (Kentuckian?). So there was me, on planes, with a 7-month-old baby girl who met her new parents in Chicago (the photo was taken at the end of the flight to Chicago, when both of us were totally exhausted, so she may look a little worse for wear, but she was fine, I promise).
When I got to DC, KG was there waiting for me (heartwarmingly, running down an up escalator), and I basically just fell exhausted into his arms, so happy and grateful and excited to see him, but unable to put a coherent thought together. I was semi-conscious for the cab ride home, talked to his mom and mine, and then I was completely out the moment my head hit the pillow. I don’t recommend staying awake for a 25-hour trip, most of which you’re responsible for another human being, after just a few hours of sleep the night before, but it got me to where I needed to go, so it was worth it.
During the two days in DC, I (we) managed to:
- find myself some shoes for the wedding (probably, at least - they didn’t have my size in stock so I’ve not actually purchased them yet),
- get together for a few quick hours with one of my very best friends and her husband and meet their beautiful baby girl (who, by the way, I’m completely head-over-heels in love with - photo below),
- pick out and order wedding invitations after meeting up with KG when he got off work the first day,
- go around together to a whole lot of jewelry stores, finally narrowing down our preferences enough that we think we’ve selected our wedding bands (though of course we’ve not bought them yet),
- put a (very) few ideas together for KG’s wedding attire,
- have a couple of very lovely and yummy meals out,
- spend some wonderful, comforting, all-too-brief quality time together with KG, just enjoying one another’s presence, savoring it really, both knowing we didn’t have much time together and trying to make the most of it.
Then I headed home to Seattle. You know when you’re a kid and you’ve been trying to put on a brave face but it’s been a stressful day and maybe the other kids have been picking on you, and you do alright until you see your mom and then you just dissolve into tears because you know that, whatever happens, everything will be okay now and you don’t have to stand alone? Yeah, like that. Minus the actual tears, ’cause that’s not really acceptable as an adult. It was so nice to see my mom and get to spend some time with her, but we were both feeling kind of short-changed because we didn’t get a lot of time together (this was definitely the overarching theme of the trip, unfortunately).
In the day and a half I had at home in Seattle, we (my mom and I):
- got my hair cut (finally - it needed it so badly)
- met with two bakeries about wedding cakes, picked one and the decorations and the flavors of the cake
- met with the florist and talked about flowers (ooh, pretty) and other related decorative items for the wedding
- met the wedding officiant (a quick 20-minute thing)
- went to a fabric shop and looked (unsuccessfully) for components of what my mom will be making for me for the wedding
- stopped by the jewelry store where we bought my engagement ring from and asked them some questions about wedding bands and got my ring cleaned
- met with the jewelry designer who will be making hair accessories for me
- thoroughly enjoyed what amounted to a 2-hour-long private concert in our living room by the wonderful friend of my mom’s who will be playing the music for the ceremony
- visited the little park where the wedding will be held if it doesn’t rain
- did a quick registry shopping trip
So for all those who have been anxiously awaiting an update on the wedding plans and all the rest, there you have it. Things are starting to come together.
For those who have been annoyed (or grateful?) about my lack of blog posts recently, I will say this: we’re short-staffed at work, and as you can now see I’ve also been working on a lot of other stuff. It’s no excuse, I know, but perhaps it’s a little bit of an explanation.
On that note, I should probably be getting to bed. I’m hoping to have my internal clock back to Korea time by Monday (fingers crossed!).
07.13.06
Humid
Today I walked outside after spending about 20 minutes in a severely air-conditioned environment, and my glasses immediately fogged up as if I had just leaned my head over a pot of boiling water. This on a day that actually feels quite a bit less oppressive than the past few days by virtue of the fact that it’s been drizzling off and on all day. I wonder if this is what a hundred percent humidity is supposed to be like…
The latest news on the getting-ready-to-go front: it’s looking like I may have to stay at a more expensive hotel for my consultations in San Francisco in order to pay less. Strange, but I’m starting to get accustomed to things like this. Also, because the government is paying so little for my flights from DC to San Francisco to Seoul (less than 600 dollars total - how can that be?), any adjustments for personal reasons would be astronomically expensive so I’m going to have to make my own separate reservations to fly home to Seattle for a week. Fingers crossed that I get my travel orders in time and don’t have to cancel that too!
06.27.06
Dark & Stormy Nights
It’s been raining here for a few days. Actually even pouring at times. Impressive thunder and lightning too. Yes, I’ve been loving it.
The thing is, DC is neither accustomed to nor set up for serious rain like it’s seen in the past 72 hours or so. Drainage is an issue. Roads are closed, the subway system is all screwed up, some of the federal buildings are closed, and it’s just generally a logistical headache in a lot of ways. Rain like this, while not unremarkable, is certainly not newsworthy. Or so I thought. Everyone from the NY Times to the Seattle Times to CNN has apparently written stories on it. Happens all the time elsewhere, but I guess if it happens in DC, it’s got to be major news.
Just to let everyone know, though: we’re not all treading water over here - in fact, very few homes have even been affected. The worst damage I’ve seen personally was at FSI today. Sucks to be the tree, but the grass is already way greener than it was last week.
I still say rain is a blessing. Too much sometimes for a city’s commuters and a few low-lying buildings (and some trees), but a blessing nonetheless. I’m enjoying it while it lasts.
05.30.06
Stamps & Saunas
Good things: It's not often that diplomats receive public recognition. So much of what we do goes unseen and largely unnoticed, but that is the nature of the job, and sometimes going unnoticed is part of the point. Sometimes, however, certain diplomats who do the right thing in the right place at the right time can make a real difference in the lives of huge numbers of people. Recognizing this, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new set of stamps today depicting six distinguished American Foreign Service officers. The stamps were formally unveiled today and should be available nationwide tomorrow.
Bad things: DC's weather has officially entered its yearly period of unbearableness. To walk outside today is quite literally like walking into a sauna. It is the most miserable, sticky, disgusting weather, and you can actually see people physically wilt when they step from an air-conditioned building into the heat and humidity of the outside air. I learned from a British diplomat while I was in Vienna last year that Brits posted to DC actually receive hardship pay for the summer months because such weather is considered to be more than one should reasonably be asked to bear. I've half a mind to petition our government for the same. The Germans have a great word for this phenomenon: schwül. Simply uttering the word makes one's lip curl with an appropriate note of derision.
05.23.06
Another FSO Returns
After a long journey that involved staying up for two whole days (give or take a few hours with the time change), one of our own has come back from Saudi Arabia for a visit. Yes, she is exceedingly happy to have the freedom to wander about in public without having to wear an abaya. Personally, I am finding it a little difficult to believe that she is already six months into her one-year tour (halfway done!) and many of us have not gotten out to our first post yet. At any rate, we are very glad to have her here for a week, and tonight we celebrated her arrival in style: pork chops for dinner (forbidden meat in "the Kingdom") accompanied by a few glasses of good riesling (another forbidden item in Saudi), followed by a lovely dessert (not forbidden but soooo sinfully delicious). Picture five young ladies standing around in a kitchen chatting in between bites of these lovely things:
(Not the best photo, I admit, but they disappeared so quickly I couldn't try for a better one. Strawberries. Chocolate. 'Nuff said.).
One of the best things about her return as far as I'm concerned (beyond the simple fact that she is here) is that she needs to stock up on some of the things that are difficult or impossible to find over there. So that means we get to do some shopping! Oh, how I love helping other people find ways to spend their hard-earned money!
At any rate, I'm glad to have her back, and I intend to help her indulge in just about everything she's not allowed to do over in Saudi. It should be a fun, if busy, next week or so.
05.20.06
Tidbits
This week:
- I met Don Oberdorfer, author of the definitive guide to all things Korean and geopolitical, a book called The Two Koreas. Apparently even the North Koreans think of it as the definitive guide, as there have been reports of visiting journalists and foreign dignitaries being given copies of the book as gifts from officials in the North Korean government. Closer to home, I have personally heard from more than one source that even the State Department uses this book as the first briefing material for top officials heading to Korea. I know it's the first thing they handed me to prepare for my time there. He definitely has some fascinating stories to share, and I feel privileged to have been able to spend some significant time talking with him.
- I went for the first time to a jazz place in DC. For those who know this town, it is a marvelously low-key place on Barracks Row called Ellington's. It's a very pleasant place, perfect for those evenings when you just want to relax, have a glass of wine and maybe some peach cobbler, and listen to some good live music. It's a very homey atmosphere, complete with a gal behind the bar who may admonish patrons if they have not eaten enough. I have since been unable to get the song, "My Funny Valentine" out of my head, so I will probably have to break down and download it for my i-pod.
- I found out from one of my Korean instructors that the wildfire season in Korea is actually during the winter. The rainy season (they actually have a "rainy season!") is in the middle of the summer, and apparently the winter is when everything dries out and becomes good tinder for fires. Sounds like the opposite of how one would ordinarily think it would go, doesn't it? I don't know how I'll like having a cold winter with snow that turns almost instantaneously black from Seoul's pollution and without any rain at all, though. Doesn't sound too fabulous to me.
- I found out through a friend that the State Department has gained the distinction of being the number three most desirable employer in a recent survey of American undergraduate students. Wow - when I was an undergrad, I wasn't even considering it, and I didn't know anyone who was. It simply wasn't on the radar. My, how quickly things change.
04.23.06
Honorary Guy
Today I spent the majority of the day hanging out with a new group of friends. I met them through the whole friend-of-a-friend thing, and they invited me to join them for a picnic, barbecue and other madness in DC’s Rock Creek Park today. Telling myself this is great because I need to get out of the house more anyway, I made a quick salad (it’s simply beyond me to plan ahead for anything these days), grabbed a bottle of wine, and headed out to Northwest DC.
This group of recent DC transplants is composed of six guys and one other girl. Topics of conversation, when they were not of the usual DC type (think politics, international affairs, etcetera), were often of the sort one might expect from a good-sized group of male twenty-somethings. Every so often, someone would start to say something, then look over at Ann or me and think better of it. Then, inevitably, someone else would say, “She’s a guy, it’s okay,” and the conversation would continue in its original vein. I’m a guy. Wow, I didn’t even have to go through surgery! And to think I thought the whole “honorary male” thing was just a rumor about allowances made for powerful or professional women in certain middle eastern countries…
It was a really good afternoon, I have to say. A rarity lately, there was very little of that dense intellectual stuff going on, and it was just a regular gathering of a group of people hanging out with people they like and enjoying a nice day outside. We cooked, ate, threw ice at one another, drank beers and Pepsis, mocked each other and ourselves, cooked and ate some more, and played ultimate frisbee. The latter was only stopped when one of our number was injured and we all decided not to tempt fate. It was actually my first time playing ultimate frisbee, and let me tell you, I ache. I suspect I’ll truly be loving life when the real aching sets in tomorrow. Small price to pay for a day away from it all.
04.12.06
Botany 101
This being my third spring in DC, I really should have figured this out by now. There is this tree here in DC that can be found in people's yards, along parking strips, etcetera that gets lots of bright purple blooms all along its branches in the spring. I've been trying with no luck to find someone around here who knows what the name of this tree is. No reason, really, other than that it just bothers me that I don't know it. Anyway, here is a close-up of a branch. If anyone out there knows the name of it, could you let me know?
