DiploJournal
A Walk Through Snowpocalypse
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With all that’s happening in our nation’s capital — health reform, financial re-regulation, and the new centerfold Senator from Massachusetts — you’d think 36 straight hours of local news would have something better to cover. Instead, the only story receiving round-the-clock coverage is weather. Dubbed Snowpocalypse and Snowmageddon, the DC metro area has received unprecedented amounts of snow. Dulles airport has recorded over 30″ since Friday and we’re within an inch of the all-time annual record snowfall.
Grocery stores have empty shelves and everything is shut down. No buses or above ground metro. No Smithsonian. Even the local mall and movie theater shut down. Thus, it was either stay cooped up or get an early start on the Ottawa outdoor activity. I donned my snow boots and Canada Goose jacket, wrapped a camera in a weatherproof housing, and headed for downtown.
The snow continued to fall in the afternoon which scared away 95% of the usual traffic and just about all the tourists. Some sporadic snowball fighting, snowman building, and cross-country skiing, but that’s about it. The DC mall like I’ve never seen it. Snowpocalypse indeed.
Street sign without a street
Large branches and entire trees snapped from the weight of the snow
Frozen Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument
Alexander Hamilton in the cold
Preparing for Pack Out
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I’ve got a few days of classes remaining next week, but I’m now officially in transition mode. There’s a long checklist of things to get done, but plenty of time so it’s relatively low stress. The impending snow storm this week-end will also limit the distractions so I can focus on getting organized and packing things up. It started snowing this morning and it’s supposed to keep going through tomorrow night with an expected 15-24 inches. This would apparently break the all-time annual snowfall record for the DC metro area. I’m convinced it’s a plot to get me used to weather in Ottawa.
Although I went through the pack-out process in October, it feels like a lot longer than 3-1/2 months ago. The movers came by this morning to do a pre-move assessment. Unlike most officers, I’ll be driving to post so I can fit a lot of my stuff in the car, leaving only a small subset that will have to be packed up and shipped. Thankfully, I’m moving into a furnished place downtown so I don’t need to worry about acquiring more stuff.
The drive to Ottawa looks like it will be pretty relaxed. Although it’s only about 10 hours, I’m going to stop for the night somewhere along the way because my lease ends in Virginia on Friday and I can’t get into my new place in Ottawa until Saturday. I now have a four-wheel-drive instead of the convertible I drove out from California, but I expect I will still be driving a little more slowly and carefully heading through the snow-belt on I-81 to Scranton, Syracuse, and the Canadian border.
Now if it will just warm up a little so the two feet of snow melts between now and Friday…
iPhone Apps
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I’m a complete gadget fanatic. Growing up in the heart of Silicon Valley made it easier as it is a very common affliction. Walking down University Avenue in Palo Alto, you’ll marvel at the latest, greatest phones, e-readers, and other electronic gizmos on display, in use by patrons of the numerous coffee shops and sidewalk cafes. The iPhone seems to have become ubiquitous just about everywhere now and I’m one of those folks that have 4+ screens of icons, filled with little time-savers (which, of course, require so much MORE time to play with and maintain).
Some apps are kind of useful or fun, but not critical to my day-to-day life (FML, Yelp, and Fandango fall into this category). Others actually make life easier or more pleasant. I tend to use these core apps daily or as part of my regular routine as I try to maintain some semblance of regularity despite living 3,000 miles from home. Here’s a quick summary:
USAA: Other banks have iPhone apps and some are just starting to implement the same technology, but USAA was I believe the first bank to offer a “deposit by iPhone” feature. I didn’t believe it when I first read about it, but it’s been fantastic. One you log in, you can deposit a check (up to $5,000/day) directly through the iPhone. After entering the amount of the check, the app prompts you to take a photo of the front and (endorsed for deposit only) back of the check. A few seconds of processing and, voila, the deposit is made. Void the check and keep it for a record. For those of us banking long-distance (or abroad), this is a revolutionary tool. For those in, or about to join, the foreign service, definitely check out USAA. It is a bank dedicated to serving U.S. military and a few select federal agencies, as well as their families. The service has been unbelievably good.
Words Free: Really great Scrabble game that allows you to play with other iPhone users even if you are not both in the app at the same time. It prompts you when the other person makes a move so that a game can go on for a week or more with turns going back and forth whenever time allows. It also has a nifty built-in chat feature. E and I always have a game going — just one more way to stay in touch.
Path Tracker: I hate going to gym, but I love to walk. Pathfinder is essentially a fancy pedometer, but it maps your wanderings on a live GPS map, tracking your distance and speed. You can save each walk to an online site for free.
NPR News: Great free app that keeps me up to date and allows me to select which stories to hear when I can’t catch All Things Considered or Morning Edition in their entirety. It also has links to most public radio stations around the country, include my beloved KQED in San Francisco so I can listen to a live stream, as well as on demand streams of a huge list of NPR shows.
NYTimes: I dearly miss my paper NYT every morning, but this app is the next best thing. It allows me to save stories to read later, even if on the metro cut off from any signal. I use it, in particular, for long features from the Sunday Times.
Lose It!: Amazing free app that helps record what I eat everyday and how much I burn from exercise. It’s the only method I’ve found that works for me to lose weight consistently. Once you’ve done a week, it really isn’t that hard to keep up with because you can quickly duplicate entries from prior meals. It also has a pretty large database and a very easy method of providing the caloric, fat, carb, etc. data that’s on every label.
ESPN ScoreCenter: Best sports info app (although a tad slow to load). It allows me to configure it so I get updates tailored to my favorite teams (Giants, 49ers, and Sharks).
Metro Map: It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in Washington, and having an easy-to-find metro map is a necessity.
GroceryIQ: Much easier than having scraps of paper grocery lists, this app keeps track of what I need to buy, with separate lists for different stores. When something is running low, I just add it to the list so on the weekend, when I’m out and about, I can always detour on the way home and pick up what I need without having to make a special trip or having to try to reconstruct on the fly what I need for the upcoming week.
Let me know if you have your own daily-use treasures.
Happy New Year
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I haven’t really subscribed to the whole new year resolution thing in the past. Given all the changes over the last few months, however, I’ve developed some bad habits that the new year might just help resolve. Nothing earth shattering, but each change would make me much happier in the long run.
1. Eat better. I’m living alone for an extended period for the first time in a quarter-century and my diet has certainly suffered as a result. Too much eating in restaurants or take out. As much as it is a pain, I’m back to recording what I eat, a technique which has helped immensely in the past. I will give myself one day a week off, but otherwise record my daily intake. I’m also going to shoot for preparing and bringing my lunch three days a week which should also help.
2. Exercise more. More than zero can’t be that hard, can it? I really do have no excuse with additional time, less responsibilities, and a fully functional gym two floors below. I hate using gyms, though. I’m going to try a few things to see if some combination works for me. I’m going to walk to the Foreign Service Institute (about 25 mins. each way) rather than drive. I’ll try to get to the gym a couple times a week. I ordered a TRX for use in the condo. I really liked it at my last gym and is easy to use at home for the years ahead.
3. Listen to more music and watch less TV. The TV is on a lot. I spend very little time actually sitting on the couch watching, but it is on almost all the time as background noise while I work, eat, read, etc. I’ve found a solution to routing music from the computer to the living room so iTunes and Pandora can now be heard where I spend most of my time. Exceptions: sports and while using the TRX (i.e., resolution 2 trumps resolution 3).
4. Update the blog more. I’ve been slacking, I know. I’ll aim for shorter, but more frequent, posts.
I’ll revisit each resolution in a couple of months and see how it’s going.
First Post
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Flag day did not disappoint. We’ve been told over and over to expect the unexpected and to avoid focusing on a few posts. I had quite a few posts labeled as high but was really focused on Africa. I heard the post announced, and then heard my name, but it took a second or two to put the two together and stand up to collect my flag and training schedule. It was not in my top 10 of expected postings as it was a late addition to the bid list.
Ottawa, Canada
It’s not as exotic as Accra, Ghana, or Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, but it will work great for a first post. Easy to get to from California. Easy to tour colleges on the East Coast with my daughter. Great food and internet access for video chats with the family. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.
After heading to the bar tonight to join my classmates (most of whom seem very happy with their posts), it’s time to start planning. It looks like I’m scheduled to start in February. I’m getting a little chilly just thinking about it.
Flag Day
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Early start this morning as we get underway, trying to keep our focus for the morning sessions while battling the temptation for minds to wander to this afternoon’s flag day ceremony. The assignments will be randomized so there is no way to know when a flag will be presented with my name attached. All we know is that we go into the room this afternoon and will come out an hour or two later knowing our first posts and our post-December 7 training schedules. We will know a lot more than we do this morning with, no doubt, many more specific questions.
There are some with palpable apprehension about flag day. For me, there are certainly some posts I’d rather receive than others, but overall I’m just excited to know where I’ll spend the next 1-2 years. I’ve done some research on the dozen or so posts I rated high on my list, but have intentionally not obsessed about it knowing there will be plenty of time to uncover details after I receive the assignment.
I started a pool for the least desirable post. The pool stands at $250, a small reward for taking one for the team. In a close race, the 50 participants voted Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, over Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (this South Pacific post sounds fantastic until you get a sense of the high crime rate and the restrictions on movement of Embassy personnel). The cash will be a small consolation for those that that have the toughest known challenge ahead. With world events constantly in a state of flux, I suppose there is also some comfort in knowing that the biggest challenge will come in some unforeseen place whether by coup, natural disaster, or other event.
Best of luck to everyone in the 149th — I hope we all receive a high bid post. For those that draw Juarez, I’ll see you at the bar tonight.
I’ll update tonight with my post assignment.
Tags: A-100, flag day, Foreign Service, FSO, Washington D.C., Washington DC
Composure Under Fire
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Nope. No AK-47s or simulated explosions. We’re in the middle of skill rotation week. Rather than finding ourselves in a large classroom, we have been broken up into small groups to learn, internalize, and practice in front of a crowd a set of diploskills. My first session bright and early this morning focused on answering questions in a variety of settings: press briefings, social events, presentations, cocktail parties, etc. Essentially everywhere we go, we are expected to handle questions on a variety of topics, always keeping in mind that we are speaking on behalf of the United States.
We are a pretty social group. Discussion, debate, and argument for sport come naturally for most of us. Thus, this session was a lot of fun, albeit not easy. Learning how and when to say “I can’t answer that” or “I don’t know” is tougher than it looks. As I was answering questions on Colombia human rights violations and U.S. humanitarian aid to Sudan, I thought about all of those West Wing episodes during which CJ made it look so easy. At times, I felt more like Josh trying to walk back the President’s secret plan for inflation:
We all survived, composure more or less intact, but it was a challenge.
Veterans Day
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For most of the country, Veterans Day is a pre-Thanksgiving shopping holiday. No matter what your politics, however, spending the day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will make you forget all about the Wall-mart, Target, and Sears bargains.
For many of the hundreds gathered on a gray, rainy morning, Veterans Day is an excuse to make an annual pilgrimage to meet with their brothers in arms and salute the fallen. There is little celebration. It is a somber remembrance of an ordeal they survived together: an ordeal those of us lucky enough to be of an age that required no such sacrifice cannot begin to understand. It was striking to see this group — made immortally 18-24 by Hollywood — has aged into their 60s. Those looking for a name amongst the 58,261 inscribed on the wall included not just spouses and children, but adult grandchildren.
The poor weather seemed the perfect accompaniment to the mood. After some speeches, the honor guard played taps, and the crowd dispersed. Some sought to find comrades on the wall, while others filed slowly up the path. As I worked my way through the crowd, stopping every once in awhile to make a photo, I heard countless murmurs of “see you next year.”
Half oriented
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With tomorrow off for a mid-week Veteran’s Day break, the 149th has officially completed 1/2 of the A-100 orientation course. Never have I felt more taxed by an 8:30 to 4:30ish schedule. I confess to not quite understanding why it’s has been so tiring, but I’m confident I’m not alone. Perhaps I am just out-of-practice. I haven’t been in a regular classroom setting since the first half of 1992 (and let’s face it, the last semester of law school did not involve that much classroom time).
Each day has had a completely different schedule so the time definitely doesn’t crawl. After announcements and a quick overview of the day’s agenda at 8:30 sharp, we typically cover 2 or 3 topics before lunch, and then another 2 or 3 topics in the afternoon. Often we will have 15 minutes to grab something to eat before a “brown bag” lunch discussion with a visiting dignitary.
The class segments cover a wide range of issues, from procedural (e.g., how to submit travel and per diem vouchers) to substantive (e.g., 18th and 19th century diplomatic history). With very few exceptions, the segments have been interesting and well-presented by an energetic staff. In addition to the orientation staff, we hear from an ever-changing cast of guest speakers including Ambassadors, Assistant Secretaries, specialists, and historians.
It’s been great stuff, but a lot of sitting and listening in an exceedingly crowded room. With the diplomatic hiring surge, the limitation for our class size does not come from the State Department budget or a dearth of qualified candidates. Rather, it’s the room’s fire code restriction that limits the number of new officers.
I find myself taking notes for no reason other than to force myself to stay 100% engaged. Although there are no tests or quizzes, note-taking precludes my mind from wandering to my bid list, what my kids are doing, or what I should do for dinner. By the end of the day, I’m done. That is, until it’s time to meet everyone at a bar for happy hour, or some other event. I’ve hit about half of the social committee’s events so far, typically those on a Friday night and/or close by my apartment.
The 149th is an impressive group and I’m looking forward to hearing about everyone’s exploits for years to come. In the meantime, we are counting the days until Flag Day on Nov. 23rd.
Tags: A-100, ELO, entry level, foreign service institute, FSI, state department, training
Rainy Week-end
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It’s been great to have some time this week-end to take a breath. The apartment is now in good shape after an expensive trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond, The Container Store, and the grocery store. My 250-pound air shipment arrived on Wednesday so I have all my clothes and even pictures of the family and art up on the walls to make it feel a little more like home-away-from-home. After a packed schedule of classes and first-post research during week one of A-100, it was great to have drinks with some of the class at a Friday night happy hour. I’m looking forward to getting to know people through more of those informal get-togethers.
The weather has not been great this week-end, so I’ve been holed up, knocking down some of the key items on my task list:
– Reading for next week’s class
– Researching various posts on our bid list
– Preparing my first reimbursement voucher
– Set up the home office with a new printer/scanner
– Laundry / Clean the apartment
–Misc. Paperwork
I also actually got my lazy butt to the gym which is all the way downstairs. No excuses left to avoid a regular gym routine.
