So I was perusing the totally nifty videos on State's Official Page of People Doing Awesome Stuff (gosh, I *love* the video titled "Michelle and Mary," by the way!), and you know what I realized?!
If you scroll down past all the Foreign Service Officer Awesomeness Stories, you get a set of Foreign Service Specialist Awesomeness Stories. And you know what? There's not ONE SINGLE VIDEO of any DS Agents! There are two Security Engineering Officers and a Security Technical Specialist... but not a single Agent.
Yo, whassup with THAT?!
~ ~ ~
In other news, today is a really strange day. I don't know if you already heard about this, but FSI is closed today.** Here's how this went down.
[**For all but a small subsection of people, like those going to Iraq and stuff, etc. But for language and regular training people, CLOSED.]
Late yesterday afternoon, we trainee folks were wrapping up our last classes when, all of a sudden, the FSI building lost power. It was very bizarre! And then it started getting a little warmer in the building, and a little warmer...
Anyway, classes were sent home (only the tiniest bit early).
Then, this morning, James and I got a phone call from a friend who had gotten to FSI before we left home. FSI was still closed, she told us! And it was going to be closed all day today! Some lady was actually standing outside of FSI with a big sign (!!) which listed off the small subsection of people who were still required to enter the (stifling? I don't know...) building for training. The rest of us were cut loose for the day.
Our first reaction was horror. Because you cannot miss even a single class of ConGen and still graduate, which means that somewhere the folks running ConGen have a HUGE headache on their hands. How to re-structure the classes missed without it being a gigantic problem? And also, James and I are in the middle of planning every last second of our travel plans post-FSI and pre-Chengdu, complete with plane tickets and hotel stays. Will this FSI shutdown end up derailing our lives? (We hope not. James thinks not.)
But, on the other hand, James and I just had to laugh. Because we were here ALL LAST WINTER, and not a single day was lost to snow. Not *one* snow day! Sure, I think one morning we had a delayed opening by two hours, but that's all, and stuff still opened by 9:30 am, if I remember correctly. So, no big deal.
So, this means that this whole last year of our training, we had ZERO snow days, but we now have had a HEAT day. (I have to imagine that something at FSI got overloaded because of the crazy high heat index - 117 today! - but that's just pure speculation on my part. I could be totally wrong. I often am.)
So that's totally wicked crazy!
A heat day! Go figure.
This is us. The one showing lots of shoulder (in her Chengdu, China Marine Ball ball gown!) is the EFM who writes this blog. The one wearing a tux (James) is the employee who moves her (and their two sons) around all over the world. The red link, below, is how you can get in touch with me...
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Chengdu: city of fabulous food and beautiful Buddhist monasteries!
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07/22/2011
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James loves me. And our sons. And his job. But not having his picture taken. In 2011 he finished up over a year and half of training, and in the fall of 2011 we got to our first overseas post - Chengdu, China!
Mao says hi! Because Chengdu is one of the only cities in China with a Mao statue.
Flowers are like friends. Each one is unique. Each one is beautiful. They brighten up everything around them. And you can never have too many.
Become a Fan
2012 is the Year of the Dragon, y'all! Talk about the ultimate in good luck! This kinda party only comes around once every twelve years!
Colorful! (Inside a Chengdu ancient Buddhist monastery.)
Have I mentioned that I absolutely adore taking pictures? Here are some that I've taken recently:
I like that Michelle and Mary video too. That Mary person is a cutie, and seems really smart too. Too bad she's married...
In all seriousness, I have it on good authority that the folks in the video volunteered to do it. So could be that none of them volunteered, since many, though quite photogenic, seem to be averse to publicity.
Posted by: Digger | 07/22/2011 at 01:22 PM
I'm sorry that the FSI closure isn't the best for your and James, but I am LOVING IT! I had Nick around for a whole day to help with unpacking. We knocked out a big chunk and are almost done!
Posted by: Liz | 07/22/2011 at 01:45 PM
Phil heard that a transformer (computer blah, blah - what's a transformer?) was fried because of the heat...
Posted by: Camille | 07/22/2011 at 02:23 PM
If it makes you feel any better, the DS Agents got essentially a whole brochure to themselves;
www.state.gov/documents/organization/158786.pdf
Not really sure why the agents aren't featured in any of the videos, though.
Posted by: OpSecBlog | 07/23/2011 at 06:17 AM
Yes, we are wondering how this will effect Jonathan b/c Friday was to be his last day of training/graduation. We are to fly to NYC on Tuesday and then on to Brussels. What now???!! But the unexpected day off allowed Jonathan to join us in Richmond w/ my family to explore the Science Museum one last time. He is still recovering from the virus he had on Wednesday in which they refused to let him go home....despite the fact that he had a fever of 102F and had all ready aced his last exam! Oh well. We are hoping he can go in to FSI on Monday and finish his remaining paperwork so we can depart as scheduled. But it's all in His sovereign hands and we will get there when He wants us to get there.
Posted by: Laurie | 07/24/2011 at 07:57 AM