Girl POWER! (DS and Otherwise)

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...

The time in Chengdu, China

Chengdu: city of fabulous food and beautiful Buddhist monasteries!

In Our Same Boat (with State)

Beyond the Cornfields
Brand-new State Department family in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Love their two little girls (she just recently had a baby while being posted in Dhaka), horticulture, traveling and adventure!
Email From The Embassy
State Department family formerly in Beijing, China, and recently posted to Amman, Jordan. A trailing spouse, she's also a writer, and frequently publishes articles with major news sources. A very experienced State family, this new post is something like overseas post number six or seven for them.
Just US
A beautiful family of seven - they have arrived at their new post: Jerusalem! They just finished off an unaccompanied tour to Iraq and are very much looking forward to sightseeing around the middle east.
Our Life
State Department family on their second post...Tijuana, Mexico. It's their first overseas assignment and they have two little boys. They love Tijuana so far and post pictures frequently! They also get to enjoy the best of both worlds for they can sneak over the border into San Diego when they want to!
The Dinoia Family
State Department family formerly in California, now in DC for a DC tour. Next, the husband will do a one year unaccompanied tour. A very experienced State family (formerly in Iceland and Caracas) with a blog that has been around quite a while and has great archives. Jen has a sweet heart and a lot to give!
The Perlman Update
State Department family formerly in Chennai, India, who then did a year-long unaccompanied tour in Iraq. They are now on a DC tour and after that will do another unaccompanied tour (Afghanistan). She totally tells it like it is and doesn't sugar-coat what life is really like. Witty, snarky, funny and down-to-earth. Look elsewhere if you want fake. Read if you want REAL.
Where in the World Am I?
State Department family formerly in Bujumbura, Burundi and now in Hyderabad, India. They just had their first baby this summer - a beautiful little girl- (there's a separate blog about this) and she also eats gluten-free (with a separate blog, also).

One of the most intriguing things about Chengdu is that it is a seamless blend of ancient and modern... all together, side by side.

Can't Live Without (non-State)

Crass-Pollination: An ER blog
The best ER nurse blog EVER!
Doctor Grumpy in the House
The best doctor blog EVER!
In Which...
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of seven. Her darling daughters are, goshdarnit, probably too young to be hoped for as my future daughters-in-law.
The Crib Chick
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of five. Hopefully two (Any two! I'm not picky!) of which are my future daughters-in-law.
the underwear drawer
An anesthesiologist who is possibly the most talented & entertaining writer ever. I've read her blog ever since she started medical school. No, don't know her in real life. Wish I did.
The Bloggess
This blog is both hysterically funny and hilariously irreverent. I actually let my 17 year old son read it (who loves it as much as I do!), but wouldn't even CONSIDER letting my 12 year old son read it. Which is about all the description it needs!

The grounds of Chengdu monasteries can be very, very peaceful...even though they are smack dab in the heart of a city of millions of people.

Specifics

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06/12/2011

Girl POWER! (DS and Otherwise)

[Quick RoundUp Update: This week's State Department Blog RoundUp will be hosted by my darling friend A over at Crafty Foreign Service. The theme is: Where are your Manners?! Tips and tricks to be polite in the FS. Or other interesting stuff....]

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So, the last time I blogged, I showed y'all a cool DS (Diplomatic Security Service) video.

Today is a day for the ladies!

Recently, Elle magazine ran an article about the women who serve on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's DS protection detail. The article called these female Special Agents "Hillary's Angels," which I think is a fabulous name. I don't know if Elle came up with this nickname or if this is a frequently-used nickname that I just hadn't heard before, but I love it!

The article is actually made up of two pdf files. Here's the first page of the article, and here's the second page.

My favorite quote: "Shooting in the morning makes me hungry." That is AWESOME.

Rock on, ladies!

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In other girl power news, this week Diplopundit wrote about difficult EFM issues that many EFMs face (you are AWESOME, Diplopundit!). Consul-at-Arms' suggestion for solving one aspect of the EFM problem (namely, the problem that many EFMs are not native English speakers and, therefore, can have a more difficult time getting jobs overseas) made me laugh so hard I almost couldn't breathe:

"Obviously, the thing to do is require unmarried FSOs to chose English-fluent spouses from one of the BRIC countries until further notice."

And A over at Crafty Foreign Service (who grew up with parents in the Foreign Service and now is married to a guy in the Foreign Service... so her mother was an EFM and now she is also an EFM) recalled the days when her own mother was included on her father's State Department EER.

Glad THOSE days are over! I absolutely cannot even imagine.

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Speaking of girl power, the other day I had a great conversation with this (obviously lactating, female) squirrel in the backyard:

She was all: I know I'm totally pigging out, and I'm eating all the peanuts in the squirrel feeder all by myself, but I'm nursing my four babies back at my nest and I'm ALWAYS SO HUNGRY! I'm way scared that I'll never lose all this baby weight! *munch munch munch*

And I was all: Oh, girlfriend, I've SO been there! It's so hard! But you WILL lose the baby weight and then someday they'll be practically all grown and it will SO have all been worth it! See? Look! Someday this will be you guys:

And then I tossed her another few scoops of peanuts and all was right with the world.

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Additionally, I just have to add something else for the benefit of my mother, the animal lover:

Dear Mom,

The goats at the Washington DC Zoo have their very own playground. I'm totally not joking. I know this will make you very happy, so I'm including a picture of the happy goats, playing on their very own playground equipment. And no, since the goat area is fenced off, the goats don't even have to share their fun toys with zoo visitors. It's ALL. THEIRS:

I will now close this blog post with a picture of a flower, because girls love flowers:

FIN.

[UPDATE: A dear friend of mine read this blog post (from DS to lactating squirrels to goat playgrounds) and then hypothesized that Chinese has now officially driven me completely out of my mind. She is correct.]

Posted on 06/12/2011 at 11:50 AM in EFM Issues, The Grandparents | Permalink

Comments

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"She was all: I know I'm totally pigging out, and I'm eating all the peanuts in the squirrel feeder all by myself, but I'm nursing my four babies back at my nest and I'm ALWAYS SO HUNGRY! I'm way scared that I'll never lose all this baby weight! *munch munch munch*

"And I was all: Oh, girlfriend, I've SO been there! It's so hard! But you WILL lose the baby weight and then someday they'll be practically all grown and it will SO have all been worth it! See? Look! Someday this will be you guys:"

ROTFLOLOLOL!

Seriously. Can't stop laughing!

And then this? Like a cherry on top. . .

"Obviously, the thing to do is require unmarried FSOs to chose English-fluent spouses from one of the BRIC countries until further notice."

Posted by: TulipGirl | 06/12/2011 at 02:23 PM

Thanks for the link and the mention.

Posted by: Consul-At-Arms | 06/12/2011 at 07:06 PM

What's wrong with random topics colliding in a single post... I think like that all the time. I love the goat playground! I bet it would be fun to watch them.

Posted by: Connie | 06/12/2011 at 10:22 PM

Everybody loves a little snarkiness, it seems.

I've quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms2.blogspot.com/2011/06/re-girl-power-ds-and-otherwise.html

Posted by: Consul-At-Arms | 06/16/2011 at 09:10 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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!