A Daring Adventure

Re-Entering the World of Grownups (or: Who Says Only Homeschooled *KIDS* Need Socialization?!)

So.  I started Chinese last week. 


A lot of folks have asked how Chinese is going.  I'll try to do my best to tell you.  Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

1.)  Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh... OTHER GROWNUPS!!!!!!  I actually get to be around and talk to OTHER GROWNUPS!!! 


Now, for those of you who have never been stay-at-home-parents (let alone a stay-at-home-parent for the last decade... let alone being a homeschooling stay-at-home-mom) this concept may seem hard to grasp or even - let's call a spade a spade - utterly pathetic.  But, seriously, stay-at-home-moms will totally get this.  After being at home (and only at home), and being moved around a thousand places and knowing no one but my children all those years and having very little - if any - opportunities to hang with grownups this is like heaven and nirvana all wrapped up together... with homework. 


DUDE.  I'll take the homework.  I get to be with grownups!  And eat lunch with them!  And I no longer have to wait, while the clock ticks slowly by, counting the SECONDS until my husband walks through the door so he can tell me about his day in Grownup Land.  O frabjous joy!  


However...


2.)    Many, many years ago (over a decade), I actually had a career and even a small business on the side.  I was a workaholic crazy Type A successful go-getter-nutjob, earning more than my husband and basically living at my workplace.  I had a nanny and a housekeeper... here in the US.  I gave that all up to stay at home with my boys so that they could actually grow up knowing who I was.  And I would do that again, in a heartbeat, for our family has thrived and I know it's in large part because of the sacrifices James and I have made with our time and our finances (it's tough to live on one paycheck!), etc.


But that crazy Type A nutjob is clawing and biting her way back out, I can tell, because I want to OWN the Chinese language and make it my beeyotch.  Couple that with the fact that all my classmates are brilliant times twelve...


... AND the fact that my class goes much faster than my husband's and has TWICE the homework of my husband's (explanation later, just a sec)...


...and I am studying Chinese and doing homework every minute of the day that I'm not doing work with the children or worrying about feeding someone. 

3.)  Spouses looking into taking a language at FSI, know the following:  different classes come with different goals and different courseloads/homework/assignments.  For example:


~  My husband's Mandarin class is a 44 week class.  Its goal is to get him from a 0/0 (no speaking or reading ability in Mandarin) to a 2/2 (speaking/reading).  He gets 44 weeks for this.

~  My class is a 30+ week class (some folks are scheduled for 34 weeks/ some for 36 weeks, etc., depending upon the time they have available to them before they leave for post or go into different training classes), and during that time, the goal of this class is to get us to a 2/1.  But they're presenting us with ALL the material that the 44 week 2/2 class uses, plus more, in a shorter time frame, so that if any of us want to/need to try for a 2/2 it should be theoretically possible. 


Translation:  I have all of my husband's work (and, actually, more, for they've given us more books and have given us additional assignments that my husband was never given) smooshed into a much smaller time schedule.  Upshot:  I have literally almost twice the homework he does on any given night.  WOW.  I did NOT know this was going to be the case, but I'm doing my best to do what's supposed to be done.  Meanwhile...


4.)  I will say that the fact that my husband is two months ahead of me in language training (he started in September, I started in November) is a HUGE, and I mean HUGE godsend.  Sure, it's nice that he's much further ahead and already knows a super boatload of Chinese... but, technically, this is a huge boon for me because he knows what all the assignments are and can locate them for me.

For example, a huge amount of my homework tends to be exercises that I have to listen to (some random audio file somewhere in cyberspace or on some random database) and then answer questions about.  Let me just say this:  these random homework audio files are IMPOSSIBLE for me to locate.  They're not labelled correctly; they're not in the right place; they're not anything that I can find.  But on my first day of class, my husband put every last one of them on my ipod because he long ago had to struggle with and slay the CRAP! Where Is That Random, Mismarked Audio File? dragon. 


In fact, my brilliant classmates are often counfounded by that same CRAP! Where Is That Random, Mismarked Audio File? dragon, and they're, as I said, totally brilliant.  So I can count myself extremely lucky that my husband long ago figured out the ins and outs of the random pieces of mismatched homework, and I do not HESITATE to mooch off of his prior knowledge. 

5.)  I love, and I mean LOVE the Chinese language.  Holy cow, is it fascinating.  (See also:  making it my beeyotch, above.  It'll never happen, but it's good for one to have goals). 


6.)  And did I mention that Mandarin is a super-critical-needs-language?  And that, like, gets you wicked pointz and stuff?  And if you're a spouse going through language training at FSI and you pass your language's test, that counts just like a passed phone test during an interview process for State, should you choose to try to do such?  I'm just sayin'...


So, all in all, life is crazy, life is busy, I'm clawing my way through each day with the Mandarin classes, my children, feeding people, my super-heavy load of homework, etc.   Thanks, everyone who has asked!


In the meantime...

View State Department Bloggers in a larger map


Just look at that awesome State Department Blogger Map!!  (Click here to see it full size in easy-to-use format.)

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has let me add them!  And just in time, for The Blogregator is down, and so I love having another way for people to find each other!


Bloggers, if you're not on The Map, just leave me a comment or email me at:


a_daring_adventure(at sign)yahoo.com


And also, bloggers who like The Map, please consider mentioning it on your blog!  I'd love to get the word out there!  Here's the link to it:


http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111737046415376727690.000493cc0981106fca39c&ll=16.636192,-3.164062&spn=169.374191,159.257813&z=2



And also - it's Thursday!  Which means that tomorrow is The Roundup!  It's being hosted by Jan at the blog Ogles and Observations - and tomorrow is her birthday, so Happy Birthday, Jan!  Since it's her birthday, her theme is about celebrating birthdays in the Foreign Service.  There's still time to participate!


And one last thing:


Are you a DS (Diplomatic Security Service) Agent's wife/spouse/significant other?  Or an Agent with a wife/spouse/significant other?  If so, did you know that there's an online email group for you/them?  And did you further know that the DS wives/spouses/significant others get together in the DC area sometimes?  There's a get-together coming up next week that I do NOT want any DS wives/spouses/s.o's in this area to miss, so if you're a DS wife/spouse/s.o. and you're interested in being involved with the email list and/or the D.C. area get-together, please contact me!  It can be a lonely life out there, sometimes, when our husbands/wives/boyfriends/girlfriends have this job, especially when we're currently posted in the DC area. 

Audience Participation Badly Needed: Tell Me, Guys...Good Idea or Dumb Idea?

Y'all know me.  I tend to do (and say) crazy things.


But some things don't change.  Least of which is that people are constantly reaching out to me and asking if I know of a State Department blogger in (name a country) or at (name a post) or who has ever been stationed in and blogged about (anywhere on the planet, seriously). 


When I started my sidebars, I wanted to try to help with this problem.  Wouldn't it be nice, I kept thinking to myself, if there was some way to make it EASY for people who want to know about a certain place to connect to a State blogger who is/was there and is/was writing about it/sharing pictures and experiences about it? 


Enter:  My crazy idea...



                             Putting State Bloggers On The Map



View State Department Bloggers in a larger map


Okay, let me 'splain what this is.


This is a Google map that I have complete control over.  I HOST THE MAP.  And I can use this map to stick any and all State Department bloggers on there as wish to be.  Put your mouse's cursor on the map; you can move it around...zoom in or out... and click on the pins (purple for current posts and yellow for former posts of bloggers) or even click on the tiny blue link on the bottom and go to a bigger version of the map.


Say you're a State blogger in Manila.  I stick a purple pin on the map and give it your name and link, just like I did with my own self...but only if you tell me to.  And even if you move on to somewhere else, I'll change your Manila pin to yellow to show that you have still archived posts from there.  You'll get a purple pin placed at your next post, but anyone who wants to see what you had to say during your time in Manila can see that you were there and blogged about it. 


So.  Is this the dumbest idea on the face of the earth? 


If people like the idea, though, and would want to be included on the map, I can totally give the map its own page and links just like the RoundUp sign up sheet.  [UPDATE:  I've done this, and the page can be found here.]


I'm just trying to make it easier for people to really connect, you know?   *I* think this is super duper nifty and way exciting, but, as I said, I'm sometimes just crazy!  :)


So.  Any State bloggers want a pin on the map?  Or more than one, since you blogged while you were somewhere else, too?  Or should I just trash the whole idea? 


                                              ~     ~     ~


[UPDATE:  Since first publishing this, I've had a couple of takers, so mine isn't the only pin on the map anymore.  Everyone be sure to check your links, and where I've dropped your pin!  When I drop a pin on top of a city, the map still assigns it a specific location (latitude/longitude) so, for safety reasons, be sure I haven't dropped it close to where you actually live.  As for me, I stuck mine on top of a shopping center. 


Also:  For those of you worried about security - I can totally just drop your pin in a body of water or along a border and just say your country or something if you'd like me to.  The map is fully customizable and I can do whatever I want with the pins!


Furthermore:  I have now created a separate page just for the map so that it's easy to get to/link to.


Also Again:  On the pin's typed, biographical information - I can add anything I want.  For example, I could say on mine "DS EFM blog" or something like that.  So if anyone wants to also discuss what would go on the pin's biographical information, that's also a topic on the table.  If you don't want to leave a comment, you can feel free to email me at:  a_daring_adventure(at sign)yahoo.com ]