Back in the States
So we have completed our tour in Ankara and are now back in Virginia doing the whirlwind month known as home leave. I say whirlwind because we are about to embark on a 2 week trip that will take us from Fredericksburg to Hilton Head to New York City and back. Then after that we’ll be getting to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a few days, not to mention Bedford, VA. It’s been nuts already, and we’ve only been back for a little over a week. The flight back was awesome. Mer and I had our first business class experience, and it is amazing. So comfortable and the food was actually pretty tasty! It will be hard to fly economy again. Good thing we don’t have to when we travel to Bangkok.We were sad to leave Ankara mostly because of the friends we had to leave behind. We also fell in love with Turkey; we had an amazing, eye opening time while we were there. We’ll always have fond memories of it, because it was our first home after we were married. On to new things and making more memories in Bangkok!!
I dont know if you’ll anser this but…did u ever have to own a vehicle in any of your posts? and how many times did it take you to pass the FSOT test and what line of work do you do? I just took the test Dec 07 and am really antsy to find out the results. What made you want to join the Foreign Service and what do you like best about it? Congrats on your new assignment and have fun.
Andrew
January 22, 2008 at 12:48 pm
We bought a Nissan Xterra before we got to Turkey. In hindsight it wasn’t the best idea to buy a new car mainly for financial reasons; not to mention that the car itself was just too big for the cramped streets of Ankara.
I am actually not a diplomat. My official title is Information Management Specialist. I handle all communications in and out of embassies, electronic or otherwise. So I actually didn’t have to take the Foreign Service test that diplomats have to. The FSOT is no joke, that’s for sure.
I joined the FS mainly for the travel opportunities just like everyone else does, but I’m finding out that living overseas is a really nice lifestyle. Plus the pension if you stay in long enough is pretty good, too…
Doug
January 22, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Hey, thanks for resonding back..Yeah an Exterra is pretty big in itself I can imagine how cramped it was in those streets….I was thinking maybe just surviving with Taxi Cabs…well everyday I wait to hear from FS just makes me more motivated to keep perservering for it. Thanks for the insight
Andrew
January 24, 2008 at 10:34 am
Welcome home. Where are you off to next?
I have been trying to get together a fairly comprehensive list of FS blogs, so I hope you don’t mind that I have added a link to your blog on mine (lifeafterjerusalem.blogspot.com).
I once did like you and bought a car that was really too big for the parking in country. But it was big, old, beat up and I put dip plates on it…so people gave me a really wide birth!
Michelle
January 24, 2008 at 2:23 pm