Bid List Submitted

It's a strange feeling, like a giant load has been lifted from our shoulders but that a different, perhaps even larger load has been placed squarely upon them.  Max and I submitted our bid list tonight.  As we do with most big things of an internet submission nature, we pushed the send button together with our respective index fingers.  Aahhhh, isn't that precious?  I know.  We did it for Grad School and each step of the Foreign Service labyrinth and things turned out pretty well on both accounts.  If ever there was a time to worship the Gods of superstition, I figure this is it.

I can't really spill about specific countries, but I think it's safe to follow suit of a friend of mine and tell you our preferences in a round about way.  We get three.  Max's CDO (Career Development Officer) will look at these preferences, our bid list rankings and "The Needs of the Service" of course, and make a decision based on those things.  Be warned, our preferences aren't juicy demands - they are almost as flexible as you can get in terms of where they put us on the map.  But isn't that fun?

1) We want to stay together, with any children who might enter into the family.  Not an announcement, just a precaution.  Excessive restrictions on my movement about the city and my ability to interact with locals/culture/nature/history are what we are trying to avoid.  BUT we also want to go somewhere with a high enough differential (money they pay you extra if a post is remote/lacks basic goods and services - that kind of thing) to be eligible for student loan repayment.  We have been students for a long time and we've been blessed to travel quite a bit for school...that's expensive.  We are willing to put in some time in the boonies for a little bit of gov'ment student loan repayment.

2) Max wants to either fulfill his entry level duty as a consulate officer or work specifically with his area of interest. 

3) Max wants to either practice Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, or Spanish or learn something new.

Our bids are all over the place geographically and each one holds an entirely different possible reality.  It's all at once thrilling and mind melting.

In related news, I'm going to sign up to take the same consulate training course that the Officers take.  If there is room, I can be trained to fill any openings that the embassy can't fill by regular officers.  Isn't that rad?  I'd probably be just as happy making books in my studio, but it's nice to know I could do interesting work at post if I wanted.

Will keep you posted....about our post.  Flag day is next Friday so light a candle for us!