Vietnamese Food and Ice Cream

The restaurant where we ate

I made it through my second day as a Foreign Service Officer.  It was much more interesting than yesterday, but just as tiring.  I was hoping to get to bed early tonight, but I think I am incapable of doing that.  Especially since the reason I am up is that I went with a few people to Little Saigon to get Vietnamese food, then to CVS pharmacy and finally to get ice cream.
I've never had Vietnamese food before, so I couldn't turn down the chance to get some.  Sure, I could go at a later date, but why pass up the opportunity when others were wanting to go today?  I had some grilled lemongrass beef on rice vermicelli.  It was really good, I must admit.  The weird thing is . . .  they don't accept credit cards!  I'm not kidding.  I was worried because I didn't have enough cash on me to pay my portion of the bill.  One of the guys who was there offered to loan me some cash, but on a whim I asked if they accepted checks.  The response was, yes!  Just to make sure, I asked, "from North Dakota?"  Yes!  So, this restaurant didn't accept credit cards, but they accepted out of state checks.  Who'd of thought?
The ice cream (ok, I got a smoothie) was really good, and I'm glad I went, even though it put me out later than I had planned.  Luckily, tomorrow we start a little later, so I don't have to get up quite so early.

First Day

Oakwood, Falls Church.  The main building with my building
showing in the background.

I did it.  I made it through my first day as an FSO.  Of course, this was probably the easiest day I will ever have (or so I imagine) since all I had to do was listen, fill out paperwork, sit, have my picture taken, have my finger prints taken, and things of that nature.
I drove with a few other new FSOs this morning to Main State.  We were worried that the Shuttle wouldn't get us to Main State on time.  We ended up being an hour early.  Security wasn't ready for us by the time we got there.  But I'm glad we went early because I was able to do the things for my badge that I needed to do right in the morning.  That means my badge was ready by 10 am when most people were doing the paperwork/verification/authentication necessary to have their badge printed.
After that, I went into the auditorium where we were to meet.  There was a little bit of waiting (but that doesn't surprise me after all the waiting I've done in the hiring process of this job) and then we began.  There was a welcome and we had a small swearing in.  I got the chills when we repeated the oath.  I know there is a formal ceremony later at the end of A-100, but still, it started to make it feel more official.  I'm really doing this.  I am serving my country.

Oakwood has a schedule of events including
an Ice cream social!!  It sounds like they
have a lot of good activities for the residents.

Next we had new hire information (I don't remember the order, but things like benefits and health insurance).  At 10am I got my badge (hurray!  Now it really is official!  I can walk around the building without an escort!), then filled out/turned in the remaining new hire paperwork that the registrar's office needed from me.  I was done by 10:30, so I went to lunch early.
I ate in the cafeteria.  It was really expensive.  It was good, but it was really expensive.  That kind of surprised me because the cafeteria in the ND Capitol Building was very reasonable.  I got a little extra so that I would have food for dinner (I didn't have the chance to go to the grocery store).  I still had two hours after that, so I got some information on health insurance plans, then made some important phone calls (like canceling the auto insurance policy on the car I gave to my sister).  I talked with some fellow 156th A-100ers before we headed back to the auditorium for the remainder of our day.  We had more information poured into our brains (retirement, security information, travel technicians).  I'm not sure if I have room for any more information in my brain after today!
Since I had my badge already, when we finished there, I was able to leave.  I decided to take the metro and got home around 5:00.  I did some laundry and then went to the grocery store.
It took a little for me to find the place, but I did.  I was surprised how reasonable the grocery prices were.  I got fresh produce for less than $1 per lb (including grapes, apples, and plums).  That was nice.  Since I walked, I didn't want to carry a lot of food, so I got some bread and sandwich meat in addition to my produce.  I didn't get milk or cereal :(

World Marketplace!!!!!!  There were something like 8 aisles
of international foods.  It was pretty exciting.

While I was there, I was surprised to run into several aisles labeled the World Marketplace!  They had so many different kinds of international foods!  I didn't spend much time looking in those aisles (as my space was limited) but I am excited to see what kinds of foods I can get when I have a little more space!
All in all, it has been a full and exhausting day.  Tomorrow the real fun begins (I think/hope).  Tomorrow is the beginning of orientation.

New Home

I am now in DC.  I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, so I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to post so you knew I made it.  I posted about my move, but will add pictures later.  I will also add pictures of my new place.  It is the nicest place I have ever lived in.  But it doesn't feel like home yet.  Maybe it will after I get some food in my kitchen.  Until then, I think it will feel more like a hotel.

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Bedroom

Moving Wisdom

Final packing of HHE

The movers have just finished.  All in all it took about 6 ½ hours to pack my little trailer.  The driver told me he was surprised how much I had.  He thought it wasn’t going to take very long to load.  I sure surprised him!

My place feels very empty.  And now I have errands I need to run while the day is young.  But first I wanted to write some important and useful tidbits of moving wisdom that I have learned over the past 6 ½ hours.

•  Don’t assume that your UAB shipment is within weight.  Step on a scale with each individual piece to ensure you are ok if you have to: 55 + 55 + 50 + 30 + 25 + 15 + shipping container of 25? = 255 (Hopefully the scales were off in my favor . . . meaning that it all actually weighs less than that!)  In the future I will make sure this gets packed FIRST.  (They didn’t get packed in my order of priority, either).
•   Liquids = bad.  They cannot be stored, so fit them into your luggage/your UAB, or get rid of them (unless the HHE is shipping to post, then I imagine it would be ok).
• Forget lighters, too (flammable).
• Be prepared for flies to enter your house during the time that your doors are wide open, and lots of them.
• Be prepared to repeat yourself over and over again about what goes where.
• Keep like things together as otherwise they will end up in random boxes.
• Watch the movers like a hawk or while you aren’t watching, they will pack something you didn’t intend them to pack.
• Before the last box is sealed, make sure to check for any small items that were missed.
• Simplify, simplify, simplify!  The less you own, the easier the pack out will be!

The truck that took away my UAB

That’s all I can think of for now.  I think future moves will be easier, not just because I have now experienced a professional move, but also because I think I will be less often shipping so much of my stuff to storage.

Well, I suppose I should go find a productive use for the rest of my day.

Pack Out

The large moving truck brought to haul my stuff.

The movers are here packing my stuff and loading the truck.  It is weird because I’m not used to sitting around (standing in this case because they’ve already taken the couch and chair and a half out of my place) and doing nothing while other people work.  At the same time, I don’t want to be in the way.  There are three men here: two doing the packing, and one driver (who is also loading the truck).  They seem to be very efficient. One of the packers is new (today is his very first day . . . aka I am his first move), but he is doing all the easy stuff . . . aka not breakable.  I don’t feel too concerned about how they’re packing my effects, so that is good.

The start of packing

There was a little snag when they first got here; they didn’t know about my air shipment.  I guess usually air shipments are sent overseas, not within the US.  The State Department must be an exception to that, and I doubt many people from the State Department get packed out up here.

Gizmo is handling everything very well.  I’m surprised.  When the couch was still here, he sat quietly by my side while the men packed boxes around us.  Now he is sitting quietly in the bottom of one of my bookshelves.  As long as he is not exposed/out in the open, he does fine.  I was afraid that he would try to run outside, but that hasn’t been a problem.

They are packing things a lot faster than I anticipated.  I guess they go to lunch about 12:30 and at that time they will bring a scale to weigh my UAB shipment.  Hopefully I can take everything I have separated out.  At least I have developed an order of preference: Food, Gizmo’s things, clothing, toiletries, books, guitar, and then Christmas decorations.  I think that is all I have set aside for my UAB. 

Gizmo hiding in my book shelf.  Though he has his leash on, he's not tied to anything.

It is weird to see my stuff slowly disappear from around me . . . while I do nothing . . .