Well, this new life of ours is in full swing. After my Spouse/Partner Orientation last week, I am on information overload, so I know Jeff must be too, since he's steeped in it from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. But, that's how he likes to be - overloaded with information - so he's feeling right at home. We got our "bid list," which is the list of the 70 possible locations to which we could be posted... from right here in "the other Washington" to Rio de Janeiro to Chennai to Sarajevo. We've been researching what life is like at each post, and not just the culture in any given place, but what the facilities are like at the embassy, what housing is like, whether or not there are other families there, how large the ex-pat community is... it's a lot. Especially since we have Zoe. It's much different from Jeff and I running around the world with a backpack or two. More to consider.
Anyway, we bid on each location high, medium or low (yes, all 70), and that information is due this Friday to... well, to whomever it goes to. We've decided to work on our highs and lows and then just mark everything else as medium. Hope that works.
While Jeff is off every day learning about how to be a better bureaucrat (!), Zoe and I are here in the apartment complex. We went to a play time yesterday, which was nice, but Zoe was MUCH more interested in the other kids than in the toys, and the other kids were much more interested in the toys. Poor Zoe. There's not a whole lot for us to do right now with the weather so cold and Zoe so young. Here's to meeting more families with little bitty kids as social as mine. :-)
Signing off for now. The next time you hear from me will probably on January 31 - with the big announcement. Stay tuned!
