Friday, December 16, 2011

Foreign Service Fridays: Let the Games Begin

Okay guys, so I know I usually do an inspiration post on Fridays, but I've been waiting for quite some time to make all my alliteration dreams come true with the introduction of Foreign Service Fridays.

That's right - John got his offer, and he has accepted! Which means he'll be starting the 165th A-100 class (or "Intro to the Foreign Service") on January 17th. For those of you who are wondering if this means we know which country we're going to - nope, not yet. We'll know somewhere around February 24th I believe, just in time for my birthday. But on January 18th we'll get the bid list - aka the list of available posts. And that is going to be an interesting day indeed.

According to John, there are 60 people in the January class. That means there will be 60 posts on the list (not 60 countries necessarily, since some countries have multiple posts). I feel like 60 is a good number. There should be a nice variety, but it won't be completely overwhelming. Of course I say that now - I'm sure 60 will feel totally overwhelming when the time comes. But for now, it sounds good.

For other Foreign Service folks who might stumble across this blog, John's score was a 5.575. He would have eventually had a 5.75 with his veteran's preference points, but he couldn't get those until after he officially gets out of the Marine Corps, some time in April. It turned out that having the January offers go out much later than usual worked in our favor - so many people who aren't local turned down their offers, because a lot of them have jobs they can't just up and leave on short notice, or because they can't move out here in less than a month. I'm not sure if a 5.575 would have been high enough under normal circumstances, but fortune smiled on us this time around. Not that I'm necessarily ready to move as early as next April or May (if we were to get a non-language coded country). Most likely we'll move some time next fall I'm assuming. It's so hard to say at this point. But I have a feeling the next few months are going to FLY.

So there you have it. I'll continue to update you guys on the situation in the coming weeks. But for now, all I can say is - IT'S ON! Let the Foreign Service games begin!

3 comments:

Jenny S. Morris said...

That is so awesome! Where ever you end up will be such an adventure.

Dad said...

Wow! I guess that means no skiing with me in Feb. But congrats!!

Mara Rae said...

Thanks Jenny!

And Daddy - we don't know for sure yet. It's possible he'll be able to go between A-100 and language training. We're keeping our fingers crossed!!