Thursday, August 26, 2010

Will Work 4 Fulfillment

I'd be a hungry homeless person with that slogan!  I'm already basically a transient, with nothing but temporary homes in the world.

It has always been top priority to find a job wherever we end up.  It is important for me to continue in my career, wherever that may take me, and keep busy.  When I don't stay busy, I get bored and drive Sarah crazy!  What does that mean in Brazilia?  Learn Portuguese!

Many of the positions open in the embassy (especially the professional ones) require some fluency in Portuguese, because most Brazilians don't speak English.  Although I will take any job that comes along, I would really prefer to shy away from the administrative assistant positions and obtain a consular associate position or something like it.  In order to get a consular associate position, I have to take the Basic Consular Course from the Foreign Service Institute.  Or, if you are talking to someone in the FS, I need EFM approval from Sarah's CDO to contact the FSI registrar to enroll in the BCC...  See why things are so tough?  Stupid acronyms...

Right now I have to choose between a couple of different paths.  Like, literally, now.  Things are very complicated, because our ship-out date is scheduled for October 1st.  This is waaay quicker than most other specialists, but as we've been told, Med is different.  Many families are here for 9 months or more before shipping to post, giving the EFM more time for optional training.  So here are my short term options:

I could continue with my Rosetta Stone Portuguese training, and join the 6 week Basic Consular Course starting this Monday, Aug. 30th.  That would delay my departure until October 14th, 2 weeks after Sarah gets there.  Although the government would still pay for my flight, I'd be on my own for housing those two weeks.  That can be really expensive in DC!

I could also skip the BCC, and instead take a FAST course in Brazilian Portuguese. This is a 7 week course beginning September 9th.  I would be in class full time, but I would quit on Oct. 1st to go to Brazil.

Grrr....  I think I would like to take the BCC more than the language training because I won't have another chance to until we are in DC for a while, and I can learn Portuguese at post.  I also don't like the idea of leaving Sarah alone for the first two weeks of our post.  What to do, what to do?!

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