Holy Cow, I Passed! (And Pictures)

Ok, so remember me talking about the Foreign Service Officer Test a couple of weeks ago?  I didn't prepare for it, I ran out of time, I knew I didn't pass, etc.  Well I got the results on Wednesday.  I passed!  I was incredibly surprised, and don't really know what to think about it.  The minimum score for the multiple choice was 154, and I had a 157.  The essay portion required a 6 out of 12, and I received an 8.  Wow!  There are a lot of really smart people who don't pass on the first try, so I have no idea how I squeaked by.

Now I'm sure you're thinking "what does this mean?"  I'll tell you.  Not very much.  :)  The selection process for FSO's is pretty rigorous.  From this point, I have to submit some written essay questions.  Then my application, test scores, and written responses are reviewed by a panel to decide if I'm qualified enough to become an officer.  If I pass that step, then I'm invited to an Oral Analysis which includes personal interviews, another individual written essay (I think), and a timed team project in Washington DC.  Sarah's process was much different, as she went in as a Specialist, not a Generalist.

I still haven't explained what it actually means for Sarah and I, have I...  If I was hired as an FSO, Sarah and I would be considered a tandem couple.  We would bid for different locations as a team, and it reduces the likelihood that we would be separated if she was assigned to a dangerous post.  I would have my own career, and would be guaranteed a job wherever we went.  Great!  The down side is that being a tandem couple limits the amount of posts of which we are eligible, so there's less of a choice.  Although Sarah and I haven't decided for sure if this is the path that we want to take or not, just passing the first hurdle is exciting!  Being an FSO would open up possibilities for Sarah not to work in the future, or simply help us save more money to be in a good position to quit in a few years, if that's what we decide to do.

So after that exciting news, I have more pictures!  Here are a few of the apartment that I've been promising.  Although it's easy to get jealous of other peoples' housing here, our apartment is great! 

 

Front Outside

 Taken in Front of Our Garage

 

 

Family Room

 

 

Master Bedroom

 

  Dining Room

It looks kind of creepy with all the headless people sitting at the chairs, right? :)  We don't have enough hangers for our clothes until UAB comes, so we're making due with what we have.  It's not quite so lonely in this big apartment when the table's always full.

 View of the Avocado Tree Outside Our Bedroom Window

 Me With 3 Duct Taped Brooms Fishing for Avocados :)

Success!!

Some of the Apartments in Our Area

View of the Most Famous Building in Brasilia:  The Metropolitan Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Newcomers Lunch at the Ambassador's Residence

Some of Our New Friends

View of the JK Bridge from the Ambassador's Residence

Getting Ready to Play Tennis at the Ambassador's Residence

Terrible Form!  My Tennis Coach Would Not Be Impressed.

Ted and I (losing)

Sarah and Mona

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Living for the weekends

I write this on Tuesday and I'm still a little worn out from Friday and Saturday!  :)  We are incredibly lucky to have found some great people in Brasilia that invite us to do fun things.  I'll be honest; there are a whole lot of pretty weird people that work for the federal government at every level.  We ran into lots of them in DC.  Here, however, there is no shortage of fun young people that are a lot like us.  Already, I feel that we have met some who will be our best friends for our short time here in Brasilia. 

We've found that Brasilia has a great concert scene!  In the last couple weeks, they've hosted Green Day, the Cranberries, Black Eye Peas, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Brazilians are crazy for American music!  It is bizarre, as almost none of them speak English.  Sarah and I went to the Black Eye Peas concert on Friday night with four other new friends and had a blast!  It was an outdoor ampitheater and we were basically in the back row.  The benefit of being in the back row was standing right in front of the beer cart. As is often the case, when the beer was flowing, bad caucasian dancing followed!  :)

Saturday night was Bunco night for the ladies, which Sarah opted out of, so the husbands met for a barbeque.  I'm not one to pass up beer and burgers, so I took a taxi over to Lago Sul at around 4:00 and didn't leave until about 2:00am!  I thought I was getting too old for this, but I'm fairly certain I was the youngest one there...  It made for some slow moving guests at the ambassador's house on Sunday for the newcomers lunch.  We do have some pictures to post, however I'm at the embassy today for tennis lessons and (hopefully) language classes so I'm away from our computer.  Today is also the our maid's first day, so I needed to get out of the house. :)  Life's rough down here!

I'm spending some time now updating my resume and filling out the arduous government paperwork for embassy positions.  I need a job!  The posh life of tennis lessons and Friday massages is already starting to get boring.  Most of them, however, require some level of Portuguese.  Although I spent most of the day with my mistress Rosetta Stone yesterday, I still wouldn't claim to have any speaking ability other than "please," "thank you," and "beer."

Cheers!

A few Brasilia pictures

So today is October 18th, and we arrived on October 3rd.  I'm somewhat conflicted on my feelings about this.  On one hand, it feels like these last two weeks have just flown by because we've been so busy.  On the other, Brasilia is already starting to feel like home and it's hard to believe we've only been here for two weeks! 

On first impression, I really like Brasilia.  Sarah does too, though I don't think she's quite ready to call it home yet.  She'll feel more at home once our things arrive. 

The best thing about Brasilia, which I'm sure our families will be very glad to hear, is that it's very safe.  During our two months in DC, we had training on security.  We were told to take different routes to work every day, vary our schedule, be aware of our surroundings, etc.  It made us somewhat paranoid for our safety overseas!  Luckily, Brasilia is probably the safest post we could get.  I have yet to feel unsafe or threatened.  I'll continue to be careful and aware, however the it's almost entirely unneeded here. 

I have to spend some time explaining how Brasilia works.  It's a very modern city that was built in less than 4 years in the 1950's out of nothing.  It was basically a desert on which a city was erected for the sole purpose of becoming the nation's capital.  Brasilia is looked to as a successful model of modern urban design, especially for the transportation system.  It is built in a way that makes travel flow relatively quickly without need for stoplights through roundabouts and use of primary roadways for travel.  Built in the shape of an airplane,  there are primary roadways, called eixao's, that bisect the city.  They run along the fuselage and across the wings of the airplane.  Most addresses are very easy to find in the central Brasilia area.  The addresses are 3 numbers followed by a quadrant and a Bloco, as ours is 113 Asa Sul, Bloco F.  The first number signifies how many blocks we are from the eixao, and even numbers below it.   The second number is how many blocks you are from the center of the fuselage of the airplane.  So 113 is one block above the eixao, and 13 from the fuselage.  Asa Sul signifies that we are in the "South Wing," and Bloco F is our apartment building.  There's a red circle where our apt. is below.

Between each quadrant is a strip of stores called a commercio.  We have a couple in walking distance with some great restaurants, fresh fruit, pharmacies, etc.  Below is one that is pretty close, with Abby sniffing Brazilian dirt.  I took a walk last Tuesday afternoon, which is a Brazilian holiday, so everything is pretty closed down.  I regret to admit that I really still have no idea what the holiday was, but with that and Columbus day we ended our (Sarah's) first work week in Brazil with a 4 day weekend!

In the first picture, you can see the sign saying that it is Sul, Comercio Local 312 313.  So if you look at the map above, just above and to the right of our apartment building you can see where 312 & 313 meet.  That's where I was standing.

That afternoon we also visited Abby's favorite place; the park behind our house.  Brasilia was built with SQ's (Super Quadra's) as the bread in an EQ (Entra Quadra) sandwich.  So in between SQ's 112 and 113 Sul is EQ 112-113.  Brasilia was built to be a community-centered city, as the architect, Oscar Niemeyer, was a very communal minded individual.  Each SQ has it's own stores, public areas, restaurants, and walking paths.  So between each of these SQ's was a public area meant for some kind of cultural or community minded service.  Some of them are churches, somehow a McDonald's snuck into one, and many of them, like ours, are parks.  Ours looks like it was a great park 50 years ago...  It is perfect for us, as it is a big empty area where we can let Abby run and play ball, but it is usually empty and very run-down.  Lots of the original playground and sporting equipment has been removed, but some still stands.  There is actually a tennis court that I've seen people playing on so I'm excited for the tennis equipment I ordered to arrive!  Have I mentioned I'm taking tennis lessons? :)

Those are all the pictures I could get uploaded in the short time we had internet on Saturday afternoon.  We went to a friend's apartment to steal his internet and watch Nebraska vs. Texas.  I still get agitated when thinking about the game  (grrrr) but I got some really great news!  My sister Emily and her longtime boyfriend Brett are engaged to be married in April of 2012!  We were actually able to use Vonage and talk to her for a little while.  Congratulations Emily and Brett!!

I realize I am great at giving facts in a "newsy" sort of way, but not so inclined to describe personal events or feelings.  I'm prone to show maps of Brasilia instead of pictures of Sarah and I.  So here's a quick recap of personal information about our lives for you:

• Sarah and I have a game that we've played every night since we've been married where before we go to sleep, we ask each other "what was the best part of your day?"  We've added another installment to that which is "what is something you like about Brazil?"  It helps us to look at the good things that we are experiencing instead of focusing on what we miss about home, or how at times we can feel alienated from the country around us.  It really hasn't been bad yet, but I have a feeling tougher times will come.
• We miss our families!  We've been disconnected since the end of July, not just the two weeks we've been here.  We wish we could cheer on Ben and Elijah at their football games, ask Lilly about kindergarten, or be around to congratulate Emily and Brett in person.  As much as we miss them now, we're dreading Thanksgiving and Christmas  which are approaching quickly...
• Possibly my favorite and most bizarre moment in Brasilia was a grocery store visit last weekend.  Before noon on a Sunday, we were cut in front of in the cashier's line by a guy with groceries and an open beer can he was guzzling just prior to the cashier picking it up and scanning it!  I think there are some things I'll really like about Brazil. :)
• I just found out that our cable and internet are being connected on Wednesday morning!  Woohoo!
• Although it is easy to feel lonely occasionally, over half of the embassy was turned over within the last five months so we are far from the only new people!  We have met some great young people just like us and have had a great time exploring the city with them.
• We have been fortunate enough to be guests at the Ambassador's house the last two weekends, and are invited to a newcomers welcome next weekend as well.  I can't describe how nice his house is!  Two outdoor entertaining areas, huge yard, swimming pool, hot tub, clay tennis courts, a great view of the lake, and round the clock servants and guards make for a pretty posh living environment. The Ambassador and his wife are incredibly down to earth people who are genuinely nice.  It's been fun to visit!
• I need to call a girl named Angela today who is a maid that works in our building.  I think we are going to have her come twice a week to help us keep our large apartment clean and presentable!  Lucky us! :)

We Made It!

WARNING:  This is a super long post!  Lots has happened lately, and I've tried to cover it all so it got a little out of hand.  Read at your own risk!

Sarah and I are officially at post and this is Sarah's third day.  It's been a crazy last week!  We have been suffering from isolation without any access to internet or phone since Saturday evening, but the embassy finally got us passwords to access the internet on their computers.  Phew!

I'll try to get you up to speed on what's gone on in the last week, but there's so much stuff I'll probably forget half of it...  On Sunday and Monday last week, we visited a Costco and Sears and bought TONS of things!  Groceries, surge protectors, television, extra iron, etc.  We were worn out and didn't want to buy another thing or make another decision by the time we were done.  There was a whole list of things that came from the embassy that they recommended you bought before coming to post because there is a serious lack of American goods in the local stores.  And if exists, it's so expensive!  Everything here costs more.  We thought we were ridiculous buying all of that stuff, but now that we're here we are very glad we did, even though we won't get most of it for a few months.

Tuesday we took a road trip.  First, we headed up to Hagerstown, MD where they have been storing all of our stuff.  Our goal was to decide which of our things we wanted to ship to Brasilia, however we found out that we could have saved the trip.  We simply looked at the inventory list and marked the boxes and furniture we wanted them to forward, and we'll receive them as our HHE (HouseHold Effects; ground shipment that we receive in approx. 4 months).  We could have faxed over the list from DC and saved a few hours, but who knew!

From Hagerstown, we made a couple hour drive over to Annapolis, MD to visit the USDA.  The USDA had to place a seal on an international certificate of health that we received from a qualified veterinarian on Saturday for Abby.  It's been pretty expensive to get her over here.  The vet bill was around $200, another $40 from the USDA, and a $230 charge from the airline, all of which Abby would probably tell you is completely unnecessary.  She doesn't really like traveling...  After we finally arrived back home, we continued the process of seperating our things to be shipped.

Wednesday was the big pack out!  They came to our apartment and took our piles of things.  The HHE I've already explained, but we also had a UAB (Unaccompanied Air Baggage) which we receive in about one month.  Moving with the State Dept. is a breeze compared to doing it on your own, as all you have to do is seperate you things into the appropriate piles and watch the movers box everything up and take it away.  I don't know if anyone would be doing this job if they had to move their own things every two years, so it is a good perk.  The only things they left were our third pile of things; our baggage that we were taking with us on the plane.

Thursday was much more laid back for me, although Sarah had to work.  I ran just a few errands in the morning, and the shipping company came by and picked up our car in the afternoon.  Now I have taken every precaution with our car in the last few weeks getting it serviced and inspected and buying oil, fuel, and air filters along with extra lights and windshield wipers so that we will be covered for the next couple of years for the basics.  Our car should be running great, and as I mentioned we just took it on a road trip a couple of days before.  On the way back from running errands, 20 minutes before the movers were scheduled to take if off of our hands, it died at a stoplight!  It's never done that before!  Luckily, it started right back up and didn't have an issue after that, but it is still troubling.  I hope we don't have an issue here, as I've learned it's expensive to have vehicles repaired.

Friday was a fun day!  This was our last day in DC, and we didn't have anything to do except relax and prepare for the travel.  So we started out the day taking a subway to Foggy Bottom and walking to Georgetown.  Georgetown is a beautiful old area of DC that we've really been wanting to explore deeper, but just haven't had the chance.  We went to a spa and got massages, then hustled over to a "food tour" that we had already booked.  They walked us around Georgetown trying foods from about 6 different places and it was wonderful!  If ever you're in DC and looking for something fun to do, check out http://www.dcmetrofoodtours.com/. 

When we finished there, we went home and changed, drank a bottle of wine and went out again around 10:00.  That's super late for us old people!  We went to a scotch bar close to the White House and tried several different types of scotch and didn't get home until after 2:00am!  It was really a fun last night in the US.

Needless to say, we slept in a little bit on Saturday morning.  I think we got up and going around 9:00 and packed all of our things.  We had previously purchased four HUGE suitcases plus our two carry-on's and had to keep each of the big guys under 70lbs.  We also had a cheap little scale that would weigh the bags (while we held them and subtracted our weight), so we had somewhat of an idea of how much weight they held.  Abby was growing increasingly needy, as she could tell something was up.  I think she thought we were leaving her there!

After we were all packed, we headed next door to Eden Center, which is a shopping center we've dubbed "Little Vietnam." We have eaten lots of Vietnamese food there in the last few months, so we wanted to enjoy it one last time before leaving.  The food was delicious, and we walked back to the apartment by 1:00 so the taxi could pick us up.  Oh yeah, the taxi...  I forgot to mention how worried we were about how we were getting to the airport.  We had WAY more bags than we could handle alone on the metro, and any normal sedan wasn't going to fit us, our baggage and Abby, so we made lots of calls to taxi companies.  We settled on a handicap minivan, as the back ends are completely open.  Even then we were nervous, but somehow it all fit!  We got to the airport around 2:00 and were checked in and seated in the terminal watching football by 3:00. 

Considering all the variables, our check-in process went very smooth.  We had read online that the baggage limit for international flights was 70 lbs., but the employee thought it was 50.  We panicked some, but she checked it out and we were right.  Phew!  We had to shuffle things around in our suitcases several times to get them all the right weight and by the time we were done, they were all within a couple lbs. of 70!  Abby took quite a while to check in as well, but luckily because we had done our research, we had all of the necessary paperwork and it went relatively well.  We felt so guilty for leaving her with our baggage, as she is such a skittish dog!  Being locked in her kennel and transported across the world I'm sure has scarred her, but she was a really good dog through the whole process, and was very excited to finally see us when we arrived on Sunday morning!

We arrived in the Brasilia airport and went through customs in about an hour.  The special black diplomatic passports were helpful, as they got us right to the front of the customs line!  We weren't a bit guilty, despite the dirty looks. :)

The embassy appointed us a great host couple named Alan and Paula and they were there waiting for usn outside the airport.  They are so nice!  They brought two vehicles to fit all of our stuff, and drove us to our apartment.  They had already unpacked our welcome kit and purchased a few things to help us get settled.  I have to stress how nice it was to have their help on Sunday and the preparation they had gone through to make our welcome as warm as possible, because doing it on our own would have been miserable.  Alan brought out a map and showed me the road system in Brasilia so we could familiarize ourselves with it right away.  If we get the chance to host another family, we will certainly use them as an example. 

We spent our Sunday napping and unpacking our things in our HUGE apartment.  It is way more than we need, but it is very nice!  I'll have to take more pictures and post them, because the GSO's pictures don't do it justice.  Sunday evening we ventured out to a close restaurant called Belini's which we found out had a buffet.  We quickly learned how difficult it is going to be getting around and even ordering at restaurants without knowing any Portuguese.  Almost no one speaks English, and everything is just so different.  It's going to be a difficult first few months until we get the hang of things.

Sarah started work bright and early Monday morning.  There was a mixup with the shuttle, but luckily we had already met our neighbor above us, so she gave us a ride.  I spent the day getting oriented and reading my Business Law book while Sarah dove right into her new job!  There really wasn't any training time for her, as her first day was filled with serious work.  We are picking up pieces of knowledge as we go along, and Sarah has adapted extraordinarily well.  Her assistant Carla is a local who is seriously on the ball and a huge help.  She stayed persistent with the RSO (Regional Security Office) and the IT people to help me get internet as fast as possible for homework.  I have two classes ending on Oct. 15th, and I have so much to do!  I'm going to be accompanying Sarah to the embassy every day and working on homework full time on the embassy computers.

The embassy is an absolutely beautiful place.  I sit outside in front of the cafeteria to read with a view of blue skies, tropical trees, and tennis courts.  Directly across from Sarah's office is a pool.  It's really like a working resort, and we are lucky to be here! 

It is worth mentioning that Tuesday morning I took the FSOT (Foreign Service Officer Test), which is the starting point for applying to be a Foreign Service Officer.  FSO's are different from Sarah, who is a Specialist.  There are different "cones" in which you can apply, and I applied in the Management cone.  It is an incredibly selective process in which a small percentage are selected, however it doesn't hurt to try.  I haven't prepared in any way because of the crazy things going on the last month, so I don't have any expectations.  I certainly failed the test, however many smart people have to take the test multiple times before they pass.  I'm really not too concerned about it, as there are much more important things on my mind.

So that is it up until this point!  Sorry this ended up being so long, but a lot has happened recently!  I finally have internet through the embassy so feel free to send me an email or text.  I won't be able to make or accept phone calls yet, however, because the embassy computers don't have a microphone.

Thanks for reading, and I hope all is going well!  Sarah and I will try to keep you updated as our lives are changing in this new place.