Category Archives: Travel Musings

Our FS Timeline

Posted
Filed under Travel Musings
June 2009– Thad takes the FSOT(Foreign Service Officers Test.)  This is the day before we embark on a trip to visit our former Peace Corps home in Gansu,China, as well as a vacation through Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.  As you can guess, there was a LOT of email checking as the results date came nearer and nearer.

July 2009–  While on vacation in Laos Thad gets confirmation that he passed the FSOT!

September 2009– Thad submits his QEP (personal narratives) to the State Department.
October 2009– Thad gets an invitation to an Oral Assessment in Washington DC.
February 2010– Thad flies to Washington DC for his Oral Assessment.  I spend the afternoon on pins and needles waiting for results!  HE PASSES!!
Spring-Summer  2010– Clearance check (for Thad) and medical checks (both of us) are passed.
August 2010– THAD IS ON THE REGISTER!!

Winter 2011– Thad passes his Critical Needs Language test (Mandarin) and gains extra points for his placement on the register.  He jumps to the top 20!

Spring 2011– The Federal Government comes to a standstill on budget issues. All future A-100 classes are put on hold.

April 2011- A budget is passed and the May A-100 class is reinstated!  Thad gets an email offering him a spot in the class that starts in a mere month.

May 2011– Thad begins his first day as an officer in the United States Foreign Service

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Posted
Filed under Travel Musings
Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

*********************************

When the sidewalk comes to an end, something else picks up where it left off.  This blog will be an accounting of those “somethings.”  After a decade of teaching middle school English/reading (mostly 8th grade), the boxes and boxes of YA books are packed away as Thad and I transition into the adventures of life in the Foreign Service.