Friday was Flag Day! The ceremony was surprisingly informal; after a couple of minutes of introductions, they jumped right into listing off 89 locations and handing out 89 flags. We shouted out each country's name when it's flag flashed up on the screen (at least those we knew). When Lithuania flashed up (three bars: yellow, green and red), no one recognized it. J didn't even hear the name of the country, so when I jumped up beaming, took my flag, and smiled for our posed photo with the ambassador, J didn't know whether to be happy or not. It took a few minutes of asking other spouses sitting around him to find out where we'll be going!
Needless to say, we're quite excited to be going to a Baltic state in Eastern Europe. Before we go, though, I need a lot more training. I'll get about 2 months of "tradecraft" training in Consular and Political/Economic work. Then, to fill the time, I'll be working on a country desk (which one is not clear to me at the moment because I have not learned enough acronyms - I'll have to ask about that on Monday!) for about 2 months, and then finally spend 6 months learning Lithuanian. I knew I wanted to learn more languages than Russian, I just didn't expect to be learning another one before I solidified my Russian speaking ability. It's good to be flexible in this job!
In the mean time, we'll be staying in the DC area until March of next year. So... give us a holler if you've always wanted to come to DC. Now you have an excuse!
Last week was jam packed with things to do so that we stayed busy. On Wednesday, we had two diplomatic receptions back-to-back. I got to chat with some VIPs and retired VIPs. The receptions are good practice, but I was worn out by the end of the day (must buy more comfortable shoes!).
Today I took a self-defense class - something I've been meaning to do for years. This one was just an introduction, although I'm not sure I'm going to take the full 5 week course. I think it was helpful, but a little short on moves. Nonetheless, having practice defending myself seems like a good thing for "muscle memory" in case I ever need to do it in real life. J made me promise to take a CPR class, too. Classes, classes... ;)
My last week of orientation starts tomorrow, and then I jump into another 10 months of more specific training. Time has flown by - I'm looking forward to getting into a routine and being able to call this place 'home' for a while.
Coming up: 5k race with a friend on Saturday! We're even talking about running a 10 mile race this fall! Have a good week, and don't be a stranger - email/call/check in!
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