Bid Day: Take Two!

Rome, Italy

June 2014

Can you believe it!?! I surely can't. Still!! And it's already been two days to let the good news sink in. Happy doesn't even begin to describe how I'm feeling. 

For those of you just tuning in, let me explain a little. In the Foreign Service, we bid on our future job locations. A list comes out based on our assignment cycle (mine is Winter) and the list includes positions all over the world that will become vacant just around the time when my current term ends. Shenyang, China has been my first assignment and my tour runs from Dec 2011 to Dec 2013 (or thereabouts). About a month ago, I got a bid list that included 28 awesome job posts all around the world. As a second-tour bidder, my next assignment is still "directed," a fancy term that means the State Department still has a hand in where I end up. My 28 high-middle-low bids are considered against the other 27 OMSes who submitted their bids. The CDO (career development officer) considers everyones preferences and needs and then, in conjunction with an assignment board, assigns the positions. Some preference is given to bidders coming from high hardship differential or danger posts (Shenyang is 30% hardship). Consideration is also given to families with school-age children, tandem couples, and health concerns. Requests for language are also taken into the mix as well. In the end, assignments are announced on a certain date and everyone starts to plan for their onward assignment.

Granted, I still have about 10 months or so before I depart Shenyang. But it's never too early to start planning for a two-year tour in ROME! I've already looked at potential running routes (who needs running routes when everywhere is gorgeous), housing options (apartments overlooking the Tiber River, anyone?), concert dates and dance clubs (here I come!), and motorino prices (vroom vroom!). Yes, yes, I'm getting ahead of myself. Even after I spend December 2013 at home for the required home leave (oh sure, Congress, force me to take a month off with my family repatriating myself to the US), I'll have to "torture" myself through six months of Italian at FSI. YES I GET TO LEARN ITALIAN!! It just keeps getting better and better. 

Can you imagine me taking a lunch break at 12:30 in the sunny September afternoon, walking out of the Embassy to Villa Borghese and grabbing a small loaf of fresh baked bread, freshly made mozzarella, and a ripe tomato, slicing it and assembling a delectable caprese salad while enjoying the kids frolicking through the park? Afterward, on my way back to the Embassy, I pick up an espresso and chat with the neighbors about the football game over the weekend. After work, I hop on my Vespa and scoot over to the market to pick up some fresh pollo and spices, with some handmade pasta and sauce, I walk up the wrought-iron stairs to my apartment and open the balcony windows to let the evening air rush through. Pouring a glass of wine as I prep dinner, I put on some music and watch the sun set among a sea of domes and roofs. Yes, that is a fantasy that will inspire me for the next ten months in Shenyang. Life is good.