Good Friends

I’ve written before about what a great community I have.

All of our new friends in Brazil have been amazing to my family. And the whole time I was in Berkeley I was surrounded by friends and family who kept me company and watched out for me and helped me. 

It hasn’t stopped since I arrived in DC.

I don’t know nearly as many people in DC as I do in Berkeley, but the few that are here have been tremendous.

Some of my Vibrant Colleagues were still here for training when I arrived.  Since I moved into the building where they’d been living for quite a while, they made sure to show me around and pass on any tips.  And in the finest Foreign Service tradition, they also gifted me with many of their extra food products when they headed off to post.

Other Vibrant Colleagues have been here working at the Mothership.  Some have had me to their homes for dinner and I got to play with their kids.  Not the same as playing with my kids – but so nice to be around a family!  And others have made sure I didn’t get to lonely in my apartment – meeting me for dinner and lunch several times – and even showing me some cool knitting stores!

My Vibrant Colleagues who are in Brazil even got together and sent me some wonderful flowers to brighten up my cookie cutter government housing!

I’ve also been very lucky in that one of my best friends from college lives in the area.  She and her husband have taken such good care of me!  They took me shopping so that I could get set up, we went to their place on the Shore one weekend, they’ve introduced me to a great neighborhood in Alexandria and a wonderful restaurant.  They took me to Howard University where I got to see DC’s own Afro-Blue perform and then to the Jefferson Memorial at night - beautiful!!

I will be so happy to get home to my family, but it’s been a wonderful silver lining to spend such great times with good friends!

The view from here

Well,  we've come full circle with the view from our window here at Oakwoods.

When we arrived at the end March, the trees were bare and we had a great view of the parking lot and the cemetery.  Here's what we saw from our balcony:

And then spring came and the trees leafed out obscuring the parking lot and cemetery.  We watched many thunderstorms and weather patterns from our balcony.

We even saw snow.

Fall brought the beautiful leaves changing and the trees started to get bare again.  The parking lot and cemetery came more into view.

And now we're back to full circle - bare trees and views of the parking lot and cemetery.

I guess it's time to head to a new place and see how the seasons are there.

The End of Language Training

One of the requirements for a Foreign Service Officer to achieve tenure is to become proficient in a foreign language.  There are many who enter into the Foreign Service already knowing a language, and then there are those of us who must attain proficiency in their first two posts. 

I've been in Portuguese Language Training for the past 24 weeks.  It's been wonderful and difficult and challenging and fun.  I am so lucky to not only get to learn a language as part of my job, but to be able to learn such a beautiful language that's spoken by so many wonderful people and used in so many cultures.  With this language, I'll be able to visit many continents and regions all over the world.

But it's been very hard, really hard.  I've written about how challenging it's been for me here and here.  The last 8 weeks, I've been in major boot-camp mode in preparation for my language exam.  At my previous progress report, I wasn't quite at the level I wanted to be at and knew I really needed to kick everything up a notch.  So in addition to my time in class, language lab and homework, I started meeting regularly with native Portuguese speakers to really boost my confidence.  My entire being became focused on Portuguese.  My language skills really improved and I began to feel much more confident.

The last few days before the big test day it's important to be in the right mind-set.  At that point, you're not going to learn anything new - you already know it.  You just need to make sure you're in the right head space for the exam.  I reviewed some other people's preparations for the test, and then I crafted my own version:  N. and I went to SpaWorld!

For those of you who don't know - SpaWorld is a Korean Spa located in the DC area.  It is an amazing place!  There are special pools with water jets that work every part of your body.  There are poultice rooms that are super hot and equipped with various minerals that have healing properties.  There are people who will scrub your body rendering your skin baby fresh.  It is completely relaxing!

After SpaWorld, I felt well prepared for my test.  I got a good nights sleep and went to my test rested and calm.  Of course, I didn't stay calm long - but I got through my test and thanks to the wonderful language instructors at FSI - I passed!!!!  I now have a "professional level of fluency in Portuguese" and can head off to post on schedule!

East Coast Beaches and the Atlantic Ocean

I grew up on the ocean.  The smell of the salt water, the feel of the ocean breeze, the fog rolling in, the sound of the crashing waves and the barking of the seals - this is what I grew up with.  This is the view from my bedroom window at my parent's house.

Sunset over Catalina Island.

I love the ocean and really miss it when I don't get to see it regularly.  When we lived in Berkeley, we were close enough to smell the salt air and feel the fog and get to see the Bay.  And we could always hop in the car and easily drive out to Fort Funston or Baker Beach or Ocean Beach or Muir Beach if we needed a closer fix.

But living near DC, the ocean is pretty far away.  Of course, there's the Potomac River which leads to the Chesapeake Bay which eventually leads to the Atlantic Ocean - but it's still pretty far away (which is probably why we didn't feel much from Hurricane Irene).

When the kids were at Camp Grandma and Bompa, K. and I decided to check out the oceans on the east coast.  We got up early one Saturday and drove northeast past Annapolis to take the Bay Bridge (not the Oakland Bay Bridge). By the way - the road we were traveling on is Highway 50 - the same Highway 50 that we drive on in California from Sacramento east.

Once we had crossed the Chesapeake Bay, we headed to the coast, passing farmland and some farm stands (great peaches!) and eventually reaching Rehoboth Beach.  This part of the East Coast is called the DelMarVa Peninsula.  It's a peninsula that has parts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia - hence the name.  We checked out many of the beaches and beach towns along the way - from Rehoboth to Ocean City.  We found them all fairly similar, differing mainly by whether they were more family oriented or more singles oriented. All the beaches were filled with lots of people and lots of umbrellas.  There were boardwalks with lots of fried foods and frozen treats.  It felt very crowded and with not many people swimming.

Rehoboth Beach

Ocean City was notable for the number of large hotels - it resembled the Las Vegas Strip (but without casinos).  There were also more miniature golf places than I've ever seen - and more than there were McDonalds!  And lots of places offering crab.

The best part of Ocean City (for me), was to get to see the counterpart of the sign I'd grown up with.

This is what I see when I drive to my sister's house.

And this is what I got to see in Ocean City.

From Ocean City we drove south into Virginia.  The towns on the Virginia peninsula are just wonderful - small, quiet, beautiful.  The beaches are quite lovely - quiet and secluded - much more our cup of tea.  We definitely want to go back for a relaxing weekend.  At one point we even got to see Chincoteague - a town I'd read about as a child in Marguerite Henry's book - Misty of Chincoteague.

Eventually we came to the tip of the peninsula and went on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  It's an amazing span and tunnel - although a little scary with the tunnels.

The bridge ends up in Norfolk, Virginia - very near Virginia Beach.  We had dinner there (soft shell crabs!) and headed home.  Virginia Beach seemed like a place we'd like to return to and bring the kids.  It didn't seem to have quite the hubbub of Ocean City, and also was closer to where we're living now so we could possibly make a day trip out of it.

Which is what we finally did this Labor Day weekend.  On Saturday we got up early and headed to Virginia Beach.  It was so nice to smell the salt air when we got there!  We rented a 4-seater bicycle carriage and checked out the boardwalk.

N. loved checking out the boardwalk!

We got to go on a few rides and then we headed to the beach.  It was absolutely wonderful to go swimming in the ocean again.  It had been far too long!  And, much to my surprise, people are right - the Atlantic is warmer than the Pacific.  The kids were full of such joy as they played in the ocean.  It made me so happy to see them enjoy the ocean and its power so much. We played in the waves for a long time, and then rinsed off and headed home.   A great day at the beach!

Thunderstorms

We're having thunderstorms here tonight in Falls Church.

They are glorious!  We've been standing on our balcony and watching the lightning and counting until the crashing thunder.  All the time listening and dancing to Dynamite and Halo and Landslide.  Good stuff.

As O. says - it's great to watch the trees dancing in the wind to the storm.