The List and Flag Day

“It never gets this cold here,” they keep saying.  “This cold is very unusual for DC.”  With the temperatures never above 300, and the humidity at 50%, the cold cut through us like sharpened icicles.  We arrived in DC on a Saturday evening and there was a cocktail party planned on Sunday for Bob’s class as an orientation and introduction to some of the FSO’s (Foreign Service Officers).  From our apartment building we can go into an underground system of passages to the hotel next door, under the freeway, into the Crystal City underground mall and to the metro without ever going outside.  Once we got to the Roslyn metro stop, however, we had to go outside and walk for a couple of blocks to get to the hotel where the cocktail party was being held. That’s the kind of cold that we just don’t get in New Mexico.  It gets cold at home, but the fact that it’s a dry cold makes a huge difference.  This DC cold felt like something humans shouldn’t live in.  The cocktail party was very warm in comparison.  The heat was on, yes, but the people that we met were so warm and happy to meet us.  There were new officers, like Bob, and their families and officers who had started their training in September. We were also welcomed by seasoned FSO’s.  That warmth took us into dinner afterward with new friends and home again without the cold feeling quite so sharp.

In the first week of class Bob was presented with a list of over 90 posts around the world.  We were tasked with rating each post high, medium or low.  We had been hoping that there would be Western European posts, especially in Italy and we both want to end our experience with the Foreign Service fluent in Spanish so we were also hoping for a bunch of South American or Spanish posts. There was, in fact, one Italian post in Rome and a post in Frankfurt Germany.  That was easy, those would be ranked high.  There were several Eastern European posts.  We ranked those high as well.  Many of the posts were in Central Asia and China with a smattering in South America and Africa.  First pass we had 5 posts on our high list, ten on our medium and the rest were low.  We knew that we had to show the CDO (Career Development Officer) more about our preferences by ranking more of them high and medium. 

While Bob was in class the next day, I took on the task of researching posts that we didn’t think we would like to see if I changed my mind about any of them.  I had said that I didn’t want to go to any of the “Stans”, so I looked and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.  I was surprised to see that they were all beautiful interesting places that would be fascinating to be in.  Bob was surprised that I had decided to move those places from low to medium.  I was really starting to get excited about the possibilities but after neither of us slept that night because of anxiety about those posts we moved them back down to low.  I’ll be daring and brave in another life.

We spent most of the month of January reviewing and considering the list.  We met with Bob CDO and were advised to hope for our highs, expect our mediums and prepare for our lows.  They would take into account all of our preferences and needs but in the end the needs of the Foreign Service trump ours.  The job at each post was listed along with the language requirement and when the job started. All of this had to be taken into account.  The Rome job was scheduled to start in May and had an Italian language requirement.  That didn’t give Bob enough time to learn Italian to the level required.  There were two people in Bob’s class that spoke Italian already.  We knew that we wouldn’t be posted in Rome.  There was a really good job in Istanbul, which was turning into our top choice, but there was no language requirement and we really wanted to learn a language.  Without learning a foreign language in the first three years, Bob wouldn’t be able to get tenured.  I thought it would be really hard moving to a country without knowing the language, besides, learning a language was mainly what sold me on the idea of the Foreign Service to begin with. There was an interesting post in Montenegro but it was to start immediately and required Serbian language.  No one in the class spoke Serbian and the job was a new one so it had some flexibility on the start date so that was a possibility for us.  Layered on top of what Bob and I wanted was the fact that my daughter Alex would be going with us and wanted to attend college.  Many of these places have colleges but not all good colleges and not all english speaking.  After I told Alex that there was no way I thought we would get Rome (it was here top choice too), she said that she would like to go to Frankfurt.  Huh! I hadn’t really given Germany much thought. 

We compared preferences with Bob’s classmates.  For every post there was someone who wanted had put it in a high position.  Almost everyone ranked Rome as high because… well it’s Rome!  For every place that I thought would be kind of horrible to be in for two years, there was someone who chose it as their top choice.  The reasons varied from being really interested in being in the political hot spot to wanting the pay differential that comes with a hardship post.  We really weren’t in competition with the rest of the class so we spoke freely about our choices.  I kept trying to let go and just wait to see what happened.  We didn’t really have any control of the situation and worrying wasn’t getting us anywhere.  I can honestly say that I didn’t have a good night sleep for the month of January.

Finally the day came; Flag day.  This was the day that all of the FSO’s in Bob’s class and their families gathered and one by one the FSO’s were presented with the flag of their post country.  The presenters marched to the front of the stadium with three standards full of little flags.  After an introduction the director of the Foreign Service Institute announced the each city and country and then called the name of the FSO assigned to that post.  We were nervous for ourselves but also for our friends.  Our lives were about to change dramatically and it all hinged on the announcements made in the next twenty minutes.  The atmosphere took on a feeling of unreality for me.  “Frankfurt Germany,” said the presenter, “Robert A. Perls”.  Time was suddenly slowed down.  The statement echoed and all other sound in the auditorium went quiet.  I had to remind myself to breath.  I had to remind myself to take pictures of Bob going up to receive his flag and shake the hand of the presenter.  Germany!  I had forgotten to think about Germany!
Focus, center the picture… blink the tears away…
I didn’t even do any research about Frankfurt!
Click… Click… I can’t see the image on the camera… thank goodness there’s an official photographer.  Germany!  I was truly overwhelmed by emotion. I looked across the aisle at Bob when he sat down and the sounds around me returned. I had missed a couple of post announcements.  Bob mouthed the words, “Are you OK with this?”  Yes!  I was OK.  I was more than OK.  This was really great!  Oh my God!  We’re going to live in Germany!!!

There were parties afterward and there was a very perceptible relaxation of among Bob’s classmates. Out of 81 students there were only about five students who were really disappointed in their post.  We were amazed that the team of CDO’s who did the post assignments was able to make that many of us happy.  That doesn’t diminish the disappointment of those five people.  I had imagined being in that position many times over the past month and I really felt for them.  We went home after the revelry and slept well for the first time in over a month.