Bids Away!

Map Courtesy of Jeff

Might as well continue my song-based bidding posts.


Yesterday, we listed places that are far away.
Now it looks as though we’ll wait for days.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I’m not as stressed as I used to be.
There’s no shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Where we get to go, I don’t know, they wouldn’t say.
I bid somewhere strong, now I long for next Thursday.

Next Thursday, the results will be on display
Now I need a place to pass the days
Oh I believe in next Thursday.

Where we get to go, I don’t know, they wouldn’t say.
I bid somewhere strong, now I long for next Thursday.

Next Thursday, is when the results are on display
Now I need a place to pass the days
Oh I believe in next Thursday.

On a more serious note: Yesterday we submitted our second tour bid list consisting of 42 positions, in 37 countries. We're told we'll get the results no later than next Thursday. The person assigning second tours tries to give priority to people currently in more difficult posts. Chennai is in the upper middle in terms of "difficult," so we should get assigned somewhere between 15th and 25th. We learned in our last bidding cycle that everyone has different priorities... so there's always a chance we'll all get our first pick (but it's highly unlikely)! Anyway, now I get a throw-back to last year (and the year before) as I reacquaint myself with my old nemesis: The Waiting Game.

Dream Post-er

Every night I hope and pray
A dream post will come my way
A place to rest at night
And know the magic of its sights
'Cause I want (yeah-yeah, yeah)
A post (yeah-yeah, yeah)
To call (yeah-yeah, yeah)
My own (yeah-yeah, yeah)
I want a dream post
So I don't have to dream of home

That's my way of saying my 2nd tour bid list was just released! Time to get researching!

Merry Christmas from India

T'was the night before Christmas
When all through the house

Not a light bulb was shining
Not even a [computer] mouse

The appliances all sat
With their power not on
In hopes that GSO
Soon would be anon

The child was nestled
All safe on a chair
While shadows from flashlights
Danced here and there


Uuuuh, this is getting hard to maintain... so...


But I heard them [GSO] exclaim
As out of sight they were driving
Happy Christmas to all
And we'll be back in the morning


Ok that was pretty strained. It seemed easier in my head when I was driving home from work. Anyway, it's our first Christmas in the Foreign Service, and on paper it was pretty lousy. In reality, it was quite pleasant, TAKE THAT PAPER; you're always lying to us!


I should start from the beginning, and I'll recap at the end. So we have some family visiting and after 5 days of traveling (standby, and being bumped from flights several times), they arrived at our house at around 2:30 AM on Christmas Eve. I had an extra long day at work, but an hour or two before leaving I got a frantic call from our housekeeper saying that one of the AC units was smoking and she'd turned it off. Thinking she'd done well, but might have been overreacting a little, I planned to submit a request to GSO that it be repaired, and just not use it for few days. (One missing air conditioner is not really a big deal when you have 7 in the house, and we were coming up on several holiday days.) Shortly there after I got a call from my wife... Apparently the AC unit had caught fire and my housekeeper had turned off all the power to our entire house. This seemed a little more serious, so I called GSO to have them look into it immediately (yes... fires are always an emergency). When the maintenance guy got to the house, he attempted to turn the power back on. Approximately half of the house stayed dark, and the light bulbs from the other half started making popping sounds and turning off. (Hooray?) He quickly turned the power back off and had the landlord call an electrician. Long story (a little) short(er), the electrician left with one AC unit and most of our lights working. However, our refrigerator and microwave were not so lucky. We moved most of our chilled goods to the freezer (separate unit, still working) and the rest to our upstairs neighbor's refrigerator. The GSO guys came the next day (Christmas), conveniently arriving shortly after we finished opening presents to continue repairs.


To recap, my Christmas eve was a sleep deprived work day, with overtime, where my house caught on fire, our power was out for several hours, our refrigerator and microwave broke, and we had only one AC unit to cool the house, all while having guests from the States. Sounds pretty bad, right? Well... not so much.


The positive side. We had several people (even the CG) offer to let us stay at their house if needed. We had upstairs neighbors who could store our food and let us heat up meals. Christmas day we had (previously arranged) plans to be at a friends house. The GSO folks were fantastic: they came quickly, fixed as much as they could, and had no issues with coming again on the holiday day to continue working. Best of all? I don't have to pay for any of this. Having just gotten rid of my old house, I can truly appreciate how lucky I am to not have to replace every major appliance in my house... as well as paying electricians overtime (and/or holiday pay) to come fix the faulty wiring in my house.


We've been jokingly saying "Welcome to India" or "Welcome to the Foreign Service," but honestly we still had a great Christmas. We opened presents (most of which were shipped half way around the world by our family), we spent the day with friends, and had good food. We're quite lucky; many of the locals here would have never had any of these problems, since they live everyday without air conditioners, refrigeration, or even power.


Merry Christmas!

Why We Skype

"This is why
Why we Skype
Why we stay up late
And this is why
This is why we Skype"

It might sound weird, but since we moved half way around the world, we actually seem to talk to our families (via FaceTime and Skype) more frequently than when we lived in the same time zone. That being said, we've come to realize something. Other than our parents, everyone wanting to Skype with us has an ulterior motive. Engagements and pregnancies seem to be the prime suspects. Don't get me wrong, we're flattered that people want to tell us and that they're willing to go through the effort of arranging a 'face-to-face' meeting. Of course, at first we thought they just missed our charming personalities and wanted to hear about India from the horse's mouth. Maybe I'm just underestimating the awesomeness of my blogging, but apparently that's all people need! :-D

The song has nothing to do with this post, but I like it, and writing a post named "Why We Skype" got it stuck in my head. 

PS: The video only plays in the US, sorry people elsewhere. You'll just have to go buy the album or something!