That whole employment thing

Yesterday I finally got the news that I have been waiting for: my file with the State Department finally received the clearances and suitability review it needed for my name to be placed on the register's list.  The register's list is the list from which State hires its Foreign Service Officers (FSOs).  Right now Congress is looking at an appropriations bill that will hire 700 new FSOs for the current fiscal year (October 2009 to October 2010), so there is a pretty aggressive training schedule set for 2010.

As it stands, State plans to start new training classes in January, February, March, May, June, and a few other months.  Each class is expected to have anywhere from 70-98 new hires in it, and these classes are divided (not necessarily equally) between the 5 different FS cones: Political, Econ, Public Diplomacy, Consular and Management.

The calls for the January class already went out in November, although there is a possibility that they may add new hires to this class when the appropriations bill gets through Congress (potentially by the end of this weekend).  So, with my placement on the register's list at 23 out of 92 on the Public Diplomacy register, and with several people above me known to be unavailable for the February training class, I would guess that my chances are pretty solid for getting an invitation to the February training class.  At worst, I believe I will be invited to join the March class.

Of course, all this is speculation and practically anything can happen, but just know that no matter what, I have at least the one job offer coming through in 2010!  And this means that I can lay off the job applications now.  Whew!

This also means that you DC folks will be seeing my bright, shining face in just a few short months!  Training lasts, on average, anytime from 3 months to a year, depending on your assignment and the requisite language training - so I will be around for a while.  Of course, I won't know my assignment until the end of general FSO training (around the 3 month mark), but I will be bidding in the first week of training, so I will update you all on my wishlist when I am able to see what is available.

In the meantime, I am living la vida peligrosa here in Nogales, Mexico, with somewhere between 10-15 confirmed shootings so far this week.  Lucky for me, we live in the neighborhood where all the drug dealers live, which means this is where many of the shootouts occur.  So far I have only left the house to get a tour of the consulate, to have dinner at the Deputy Principal Officer's house, to have dinner at the Principal Officer's house, and to go to the grocery store with Anthony in an armored vehicle.  We also walked the girls around the block this afternoon, which, judging from Anthony's unease with the whole situation, may never ever happen again. 

I am now really looking forward to receiving our SENTRI cards (issued by Customs and Border Protection for frequent border crossers) so we can drive into Arizona and live like normal people on weeknights and weekends.  This is even more pressing for me now that I no longer have either schoolwork or job applications to keep me busy while Anthony is at work.

On the upshot, the house (which Anthony lovingly refers to as "The Pink Monster" because of its peachy-pink exterior) is ENORMOUS and it is taking me some time to settle us in.  I mailed us a few large boxes of household stuff from MA, which arrived before either of us did, so I've been cleaning, emptying boxes, inventorying the household goods provided by the Consulate, and generally keeping myself occupied.  I have also spent the week trying to tie up loose ends with our Vonage line (the box no longer works and I am waiting for the replacement to arrive), research potential health insurance plans (my COBRA coverage finally dies at the end of December), and work out a new budget (which will, of course, be thrown to the four winds in a few months when I finally start working and earning an income).

Tomorrow we might actually head out of Nogales - we've been told that if you walk across the border, there are plenty of buses to take you into Tucson.  I imagine there are also buses to take you to closer locations, like Tubac, the artist community approximately 30 minutes away from the border.  If that's true, we can scope out the art AND nearby hiking trails where we may be able to walk the girls after our SENTRI cards arrive.  We will see, we will see.