Sunday, July 11, 2010

Free at Last!

I passed my language exam. It was oddly anti-climactic. Rather than doing cartwheels, I slipped into a semi-catatonic state. After 10 months of one-on-one language training, I was too exhausted to be excited.

Now that a couple nights have passed, the relief is bubbling up to the surface. I went out last night and didn't take flashcards with me. I'm no longer translating conversations in my head just for practice. I don't have to be at FSI at 7:30 Monday morning. It feels really good. Finally.

In fact, the last time I felt this good was when I dropped off my 20 pound kevlar vest at the airport in Amman for the very last time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been reading your posts silently (until now that is), but wanted to come out and say "congrats"! Look forward to reading about your experience in Nepal!

Roger Kent said...

Dear FS Officer:

Hello. I am a Training and Development profession living in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

I am responding to two RFP’s for the Foreign Service Institute for “experiential learning” (ropes courses etc.) in Leadership and Team Building. I can give you the two proposal numbers, one for civil service FS folks and the other for FS Officers, if you wish to verify.

I was wondering if you have a moment to answer two questions.:

Q1: What are the particular challenges of leadership and/or teambuilding that you find in a Foreign Service posting?

Q2: If there were one thing you would like FS Staff to know before a posting overseas about the interpersonal challenges of this assignment what would it be.

One proposal is due Friday 7/30 and the other Wednesday 8/13. I would not mention your comment by name in developing my proposal only by continent: “…from a Foreign Service officer currently serving in Africa”

I am happy to Skype you at your convenience if you don’t feel like putting finger to keyboard.

Thank you.

Roger Kent
Nevada City, CA
530-632-2062