Diplomat - a person having failed to secure an office domestically who is given one by the government on condition that (s)he leave the country

My apologies to Ambrose Bierce for having tweaked his words to make them fit my situation.

It's official. I received my start date from the State Department on Monday. My training starts in Washington, DC on January 4, 2010. I'll be doing general training for 5 weeks, at the end of which I'll find out my posting. Then 3-8 months of additional post-specific training (language, culture, technical, etc.) before I'm shipped overseas.

Very excited this 15 month-long process has finally come to an end. Even more excited to be heading back to DC (as most of you know, I lived there during my undergraduate years).

I'll be posting more as I know more, and, if I'm very motivated, maybe even a picture or two.

To succeed in other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law, concealment of it will do

Unlike me!!!!!!!

New York: the first bar I've passed in my life.

Sailing Away from Safe Harbors

Well, hopefully. Many of you know that I applied to the U.S. Foreign Service over a year ago and I think I finally see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing is ever certain, and I hate to hatch my baskets before the chickens can count the eggs (especially with any institution as nebulous as the federal government), but it looks like I will be heading off to training in Washington, DC in early '10. No word on eventual posting until after that.