Everybody Back To School

Today was the first day of school for everyone in our family but Chutney.

After a summer that apparently was too long and boring (not really), Nia was delighted to start third grade. She could hardly wait to meet her new teacher and classmates. Here she is all smiles heading off to school this morning:

It was also the first day of Hindi language training for Paul and I because I did get into Hindi. I am happy to report that we all survived our first day of school.

For Paul and I it was an interesting first day, though it was a little light on actual learning. We had orientations, tours of FSI and introductions to teachers, systems and services in the morning and a series of tests to determine our learning styles in the afternoon.

We started language with about 1,000 other people all learning different languages. Some were learning a language for the first time, others had quite a few under their belts. It was neat to see some of our ConGen classmates go into language training at the same time as us. Two of my ConGen classmates are even in Hindi with us, which is pretty awesome, though they both know some Hindi already.

I had started working with Rosetta Stone Hindi way back when I was pregnant but by the time Chutney came, I had hit a wall and had a really difficult time moving forward without help. After Chutney was born, Hindi sort of fell by the way side somewhere in the blur of sleeplessness.

By the time I resurfaced out of the post-partum daze, I realized that I had somehow in a hormonal lapse of reason signed up for the FSOT and ConGen (I’m a glutton for punishment, I tell you), so Hindi had to stay on the back burner a little longer.

I had applied to take Hindi with Paul but didn’t know if there would be space for me in the class until late August. But I lucked out and here I am on the cusp of mastering the Bollywood lingo. I am rather excited that I have this opportunity because it will help me when we get to India and it may be useful if/when I become a Foreign Service Officer myself. I get to learn a language and I don’t have to pay for it – pretty darn awesome, no?

Our Hindi group at FSI is rather small – only nine people right now but one of our classmates will only be with us for 5-6 weeks. The rest of us will be studying Hindi for 36 to 44 weeks, which is quite a while if you think about it. All but the classmate who is leaving in a few weeks are headed for New Delhi, so it’ll be good to get to know the people with whom we will be serving at the New Delhi Embassy/Consulate.

We are starting out in the group of nine until we figure out how to read Hindi (called Devanagari script), which apparently should take us between two and four weeks. So for now Paul and I are in the same group but after we learn to read we will more than likely be separated into two smaller groups for the remainder of language training, which is fine.

Language learning at FSI is apparently really intense but a lot of fun too. There are a lot of tests as well as cultural activities and tons of food, which is a blessing and a curse. I already gained a few pounds during ConGen and was hoping to shed them during Hindi but today we were told to expect a weight gain of about 10 lb during Hindi training! Yeah, not good for those of us trying to lose the baby weight but I do like me some Indian food every now and then. Just thinking about it makes me salivate…

Operation Belly Button

Last week was natural disaster week here in Northern Virginia with an earthquake early in the week and a hurricane on Saturday. Luckily, we suffered no damage from either, so we decided to end the week on a high note and complete a mission we had been postponing for six months. It had to do with Chutney’s future and his belly button. Yep, you read that right.

Let me ‘splain. Since I hail from the wondrous and oft misunderstood land of Bulgaria, I am somewhat susceptible to various superstitions and old wives’ tales, one of which says that your baby’s belly button is so powerful that it will determine his/her future. Got that?

Just to clarify, when I say belly button I mean the left over piece of umbilical cord that shrivels up to almost nothing and falls off about two weeks after a child is born. It looks like this:

It’s kinda gross, I know, but it’s got strong juju, so you don’t just toss it in the trash. Oh, no! Unless you want your kid to be a garbage man, that is, for the kid’s future career is at stake.

So what do you do with the thing? Well, you think long and hard about your kid’s future and you toss the belly button at a place that matches your kid’s personality and your hopes and ambitions for him/her. For example, if you want your kid to be a soccer player, you’d toss his/her belly button at a soccer stadium; if you want him/her to be a lawyer, you’d toss it at the court house and so on, you get the idea. Some people set money aside for their kids’ college education, we toss belly buttons*. Much more cost-efficient, don’t you think?

Coming up with just one place for each of our kids’ belly buttons seemed quite limiting to us, so several years ago, when Her Cuteness was a baby, we developed a patent-pending diversification strategy for belly button tossing. It involves cutting up the little shriveled up thing into pieces and placing them in several strategic locations. In Nia’s case, since we lived in St. Petersburg, FL at the time, one piece went in University of South Florida – so she’d get a good education, the second piece went in the Salvador Dali Museum – so she’d be artistic, the third piece went in the Pointer Institute – so she’d be a great writer (like her Dad, who was a journalist at the time), the fourth piece went in a swimming pool** – so she’d be a great swimmer, the fifth piece went in city hall – in case she decided to run for mayor one day. There was one more piece, which we saved for years, so we could toss it in The White House. Yeah, that very important piece got lost in the move, ruining our daughter’s chances of ever becoming POTUS (President of the United States)!!! Unbelievable, I know – she will probably never forgive us…

So, we had to have a second child. That’s right, in case you were wondering, the only reason we had Chutney was so we could pile all of our presidential hopes on the poor little guy. No pressure, Son!

And guess where the first and largest chunk of his belly button went?

In The White House, that’s where. Or The White House garden, to be precise. It was a little tricky, with all the security guards lurking around. But we did it and here’s the proof.

But shhhhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone.  And don’t be surprised when he becomes president one day, alright?

But we didn’t stop there. Because being POTUS is pretty much as badass as it gets but he can’t do that forever. This is not North Korea! We have term limits, which means he has to have a regular career too, so we had to do the whole diversification strategy for him as well. So smaller belly button chunks went to Main State and the Foreign Service Institute– so he can be a diplomat like Daddy; the Capitol – so he can be a Congressman, the Kennedy Center – so he’s artistic, the World Bank, University of Maryland, the University of Maryland football stadium, and a swimming pool.

So, Operation Belly Button, Chutney Edition was completed successfully this past Sunday and now we can breathe a sigh of relief because our children are going to be OK.

Whew!

*Although to be perfectly honest we are setting some money aside for the kiddos just in case too.

**When I say in a swimming pool, I mean in the grassy area at the pool entrance, not the water itself.

Conflicted

Well, ConGen is over and that’s good, I guess but I am feeling very conflicted right now.

I jumped into ConGen and put everything else on the back burner and that’s not working as well as I thought. I am behind with pretty much everything including this blog but most importantly I feel really bad about abandoning the kids. They are home with my mom and she’s doing her best but they miss me and their Daddy terribly. It’s not going to get better for a while because it seems like I may actually get into Hindi. I am really excited about that but at the same time dreading it a little because it means that both Paul and I will be at school every work day for seven months starting Sept. 6.

It’s what every working parent has to deal with, I know, and I’ve been there before but it doesn’t make it any easier. Our daughter is starved for attention and misbehaving and our son looks so lost and sad when we leave each morning. I’ve spent the last several days trying to give the kids my time and attention and do the fun things I wasn’t able to do with them when I was at school and I am just exhausted. And I have just two kids. I don’t know how the people with more kids do it…

I am also trying to get caught up with everything else before Hindi starts but my head is one big jumble that looks/feels like this:

Needless to say, I am not much fun to be around right now. 

Chutney’s 6 months old

It’s been a long time since I last blogged. I have been pretty busy with ConGen, which is going well despite all the readings, case studies, role plays and weekly exams. But I digress…

Max turned 6 months today. We are delighted to report that he is doing great considering he was a preemie. He is happy and healthy and growing like a weed… a chubby weed, that is because he has almost tripled his weight since birth (going from 7.5 to 20 lbs).

A few weeks ago he started rolling over:

and sitting up:

He says Baba (grandma in Bulgarian) and Mama.

He loves people, especially his Baba, who is watching him while I am at school. He adores his big sister, who loves to entertain him by clowning around. We are all quite smitten with him and can’t get enough of his smiles and giggles.

And yes, you are looking at the same baby in the video and the picture. It’s just that I gave him a hair cut after I took the video and he looks bald in the picture.

Happy half birthday sweet Chutney!

We are beyond thrilled that we get to keep you!

ConGen, Baby!

Today was my first day of Basic Consular (a.k.a. ConGen) training at FSI (the Foreign Service Institute), where US diplomats learn their craft.

No, I did not become a FSO (Foreign Service Officer) overnight. My candidacy is still in the works and will probably take another year and a half but as the spouse of an FSO, I am eligible to take classes at FSI, if there is space available. I have been trying to get into ConGen since March.

In order to qualify for ConGen, I had to take a 75 minute pre-test, which was not a problem. Then I was placed on a waiting list. Getting into ConGen as a spouse is especially hard in the summer because that’s transfer season and that’s when most FSO’s need training. FSOs, understandably, get priority for training classes at FSI, so I was waiting and waiting but nothing was happening.

I had been checking in with the powers that be to see if there’s any room at all in any of the ConGen classes. Up until the middle of last week, I was told that, unfortunately, there was no ConGen for me. Boo!

So, I had lost hope and was warming up to the idea of spending the summer at home with the kids and my Mom. Then last Thursday I got a call. Someone had to cancel and all of a sudden there was a seat in one of the classes starting on Monday (today). Would I be willing to take it?

Would I? Would I? Are you kidding? I had been waiting for something like that to happen since March and now that I had my chance, I wasn’t going to miss it. I immediately accepted. So, now the kids are home on vacation and it’s back to school for Mommy (and very soon Daddy).

But that’s OK because I think I may actually like it. I can’t write about any of the material covered in class but so far it seems fascinating, especially for someone who has been on the receiving end of consular services both as an immigrant and a US Citizen. Of course, it’s only been one day. Ask me again in a couple of weeks when I am buried in reading materials and case studies and have to prepare for my exams. Yes, there are four exams too, though in all honesty they are open book but still, I am bracing myself for a lot of work.

So, I’ll be in ConGen till 8/22. After that I get to relax for a couple of weeks. Then, on 9/6, I am tentatively enrolled to start Hindi at FSI, if there’s space available again. If I get in, I’ll be studying Hindi until I am blue in the face 3/31/2012.

Paul is starting his training next week. First, he has a couple of days of security training, then ConGen (in a different section) and then Hindi from 9/6 to 3/31/2012 as well.

So, that’s that. Now I need to go catch some fitful Zs in between baby feedings because I gotta go to class in the morning…

Janel’s Visit

Our friend Janel visited us for a long weekend a few weeks ago. Both Paul and I used to work with her in Florida. We liked her a lot but didn’t get a chance to hang out together as much as we wanted to, so we had a great time reconnecting. We talked a lot and ate maybe even more. One night we went to Adams Morgan and ate at a Turkish restaurant. The food was really good. The rest of the time we cooked and ate at home. My Mom made Bulgarian food one day. I cooked Indian the other. We did some sight seeing. Good times!

But the highlight of the weekend for us was Janel taking pictures of the family. You see, Janel is a badass photographer. She used to work for the U.S. Air Force (Combat Camera), the UN (UNPROFOR) and the St. Petersburg Times. She’s covered some hot spots such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Panama, Liberia and Bosnia. And the Swiders, cause we are hot stuff, that’s why.

The pictures she took of us are nothing short of amazing and we can’t thank her enough. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Janel is back in school now pursuing a Master’s degree in Strategic Communications Management. She’s looking into moving to the D.C. area when she’s done with her studies at the end of the year. We certainly wish her luck and look forward to spending more time with her and her family.

4th of July at Lincoln Memorial

Since this is our last 4th of July before moving to India, we decided to go downtown D.C. Paul and I had done it many years ago when we were young and childless. It was awesome, except getting back home after the fireworks took forever. We decided not to subject the kiddos to the insanity of driving or taking the metro downtown and back. Instead, my smart husband booked us a hotel room a couple blocks from the Mall. Clever fellow, he is!

It worked out really well. We drove downtown around noon yesterday, checked in, relaxed at the hotel for a bit, then had a nice dinner at Bertucci’s before heading over to the Mall. Around 7:30 p.m. we packed our stuff and the kids in our handy-dandy foldable wagon and strolled to the Lincoln Memorial end of the Mall.

In hindsight, we should have left earlier because the choice spots were already taken. We ended up in a spot that was great if you wanted to enjoy the Lincoln Memorial but less than optimal if you wanted to take pictures of the fireworks with the Washington Monument as a backdrop. We got some nice shots nonetheless (the Washington Monument one would have been nicer if they hadn’t ripped out the Reflecting Pool but oh, well…).

Around 8 p.m. it started drizzling, which threatened to ruin the whole experience for us but luckily the drizzle lasted only about 15 minutes and the fireworks proceeded without a hitch.

The fireworks were glorious and we all enjoyed them. This was Chutney’s first 4th of July and he marked the occasion by sleeping  right through the very loud fireworks but hey, I am not complaining - he could have been crying the whole time.

Here are a few more pictures: