The plane, the truck, and the diplomatic visas all came. The snow was cleared, the sun was shining, and thinking-ahead-Legs brought plenty of cookies for an inter-country drive. Pancho's brother hit a skunk on the way to get us the morning we moved but aside from the lingering smell, everything went as planned!
So here we are about a month and a half later still trying to get our heads on straight. No matter what anyone ever tells you, moving to another country is hard work, even if it's just Canada! There are very few posts in the Foreign Service that don't provide housing and this is one of them so our first monster task was to find a place to live. The Vancouver rental market moves fast (as in people fighting to turn in rental applications with deposit checks in hand at the first showing of a unit) and we lost a few places due to the additional processes required by the Consulate but then we found a perfect condo, in a perfect location, with a perfect landlord who was willing to wait.
We moved two weeks ago in and slept on a blow-up mattress before the IKEA beds we ordered arrived and hopefully at the end of this week our shipment from India will bring us our couch, plates, bed sheets, pans, and everything else we need to make life work. We have settled into our routines and are starting to love life in the city more each day.
This experience has been
incredible both professionally and personally. The professional culture of this post is completely different from what I've experienced thus far and the work I am doing here is the reason we joined the Foreign Service. I feel passionate again about my career and supported by amazing leadership--levels of support equal to what I felt from leadership at FEMA and which I knew I'd be lucky to find again. The bigger question is whether or not it is realistic to find subsequent assignments with a similar professional culture. We found out that I will bid mid-level for our third tour which means that we will not have another directed assignment. A group of Career Development Officers direct entry-level generalists to their first two posts and after that, officers apply for positions where they are interested in serving. There is still a bid list that is released when it is our group's turn to bid but we get to put in applications and lobby for jobs we want in places we'd like to go. This new process will help us end up in a place that is best for our family at this point in our lives and allow me to plan my career in order to progress in the organization. We still have another year here before our bid list is released so for now it's time to just live in the moment and enjoy Vancouver.
Pancho, Thumper, and Flipper are all doing great. Thumper recently spent his nap time wadding up toilet paper and stuffing it up his nose until it started to bleed a little and he escaped his room to get more tissue. Pancho found him and had to use tweezers to get all the tissue out of his nose. Start of a new nose stuffing phase? I sincerely hope not.
Flipper is close to rolling over and has developed quite the personality. He prefers to be carried everywhere and makes it very clear when he is the slightest bit uncomfortable. He has also started to giggle which makes us all smile.
Pancho is officially our Relocation Support Specialist and is the most amazing husband and father I could ever have imagined. He even showed up outside my work with fresh flowers on Valentines Day and took me ice skating while Hippie Grandma was in town.
We just got back from our first hike and our first suspension bridge. We went to the lesser-known but free Lee Canyon suspension bridge and hiked around some beautiful waterfalls. The weather has been pretty rainy but spring is definitely here and the flowers are starting to bud! Until next time...
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| Twin Falls at Lee Canyon |
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| West End near Stanley Park |
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| There's water everywhere in Vancouver! |
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Even the rocks are happy
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