Where Will We End Up?

Before S even got "the call," he and I would sit around talking for hours about all the possible places we could end up living should he ever get offered a spot in A-100.  Now that "the call" has officially been received, we spend every possible second talking about the possibilities.  Even the most mundane conversations turn into discussions of "what if..." 

Since we won't know anything until Flag Day (that's the day at the end of training when all new FSOs, their friends and families gather into a large auditorium to learn theirs and their colleagues fates), S and I have been running all imaginable countries through the discussion mill.  We're not limiting our talks to one or two specific areas of the world either.  We're talking about everywhere from the Philippines, to Ghana to Benin, Laos, China, Korea, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador...you name it, we've speculated. 

You see, at the beginning of every A-100 class, all new FSOs receive what's called the bid list.  This is the list of all available entry-level positions at each embassy or consulate around the world.  Every FSO is required to bid each post high, medium or low and then a Career Development Officer (CDO) makes the final decision based on the list you submitted.  Since S speaks Spanish pretty well, (but he doesn't, or didn't, speak fluently enough to pass the notoriously difficult Spanish phone test he took while waiting on the Register back in April) it is a strong possibility that his Spanish language abilities get us posted to a Central or South American country.

However, since the State Department provides language training to new FSOs, S still has the opportunity to learn something else like French or Greek or even Khmer, in which case we could go to any one of the countries that speak those languages.  Or we could go to a country that doesn't even require a language.

Bottom line is that even though we have a say in our preferences, we don't have the final say.  So, we really don't know where we will go until S's name is called and he is handed a miniature flag representing his designated country.  That said, let the speculation and dreaming continue. We will have a better idea of our choices once he gets the bid list next month, but until then we're more than excited for any adventure that awaits!