Two Weeks Into Orientation
Orientation continues to move along.
The weeks are a mix of virtual sessions and in person trainings. These first 6 weeks of general orientation are with Foreign service specialists (like myself) and generalists. There is still a lot of buzz around bid lists and our final draft was due at the end of last week. Now we wait for the infamous Flag Day, which will be on August 9th, and simply hope for the best! We honestly would be thrilled to go anywhere on our top 5 and my CDO (career development officer) said they try hard to get us one of our top 3 choices (at least for MED peeps), overall we are feeling pretty optimistic. In other flag day news our class is the first one in years (thanks a lot COVID) to have an in person flag day. I don’t know exactly how it all goes down but I’ve heard they show a flag of each country and announce who will be going to that particular post, everyone is sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for their name to be called while simultaneously taking notes to scratch off countries that were on their BID list and narrow down where they will be going. Oh the suspense!
That DC/Arlington life…
I have been pleasantly surprised by life in DC. There is so much to do and see and the food so far has been great. We haven’t been able to explore as much as I would have liked because early last week we all came down sick and have been hunkered down with theraflu and tylenol. Being home with a sick kid and doing zoom meetings (that by the way are surprisingly interactive) was a disaster to say the least. Happy to report we are all COVID negative and on the up and up!
Sunday we were able to get out and explore a bit. The natural history museum is a must see while in DC and conveniently located off the metro. We had a great time and can’t wait to take advantage of the free price tag for museum entry’s- we plan to hit up as many as possible (It’s a great kid friendly activity for those hot DC day’s. We literally melted coming from the street and into the crisp AC air of the museum).
Hugging the penguins.
My toddler also received his first COVID vaccine through the Virginia public health department.
There is something to be said about a well functioning health system- as it is absolutely vital to a healthy community. The process of vaccinating my son here was seamless, and the nurses and all the staff at the vaccine site were wonderful. It’s been a long wait for those of us with kids under 5 and this moment made me reflect back on the difficulty of these past several years: both personally (as a mom) and professionally (as a nurse practitioner). I had my son in October of 2019 and came back from maternity leave in March of 2020, and as you can imagine entered a work force very different from the one I had left. I was working in a community clinic that served one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in San Francisco and the devastation was real and swift. COVID-19 was such a defining moment in my life and career and I’m grateful that we seem to be emerging from the other side and that we are fortunate to have access to life saving vaccines.
Ok that’s my public health rant. On a lighter note, this process also made me realize how much I prefer direct patient care to online ZOOM meetings! 4 more weeks of general training to go!
