So I went back and forth on writing this post, because it’s never fun to expose a low point in your life, a moment of self-doubt and worry.  But I suppose this is likely a pretty crucial part of my expat experience, why not address it and share it with the people I miss the most?

So my first 10ish days here, I was on cloud nine.  I was so excited to see everything, experience the culture, learn Bosnian, buy all of the things, and completely immerse myself into everything that Sarajevo had to offer.  I would listen to nearby conversations and delight in being able to pick out a word here and there, and in general I was in awe of everything.

Late last week, something switched.  Work was great and busy and exciting, but the minute I got home from work, I couldn’t seem to bring myself to leave the apartment, except for a quick trip to the grocery store.  Whenever I was out walking around, the incessant Bosnian being spoken around me suddenly started to grate on me, and suddenly I was worried that everyone was talking about me and pointing how ridiculous I was.  I went to the big malls here to immerse myself in commercialism (a true Western tradition), and even then was frustrated with European sizing, and the chaos of waiting for a fitting room.

I got home yesterday, and quite frankly kind of lost it.  I started doubting this job, my ability to live here alone, started feeling deeply sorry for myself, and got incredibly homesick.

Sad panda

I spoke with a friend of mine who has been living abroad for years, and he told me this was normal…this was culture shock.

So like any good Gen-Y person might do, I Googled it.  And wouldn’t you know it, I found article after article describing the exact things I was experiencing, describing the stages of culture shock.  I will summarize the ones I found from a website called “Twenty-something Travel” because I can still claim that status for a few months, there are variations in the name but the themes are all the same:

• Honemoon Stage:  Excitement, intrigue, everything is new and different and everything is awesome.  I was here for about 10 days.
• Frustration/Rage Stage: Everything is stressful, you begin to realize that every action you take is a little bit harder than it was back home.  You’re afraid of offending people, afraid of making a fool of yourself.  You miss your family, your friends, familiar food, your country.  Your language.  **I am here, and I wish that the honeymoon stage had lasted a little longer**
• Understanding Stage: Basically, being able to laugh at yourself.  Accepting your terrible language skills but trying anyway.  Allowing yourself to go to an unfamiliar restaurant and try something you’ve never heard of (what’s the worst that could happen?), realizing that yes, everything is different, but its no longer a scary thought.
• Acclimation Stage:  Acceptance, plain and simple.  The most rewarding stage to be in, and my goal is to spend as much time in this stage as possible.

****

So, even knowing that what I’m feeling is normal has helped, as cheesy as it sounds.  I had assumed that because this was a European city with good running water  and wifi and plentiful groceries and a low amount of danger, that I would be able to avoid the frustration of culture shock, but it appears I’m no exception to the rule.  I plan to buckle down, get over myself and put myself out there, knowing that shutting myself in my apartment with Netflix is only going to make things harder in the long run.

My plan is to start small, and set simple goals.  Today I walk around with my good camera and take pictures.  And I’ll get ice cream.  Maybe I’ll go see a big summer blockbuster at the nearby theater.  Next weekend I’ll make plans to hang with some people from the Embassy and play, maybe go to some restaurants and bars.  And little by little, I know that my anxiety and homesickness will pass, and I’ll find myself fascinated and entertained by my life in Sarajevo once again.  All I have to do is keep trying.

I didn’t write this to get anyone to feel sorry for me, really I didn’t.  Mostly I just want to let you all know that my life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows and perfect travel experiences and cool food and instagramed sunsets.  I struggle on a daily basis, and have to continue working to make this whole thing worthwhile.   I leave with you with my new mantra:

Hoping that at least some of you recognized the Pocahontas song in the title, my family would frequently break into song while on canoe and rafting trips back in the day, that tended to be our song of choice.

I was thrilled to discover that the Embassy was organizing a rafting trip on the Neretva River, which flows through BiH and Croatia.  A quick google search turned up images of gorgeous emerald water, jagged cliffs and lovely scenery, so I signed up immediately.  Then I found out that a coworker of mine had already signed me up, he had a hunch I’d enjoy it so he went ahead and did it for me.   I like working with these people, they get me.

We started bright and early, meeting in Konjic.   I hitched a ride with our community liaison officer (CLO) who organized the trip, and she pointed out antique shops, furniture stores, and the stands along the side of the road selling honey, jams, and rakia (booze.)  I loved getting out of the city and out into the country, it’s clear that Bosnia has plenty to do and see during my tour here.

We met our guides and were served a fresh breakfast of coffee, local farm cheese, rolls, jam and ajvar (a roasted red pepper and eggplant relish – yum!)  We were given the option to grab a wetsuit, or take our chances and wear what we came in.  Based on the bright sun and the fact that I didn’t plan to do much swimming, I opted to risk it in what I wore.  (Side note, I was not well prepared as far as rafting clothes, but made it work with some workout capris and a tank top.  I hadn’t planned on doing much swimming here!)  We all loaded up into the double decker bus out front, and headed toward the village of Glavaticevo.

NO YELLING ON THE BUS

Our journey to the launch site was a treacherous one, with steep grades, sharp turns, and terrifying drop-offs.  I may have been clutching my Oh Shit handle for dear life the entire ride, though it was very clear that the drivers knew exactly what they were doing.  They drove this bus with amazing precision, narrowly missing guardrails and oncoming cars by what felt like millimeters, it’s not the driver’s fault that I kept picturing myself tumbling down the side of a mountain.

We loaded up into our respective rafts, and headed down the river.  This was my first time rafting (as opposed to floating) and I was told this was going to be Grade 1 (scale of 1-6).  A local sat in the front and served as the coxswain (really?  That’s what they call him?!) and was in charge of telling us when to paddle, and steering us away from things that might try to kill us.  He was the strong and silent type, his motion for us to row/not row was simply glancing back at us and either nodding or shaking his head.  He also had a delicate heart tattoo on his shoulder.  He did a great job though, and would warn us when we should expect an impact, when we should paddle, when we should STOP paddling, etc.  There were a couple times when we were asked to move to the middle of the raft, because we expected to rebound off a large rock during rapids.  He was always right, and none of us died.  Nice job, coxswain.

Why describe the scenery when I can just show it to you?

Emerald water

My coworker Will and me.

Calm and clear

Some of the not so rapid rapids

People jumped in here and floated down

Cliff jumping!

We stopped a couple times for drink/swimming/cliff jumping breaks, and I loved spending time with my coworkers in a social setting, away from work stress.  We ended our journey in the village Dzajici, where we loaded up the rafts and headed back to where we started.  Once we got back to Konjic, we changed into dry clothes and enjoyed a fresh lunch.  We were served fresh sausages, fish, bread, veggies, and fruit.  The rafting company took really good care of us, for anyone that plans to visit me in Bosnia during the summer, I’d be happy to do this again with you.

I’m off work today, to celebrate Ramazanski Bajram.  An interesting perk of the Foreign Service – we typically get off not only American holidays, but local ones as well (to a point.)  It makes sense, if none of the other businesses are open in town, we wouldn’t really be able to get anything done.  Plus it shows cultural sensitivity to the city we’re in.  I’m certainly not complaining.  Stocked up on grocery essentials yesterday since most things are closed, looking forward to a lazy day!

Figured it was about time to update the blog, I tend to put off blogging at this point because I don’t know where to start.  I thought about it, and figured that perhaps it would be easier if I just kept to a couple topics at a time, so as not to overwhelm you with information.  So here we go.

The city:

There are a couple different parts of the city, with TOTALLY different atmospheres.  The portion I’ve only really explored so far is Bascarsija.  One certain street, Ferhadija, is for pedestrians only and is lined with shops, cafes, gelato stands and huge historic places of worship.  (Fun fact: you can find a Synagogue, Mosque, Catholic church and a Orthodox church all within a two block radius.  Sarajevo is sometimes referred to as the Jerusalem of Europe by people other than me.  

Great people watching here

The further you walk down Ferhadija, the more Turkish the surroundings become, and you find yourself surrounded by cobblestones, copper and crafts.  (Alliteration….oh yes.)

I have every intention of buying a Bosnian rug and some copper pieces, but am taking my time because apparently it’s really easy to overpay and get mass-produced stuff…I’m holding out for something awesome.  Found a couple very expensive glass Turkish lamps that I need to own immediately.  I like strolling around the area, and feel very safe doing so.

I live within walking distance of the Embassy, and walking in that direction is a whole other world.  I want to touch on that at a later date, once I’ve taken a proper tour of the area.  It’s the part of the city that was heavily affected during the war, and I want to give that neighborhood the proper summary it deserves.  For now I simply marvel at the bullet holes remaining in buildings, numerous memorials for the fallen, entire pieces of the sidewalk missing from explosions and never ending graffiti.

The Work:

I actually feel pretty good about working at the Embassy, I have a great boss who’s looking out for me, and coworkers who have answered every question imaginable.  The hardest thing is just getting used to the daily tasks, and the norms that are expected from my office.  The technical stuff actually seems very well run and easy to maintain, the hard part is remembering how to get around the building.  And all of the combos I’ve been forced to memorize in a short amount of time.  The locals working at the Embassy are quite honestly fantastic.  Many of them have worked there for 15+ years, are total experts in their field, and have a tremendous amount to teach me.  Most of my interaction has been with the IT staff, and they’re awesome and I am thrilled I get to work with them for 2 years.  They do have difficult names for me to pronounce, and so far I’ve only called one person by the wrong name.  (I confused Sepy with Sasa, and felt awful about it.  You must admit their names are similar.)  I apologized to Sasa and he forgave me.

The Language:

So, everyone here keeps telling me “Ohhhh everyone speaks English” and I’m sorry but that is NOT THE CASE.  The people all speak English within the Embassy but once I leave those walls, I’ve literally not met a single person who speaks English.  (And why should they?  If I was a Bosnian I wouldn’t have learned English either.)  German, however, is common enough, so I’ve been getting by with my broken German and plenty of hand gestures.  And smiling.  Smiling helps quite a bit.  The Embassy is offering a “Survival Bosnian” course that I plan to take, that will help me with things like shopping, talking to cab drivers, and things like Hello, Goodbye, and Do you speak English?  Grocery shopping has only been possible because of my limited German, most of the labels are in Bosnian and German.  And as always, photos are very helpful, and even just the shape of the container itself.  I could find sour cream just based on the shape of the plastic tub.  Perhaps that means I spend too much time studying sour cream?

The Food and Drink:

In short, the food here is not the healthiest thing I’ve ever seen.  Lots of meat, cheese, bread, and creamy sauces.  Salads exist, but the dressings here are not my favorite, so I’m excited for my latest Amazon order to get here so I can mix up some Italian dressing.  Grocery stores have just about anything you’d need, but the produce left something to be desired.  The best looking produce appears to be sold in the open air markets that I haven’t gotten around to visiting yet.  I miss baby carrots, green beans, broccoli, and spinach.  I haven’t found any of those yet, and am genuinely sad about it.

One of the iconic Bosnian dishes is Ćevapi, little sausages served in delicious bread, served with onions and sometimes kajmak, my new favorite condiment.

This was the smallest size available, and I only ate half

My coworkers took me to Mrkva, a local chain that offers delivery (heyooooo) and who’s name means carrot, apparently.  I got the smallest size they offered (5 pieces), and it was delicious.  You rip up the bread, cut off a chunk of sausage with your fork, dunk the thing in the kajmak and onions, and eat with your hands.  Apparently the fork is not to be used except to cut things up, and knives are right out.  It was greasy and delicious, and several hours later I am still full.  I look forward to trying different versions around the city.

I’ve been able to get certain things at the Embassy itself, things that Bosnia doesn’t seem to understand.  Things like peanut butter, Sweet Baby Ray’s, Club crackers, salsa, and microwave popcorn.  Eventually I might be able to live without them, but for now I’m taking comfort in having a few familiar things around.   I placed a massive Amazon Pantry order to stock up on Asian food ingredients, because I miss Thai food already.

***

That’s all for now!  Looking forward to a three day weekend, and more chances to explore Bosnia!  Missing all of you, find me on WhatsApp and let’s text, mmmkay?

Greetings from Sarajevo!  I apologize, I’ve taken very few photos since I’ve been here but hope to remedy that by the end of the day.  So far my time here has been spent doing things like unpacking, going grocery shopping, and meeting my coworkers, none of which I felt like documenting at the time.  Something I’ve already noticed here: nobody just sits around with their phone out all the time.  I plan to behave the same way.

So my flight from Munich to Sarajevo was uneventful, in fact I fell asleep for the whole trip.  We landed at the SJJ airport, where I was met by a local Embassy employee (holding a sign with my name on it, that’s like my favorite sight in the whole world for some reason), and he whisked me through the Diplomatic passport line where I gathered my first stamp on the thing (no visa required by the way, come visit!), and we gathered up my many pieces of luggage.  (1 massive overweight suitcase, another large suitcase, one carry-on and one backpack full of my electronics and important documents…and peanut butter M&Ms.)  I was glad to have help dragging this stuff around, I walked all of those pieces into the airport in DC and it was comical to say the least.

We went out into the lobby where I met my boss, who was easy to spot in his Hawaiian shirt (a Friday tradition.)  He drove me to my new apartment and showed me all of the different features.  I am 100% pleased with the place, it’s considerably larger than my apt back home, and while the couches aren’t my particular taste (green and gold jacquard!) I am not in the business of complaining about free things.  Free things are awesome because they are free, if I get tired of looking at them I will cover them up.  Boom. 

You are probably wanting to see pictures of my apartment, and I promise to post a few, but I am NOT posting any that will give away my specific location, or the specific security features of my apartment.  No pictures of doors, windows, alarm systems, furniture, etc.  So that really limits what you will see here, but that’s just what will make me more comfortable.  And keep me out of trouble.

View from a friend’s balcony

Favorite decor in the apartment, I love this kitchen!

A close up of the kitchen floor, my favorite feature

Massive closet! A nice surprise, there’s another half not shown here

Guest bath / laundry room. Tiniest washer in the land.

Enormous grey bathroom! With no usable power outlets. Please notice the bizarre pink toilet paper.

Bath / shower combo. The glass door swings outward to convert it into a normal bathtub. Great water pressure!

On Saturday morning, my social sponsor took me grocery shopping to Mercator, a nearby superstore of sorts.  I stocked up on a new hair dryer (110v appliances can sometimes be converted to work on 220v, but hairdryers just seem to turn into flamethrowers.  I’d rather just buy a new one), cleaning supplies, and groceries, though I got home and realized I forgot to get a ton of things.  My first grocery trip was mildly stressful, as I forgot to bring my dictionary/phrasebook and wasn’t able to look up what certain words meant.  Overall I did ok, only because many of the labels were in German and I could figure it out.  I also learned the process to get receipts stamped/signed in order to reclaim my VAT (value added taxes) once I get my Diplomatic ID card.

That evening, my sponsor and I went to a BBQ at my boss’s house.  He fried up some wings (SO GOOD), smoked tons of chicken, ribs, and pulled pork, and I tried some local beer called Sarajevsko and a strong local liquor named rakija (tasted like moonshine, this one was pear flavored).  I met a bunch of my new coworkers (all of them super friendly and gave me great advice on what things to see in/around Sarajevo), and I received my first Hawaiian shirt, so I can join in on Aloha Fridays at the office.

Got home and promptly slept for 11 hours…I haven’t quite beat this jet lag yet but I’m getting close.  Today I’m off to go wander around Bašcaršija, the old part of town that’s right near my apartment.  If only I knew how to pronounce it.  So far so good!

The title of this post is my favorite German expression ever, as I patiently wait here in the Munich airport, I promise I shall use it before I leave. So far my ordering coffee did not warrant such an exclamation.

So I really wanted to do a post before I left, summarizing the Brain Trust visit in DC, my pack out and my final weekend at home with the fam, but I clearly over estimated how much free time I would have. I had little to none, so I’ll have to do that later.  I had more logistical arrangements than I anticipated, the good news is that things went smoothly and so far it appears I haven’t made any glaring errors. YET. Give it time, this is me we’re talking about.

My flight to Munich was mostly uneventful, I’m great at sleeping on planes so I probably got about 4-5 hours of sleep on the way here.  I had quite a large dude sitting next to me that I could have done without, but at least he was a NICE large dude. It’s about 9am here, it should feel like 3am but so far the jet lag is minimal.  I need to power through until about 8 tonight then I will crash HARD and finish resetting my clock.

Emailed my very friendly and helpful future boss who will be picking me up at the airport, I feel really lucky to have someone who’s looked out for me so far.  He will meet me at the gate, whisk me through customs (flying on a diplomatic mission comes with different customs rules, they send someone to help you the first time which is awesome), and drive me to my new apartment in Sarajevo.  I was assigned a social sponsor who grabbed some initial groceries for me, and who will take me grocery shopping and will accompany me to a cookout on Saturday with my future coworkers. Overall I’ve been nothing but impressed with how the Embassy has looked out for me, I hope to return the favor someday.

That’s it for now, hope to update you all later with photos of my new city and my new apartment!!

*clap*clap*clap*clap

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS!

And to answer your question, yes I do only know that song because of PeeWee’s Big Adventure.  Thank you for asking.

I had never been to Texas, I missed Kiva and KT terribly, and I love any excuse to see this great nation, so I headed to Dallas to see my pals.  I’m happy to report that my travel experience was MUCH better than the last time I flew, and thank goodness for that.  I could not have handled another disaster like my STL trip.

I headed off to Dallas, Kiva picked me up and we headed to their gorgeously renovated new home in the Dallas METROPLEX.   (This is what they call Dallas metropolitan area…it sounds like a movie theater.  Or a transformer.)  Kiva asked what I wanted to do on my trip, and I told her I wanted to eat BBQ, and see cowboys.  So off to Ft. Worth we went.

YeeHaw!

Longhorns. Their horns are…well they’re long

We walked around, had some slushy wine (well, I did, Keevs had just a normal slush!) and shopped around at the local stores.  Got all sorts of goodies, including hot sauce, my standard travel Christmas ornament, and some awesome smoked sea salt.  It was a little too early to hit up the bars, but we stopped by Cowtown Winery to do a tasting.

Generous tasting!

After my fill of delicious fruity wine, we decided it was BBQ time.  Now Texas is known for their brisket.  I will admit that when I want good BBQ, my go-to is pork.  But I was willing to bend my rules to do as the natives do, so bring on the beef.  (That sounds filthy…I am referring to cow.  Shut up.)

We stopped by Hard Eight BBQ in Coppell, and it was everything I hoped it would be.  We approached this massive grill where you could pick and choose the items you wanted, I have no idea how the employees could stand in front of the thing without melting, so mad props to them.

1 of each, please

I couldn’t logically pick everything on the menu (or could I?) so I settled on the brisket and jalapeno sausage, with jalapeno creamed corn and mac and cheese on the side, served with freshly brewed sweet tea.  There were two types of sauces, one warm BBQ and another spicy apple cider sauce…wow.  I loved how you could just walk down the row of food, picking and choosing what to throw on your tray.  My kind of place.

YES!

Jalapeno sausage was by FAR the highlight, and while the brisket was totally fine, I am sticking with my rule:  pork = BBQ.  I refuse to be convinced otherwise.  Because this is America.

We headed back to the house to do some swimming, and then headed to meet KT and Bryan at their gorgeous house for drinks.  We explored the Bishop Arts District (hipsters everywhere!) and then headed to our final destination, Smoke.  The food here was incredible, we started with hummus and smoked broccoli (who knew that was a thing?), various sausages (pictured below), and our dinners were rock solid.  Highly recommend it for anyone in the area!  We ended the night by watching Bryan basically inhale an entire container of tiramisu.  It was majestic.

Actual signage: Rabbit – Cow – Lamb – Pig

What we thought the signs looked like: Rabbit – Coyote – Sheep – House cat (hoping this one was inaccurate)

***

The next day we shopped a bit, ate cupcakes, got pedicures, and laid by the pool.  Kiva and Joel’s sweet pup has a habit of freaking out a little bit when swimmers in the pool go underwater (what a good rescue dog!) but has an even funnier quirk when someone gets on a raft.  He sits on their lap.  To save them, or something.

Don’t worry Dad. I’ll save you.

Kiva and KT drove me to the airport and we said our tearful goodbyes, so glad I got to spend a weekend with some of my favorite Texans!! (I have to say SOME OF because I do have other Texas friends who I did not visit on this round and who may never forgive me for being so close and yet so far away.  Sorry Stuebe!)

Enjoyed my first trip to Texas, hopefully won’t be my last!

So, if you’ve ever traveled with me, you will know that I am cursed when it comes to flying.  I am consistently bumped from flights, seated next to children (tiny humans are great, until you put them on my airplane), given broken televisions, chairs that don’t recline, getting booked on delayed or canceled flights, etc.  When I walk into an airport, baggage belts stop working, computer systems malfunction, and TSA lines somehow get longer (and I ALWAYS get stuck behind the lady that has NEVER heard of the 3-1-1 rule.)

I thought perhaps the travel gods had forgiven me, or that we had made peace somehow.  I was granted Gold status on American Airlines and had been flying frequently back and forth across the country lately, mostly without incident.  This weekend, all hell broke loose.  Nobody wants to read a breakdown of all of the troubles I had flying, it would honestly be a post all its own

Long story short:

Canceled flights, delayed flights, lost luggage, not being able to find a human to talk to, oversold flights, tickets issued on a separate airline but not actually RECEIVED on that airline, 2nd leg of round trips being canceled, bad weather, out of pocket hotel, lots of hours on the phone.  It was a neat experience, to be sure.

HOWEVER, it was all worth it, because I got to spend the weekend with my parents and siblings on the Shawnee Wine Trail.

Really Ridiculously Good Looking

Now, I am not much of a wine drinker, I just can’t get into the stuff.  However, my mom and sisters are huge fans so I was happy to tag along with them, take their recommendations and use the opportunity to find new types that I might enjoy.  We visited Von Jakob (great beer and delicious German food), Alto Vinyards (great live music, did an actual tasting here and I learned things…for instance that some people make their wine taste like cigars on purpose), Owl Creek Vinyard (cute!  Great outdoor patio and more live music), Blue Sky Vineyard (AWESOME sangria!!), and we ended at Rustle Hill Winery (good local beers, and an excellent hill to roll down.)  We had the best weather imaginable.  It was sunny, mid 80’s, no humidity…perfect.

This is supposed to be a buffalo mixed with a vineyard. For some reason.

Freakin’ Tannins

Because we chose to drink delicious wine all day, we opted to stay in the area at the Davie School Inn.  This place was too cute, the owners purchased an abandoned school house from 1910 for $2000 and turned it into a very unique B&B  We took up the white and yellow rooms, outfitted with half cozy furnishings, half schoolhouse charm.   I may have left a tiny Trogdor on one of the chalkboards for the next guests.   We spent the evening playing Yahtzee, which actually was more fun than I remembered.  I won, natch.

Gary (the owner) cooked us an amazing breakfast of stuffed french toast, omelets,  southwestern potatoes, fresh fruit, toast, and the fixings.  The experience couldn’t have been better, if you plan to do the wine trail I highly suggest this spot, very affordable too!

Since it was Father’s Day weekend, we let Papa Cain pick what he wanted to do for lunch, and happily he suggested that we go to the Giant City Lodge for family-style fried chicken and sides.  Thankfully Shannon’s friend Sarah had a brother who worked there and could get us in with a last minute reservation…thank you Sarah!    We enjoyed unlimited fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, dumplings, biscuits, corn and green beans…yum!!  We wandered around the park a bit and then headed back to Phil’s parents’ house to see the girls.  Hung out with Syd and Lex, I stole a bunch of hugs and kisses from them, and then headed for the airport.  The airport was a disaster, see the beginning of this post.

Anyway, I had a wonderful weekend with my family and enjoyed escaping the land of classes, exams, endless paperwork and travel prep.  Less than one month to go!

Hooray grapes!

I find it hard to believe that I’ve been taking classes at FSI (foreign service institute…this is my federal employment coming through – acronyms!!) since February…didn’t I just get here?  The unpacked box of clothes in my bedroom now seems pretty pathetic. My new pack-out for Sarajevo is less than a month away, I guess I’ll just leave it packed and save the new movers some effort.

Right now we are in a 2-week class where we recap the things we learned throughout our previous lessons, and it’s become painfully obvious that my memory isn’t what it used to be.  The instructor hands me a scenario, I look it over, and then am forced to think back a few months ago, throughout my hundreds of hours of instruction, to pick out one single lesson, to recall that ONE button that was on that ONE tab of that ONE application that I used briefly, oh and what was that password again?  I feel like there was a hidden field if I expand this….oh hell I just printed that invoice, better shred that.  What’s the radio protocol again, am I ACTUALLY supposed to say niner or is that just what they say on Tommy Boy?  Ah, I need to change that group policy…WAIT, did I set that for the entire network or just my post?  Was I supposed to do an incremental or full backup there?  Did I need to print two copies of that inventory, and do I sign both or just the one?  What was that combination I learned two months ago?  And on and on it goes.

So yes, it’s quite a bit to remember, and I’ve had a TON of information crammed into my brain in a relatively short amount of time, but I’ve got to say it’s been a pretty great experience overall.  Plenty of hands-on lab assignments, lots of field trips to meet with the respective experts in our field, weekly exams to keep us on track, and a plethora of study materials to take with me to post.  I have to give props to FSI – they’ve done a pretty amazing job of taking 23 IT-folks from VERY different backgrounds, and getting all of us on the same page.

***

So between my various classes I managed to fit in a few more weekends of family shenanigans, and for that I am so thankful.  A few weekends ago, baby brother Nate graduated from Purdue as a DOCTOR of Pharmacy.  A doctor, for crying out loud.  I flew into Indy, we got celebratory Thai from Thai Spice in Indy (4.5 stars on Yelp, that’s no joke!) and said goodbye to Nate’s lovely apartment (but not so lovely water pressure.)  Nate will be renting my condo in STL so we helped him move…another third floor walkup, another move, just your average day in the Cain household.

The graduation ceremony was lovely and about 2.5 hours too long, so long in fact that most of the MBA students left before the thing was even over.  RUDE.  I was surrounded by proud parents and siblings and girlfriends/boyfriends and grandparents, and one stupidly racist/terrible/awful man behind me who threw a FIT when the announcer (who had to say about 1000 people’s names in the span of a couple hours) messed up his son’s last name.  Ok, I get it, you paid thousands upon thousands of dollars for your kid’s education, I understand that you’d be disappointed in hearing your last name botched, fair enough.  What was NOT OK was his rant that followed, loudly complaining about all the FOREIGN names all got pronounced correctly, obviously they cared more about those FOREIGNER NAMES than the name of his AMERICAN son ROBERT…..GO ROBERT!!!! YEAH ROBERT!!  He yelled these evil words from the balcony, minutes after his son had already crossed the stage and taken his seat.  That fact that his son’s name was botched obviously warranted ruining everyone’s diploma acceptance too.  Happily the jerk face got bored and left early, I did not miss him.

***

So ever since I got this gig and knew I’d be living in the DC area for a while, my dad has mentioned he was going to come visit and do nothing but hit up museums the whole time.  Happily at the end of May, he got his wish.  Mom and Dad drove over from Philo and got to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend in Arlington with me.  We really made the most of the trip: Air and Space Museum (x2!), American History Museum, National Archives, Capitol Building, Library of Congress, Arlington Cemetery, and more memorials/statues than you could imagine.  Mom and I were so excited!!!

Kidding! Well…at first

My whole family went on a trip to DC back when I was in either junior high, and let me tell you, that trip was wasted on me.  At that point in my life I was interested in shopping and beaches and boys, I could not have cared any less about war memorials or airplanes.   Well on that trip, we as a group gave my dad ONE HOUR to spend in the Air and Space museum, and that was it.  We would wait for him at the snack bar with our french fries, and after that we were going to hit up Old Navy.  He hung his head, did the best he could with his one hour of history, and then left.  And he never forgave me.

So on this trip, I was determined to make it up to him.  As penance, I took him to the Udvar-Hazy Center, an Air and Space Museum annex out at Dulles Airport that was basically the greatest thing I ever could have done.  We spent an entire day roaming around hangers full of iconic planes:

SR-71 Blackbird (Mach 3 secret spy plane!)

Enola Day – dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima

Nazi Planes from “Axis Alley”

Space Shuttle – Discovery

AirBus landing outside

Dad had a great day!

One thing we neglected to do was take a single pic with Kashmir, the SWIC Mascot who is supposed to be traveling around with me in DC.  So this one should make up for it.

Sorry, Mel

Not only was I glad that my parents visited so that I could spend time with them, it also served as a great excuse for me to actually get out and see DC in all of its splendor.  We decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery to pay our respects to those who gave their life for our country, and wouldn’t you know it, we stumbled into a memorial service with a pretty high profile speaker – President Obama.  He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and gave a very nice speech recognizing our Armed Forces.

After a full week of museums, memorials, national parks, it was hard to pick my favorite thing we did.  I really enjoyed seeing the monuments at night (with a ton of visitors laying flowers at each memorial), the ceremony at Arlington was touching and a beautiful tribute to the fallen, I loved seeing Dad so excited to explore iconic airplanes used to change the course of human history, I loved eating breakfast with my parents before heading off to work for the day, enjoyed taking them to some of my favorite restaurants in the area, and was basically thrilled to spend time with the family again!  I leave you with this parting shot, of a particularly interesting exhibit at the American History Museum.

I loved this exhibit…because of course I did

My dear family has been so great about visiting me in DC (quite honestly I get more visitors here than I did in STL!) and this past weekend I was so thrilled to host Phil, Mel, and Alexis for a few days.  So, I’m still a little salty about the fact that they left Sydney at home, but I have to admit that she is go go go all the time, would have been a pill on the airplane, would have HATED riding in a stroller all day, she would not have been interested in visiting monuments, and I could just see her somehow getting out onto my balcony.  So sweet little Syd stayed home with the grandparents, I missed her but it would have been a VERY different trip if she had come.

Any excuse to post this pic, LOOK AT THAT SWEETIE

The Reinhardts flew into DCA and I met them at the airport, they were so worried that Alexis would freak out on the plane, but as it turns out she thought it was GREAT fun.  She got a pair of wings, got to watch Frozen, and even during some nasty turbulence she commented on how FUN it all was!  We headed back to my apartment thanks to a loaner car seat I borrowed from a very kind coworker, and headed to Ben’s Chili Bowl for dinner.   This place is a DC institution, Bill Cosby has his picture painted on the wall, so that’s always a good sign.  I got a Half Smoke and cheese fries, they rocked my socks off.  Not exactly gourmet and sure as hell not healthy, but I could think of nobody in the world better to share a chili dog with than Phil.

On Friday I headed to work but met up with the family after.  We hit up Kinder Haus toys so Lex could pick out a one-of-a-kind, educational toy (naturally she picked a mass-produced Disney princess), Phil and I got Thai food from the newly-opened I-Thai in Georgetown, Mel FINALLY got her lobster roll from Luke’s (totally lived up to the hype, I stand corrected) and we enjoyed just generally walking around, people-watching, and cupcake eating.

We got home and realized that if Lex didn’t get a good night’s sleep, we were done for.  My apartment is insanely bright in the morning, so we had a brilliant beyond brilliant idea…let’s stick her in the closet.  No, really.  We got a twin roll-away bed from the front desk, removed the mattress, cleaned out a section of my closet and made up a cozy little nest for her.  She thought it was AWESOME, and the fact that she already has Harry Potter habits speaks very highly for her future.

On Saturday we hit it hard, and decided to make sure we could see things that Lex would be interested in, namely flowers.  We started our day at the Botanical Garden (it was HERB DAY, score!!)   They had a ton of little crafts for kids, and plenty of lovely flowers, but again this will be filed in the category of “St. Louis Does It Better.”  (Missouri Botanical Garden FTW, not even a contest!)  We then made our way to the Capitol Building, were we were treated to TSA-like security measures.  We made our way to the Library of Congress, it was a really gorgeous space and I’ve made a mental note to take the official tour while I’m here.

Capitol Building

Not pictured: Nick Cage (Thank you Heather)

Now, by this point I should probably mention one of my biggest flaws as a human being.  I am not the kind of person that can walk around allllll day in heels, flip flops, or flats.  But I am also not the kind of person that likes to walk around in sneakers all day, because I feel like a tourist.  I am constantly battling my inner self to find appropriate footwear, and this particular day, I failed miserably with my suede green flats.  It was only about 2:00pm and already I was hurting.

After lunch, and with my feet already killing me, we walked to the National Mall for an old car show, the WWII Memorial, saw the Washington Monument from afar (which Lex calls “the tower,”) the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Constitution Gardens, the Lincoln Memorial, the MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial, and finally the Jefferson Monument.  I. Was. Dying.  Every step I took was excruciatingly painful, and my companions were mighty tired of hearing about it.  As we hobbled back to the nearest Metro (MORE. WALKING.) I made Mel and Phil promise me that they’d never let me leave the house in anything but tennis shoes ever again.  They were happy to oblige.

***

On Sunday we decided to find some boats.  We had initially planned on going to Baltimore to the inner harbor, but after I heard about their whole “our street opened up and ate a bunch of cars” thing, we opted for Annapolis instead.  We went to mass at the Basilica, and then made our way to Annapolis. We started the visit by hitting up Davis’ Pub, where we had one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.  A super-soft preztel bun, cut in half, covered in crab dip, and covered with melted cheese.  Wowza.  Exactly my kind of place, very casual with great food, and beer in plastic cups.

Sadly I had to share this and didn’t get to eat the whole thing

We made our way to the boardwalk area (after snagging a BRILLIANT parking spot, princess parking!!) and took in the scenery.  Lex loved the boats, but loved the ducks even more.  We walked around to the different shops, Mel pretended to apply to the Naval Academy, we bought some local beer and wine, got an ice cream cone (each…not, like, to share) and enjoyed the sunshine!

Really should have gotten her a cup

***

On Monday while I went to work, the Reinhardts went to the Natural History Museum so Alex could be surrounded by her new favorite thing on the planet: butterflies.  One even landed on her hand, she was seriously in heaven.  They did more sight-seeing, and came back to the apartment to rest up for our big plans for the evening, a Nationals Game!  Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we picked up Mexican and Coronas from Guajillo (maybe the best salsa I’ve ever had) and then made our way to the ballpark.

So, another bizarre thing about me is that I like to make up songs.  All the time.  Even about very boring activities that have no actual significance.  That afternoon, as I was printing out our tickets (I think?) I started singing “iiiiiii got the tickets, I got the tickets, I got the tickets for yoooou-ou-ou” which Lex thought was hilarious.  Before I knew it, she was doing this.  She might be my kid?

So we made our way to the ballpark, hoping that DC would narrowly avoid this long strip of rain that was in the forecast, but we had no such luck.  The instant we got off the train, it started to rain, and it didn’t stop for three hours.  We tried powering through and hanging out under an overhang near our seats, but once the tarp went on the field, we called it a night.  It was seriously a shame, because I had planned my attire very carefully and never made it on camera.  Bush league.

Ole!

The Reinhardts headed back the next day, after what I thought was a pretty awesome trip.  And happy I will see them again soon when I head home for Nate’s graduation from Purdue!

Thanks for coming, guys!

Deepest apologies to my blog readers (Ok mostly Kiva and Melanie) for the lack of updates lately, but once I post this you will understand why!  I finally had some free weekends in my schedule, and decided it was time to spend time with friends and family while it was still relatively easy to do so.

Side note, I’d been wanting to do a post about the Cherry Blossoms in DC, but as it turns out, I don’t care to write a big article on the subject, it sat in my drafts folder for weeks.  Instead I will share these brief thoughts and a lovely photo:

• Beautiful!!
• Crowded
• Tourists with strollers
• Lots of people own super expensive SLRs now, but it seems few people know how to use them.

So, on to my trips.  First of all, I’ve gotten a few questions lately about how I keep snagging first class seats, and no it has nothing at all to do with my job.  Perhaps my dear KT Nelso can tell me why, but for some reason I was temporarily upgraded to American Airlines Gold status for about six months, and AA loaded my account full of upgrade options as well.  So for all of these flights I’ve taken lately, I’ve been able to get the awesome seats that normally you have to pay extra for, (aka extra leg room, towards the front of the plane, etc) and if on the day of the flight there are spaces left in First Class, I can be upgraded.  It has happened twice so far and it was everything I hoped it would be.  Bloody Marys, fruit and croissants for breakfast, fresh(ish) cookies, and more space than I rightfully need.  I’m afraid I’ve run into kind of a Flowers for Algernon situation where I now know how the other half lives, and find it difficult to go back to normal ol’ coach.  First world problems, my friends.

Easter weekend was first, and I flew from DC to Willard, a tiny airport in Champaign/Urbana.  I got off the airplane and was greeted by my sisters and Lex Danger, with a freshly-drawn picture of a rainbow to welcome me back to IL.  We headed back to Philo (while Lex decided that Aunt Shannon’s new nickname should be Princess Sparkle Rainbow Unicorn,) and I spent the rest of the weekend surrounded by my family!  We had the Cains over for drinks and snacks on Saturday evening, where cousin Sarah decided it was time for an Easter Egg Hunt…but this time it would be for adults.

Sarah has twins and two jobs and somehow found time to create adult-themed Easter eggs for this huge crew, they were filled with such items as beer coozies, Shout wipes, condoms, candles, shot glasses, Icy Hot, etc.  It was one for the record books, my friends.   Great seeing all of the Cains together again, I’ll miss that crazy bunch for sure!!

***

On Easter Sunday we went to Mass at St. Thomas (packed house!) and then headed to the Stierwalts for lunch, more egg hunts (this time for the children, lame,) and more family time.  I stuffed myself silly with ham, mashed potatoes, noodles, mac and cheese, scalloped pineapple, broccoli and rice casserole, and Shannon’s little bunny rolls that were kind of a cross between bunnies and gremlins.

As usual, I loved visiting with the Stierwalts and discussing every last detail of my upcoming move.  They’re a pretty adventurous bunch so I tried my best to talk them into jetting over to Sarajevo sometime in the next couple years…not sure I did the job.  I’m still working on them!  Sadly I had to head back to DC, so Shannon dropped me off at the airport and I headed back to my empty apartment.  It was so great to be home, to see little Lex and Syd in their Easter dresses, to give my parents the biggest hugs I could, and to hang with these crazy kids.

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, I would totally freeze to death if I ever got sent to a post where I was forced to chop my own wood to stay alive during the winter.  Exhibit A:

***

The next weekend, after a particularly tough week of training here at State, I headed off to Chicago to visit my college friends that live in that area.  They all have such big things going on in their lives, from having babies, to making babies, planning huge vacations abroad, getting masters degrees, and shaping the young minds of America, and I was desperate to go see them and catch up!

I flew into O’Hare Airport (side note: I hate flying into O’Hare.  hate. hate. hate) pretty late at night, and made my way to the rental car lot.  As it turns out, when you get past the age of 27ish, it no longer seems appropriate for you to beg your adult friends to pick you up at the airport.  The crazy thing is, if I had asked them, I’m sure they would have done it, but if I can rent a car for $17 a day to save them the hassle, why not?  I collected my keys to this lovely Chevy Sonic, a car that I didn’t even know was a thing.

I made my way to the south suburbs of Chicago where I was able to cuddle with adorable little babies (you guys, my friends make CUTE kids) and catch up with my squirrels and non-squirrels that are basically squirrels by extension.  I enjoyed some Portillos, natch, and enjoyed my friends company even more.  Here’s a pic (stolen from Ashley!) of some of the gang at Jeri’s baby shower, and thanks to Dave for pointing out that I am the only one that didn’t get the “wear patterns” memo.  Strangely enough, this was not the first time that has happened to me:

So those were my two weekends of jet setting back and forth between Illinois, will follow up with a post about the Reinhardts visiting me here in DC!  😀

-B