Winter Bidding

It's a scary time of year here in Mexico, what with:
Halloween

Dia de Muertos 

...and the new bid list was just released.
Yup, it's bidding time again! Time to start day dreaming/nightmaring about where we'll be going next:

As an entry-level FSO, my first two tours are directed. Which means that we're allowed to submit our general priorities and then rank the list of positions we're offered, but the final word on where we're headed is made by the nice folks in the assignments department in Washington. Even though this will be our third post, because I switched from being an FS Specialist OMS to an FS Generalist Consular Officer, my directed assignments clock was re-set when I got to A-100. Further, while all of my OMS classmates recently received tenure (woohoo!), due to my switch over, I've gone to the back of that line, too and won't be eligible until a minimum of two years have passed in the new job.  

We arrived at post in February, therefore we're considered "Winter Bidders." The year is broken up into Winter, arriving from October-April, and Summer, for those who arrive between May-September.  (It might be November instead of October, so don't quote me on that part.)  Once two directed tours are completed, officers are able to lobby for their own jobs and there is a lot of jockeying that goes on to try to get onto the Summer bidding cycle.  This cycle is far better for families with school-aged children, and so the vast majority of the available positions come onto the Summer cycle.  People play with home much home leave, training, vacation etc... they take to try to become Summer bidders.  But for us now, it's Winter Bidding time and here is how it boils down:

I'd like to explain Bidding Math 101, not for the faint-hearted:

Start with a list of available positions for your bidding cycle, sent to everyone on your bidding cycle at the same time, all over the world. Our list has close to 400 positions.

  400  Then subtract all the positions that are in your same country, as we can't repeat yet.
-   91    Minus Mexico
= 309   

Now go through the list and cross out any position where the timing for arrival will not work out. For example, if they want someone to be at post in April, already being able to speak Russian to a 3/3 level, then I have to cross that out because I speak no Russian now and we will be leaving post in February. We have a Congressionally-mandated minimum of 20 work days of home leave to be taken within the United States, for which we need to tack on one extra month, so really we're not eligible to be at any post until March. I don't think I can go from 0/0 to 3/3 in Russian in one month... so that post gets scratched off the list.  Go through each and every position and do the "timing math," crossing out as you go, even if that means heartbreak for eliminating a prior "dream post" that just won't work out. 

Using the comprehensive bidding instructions and a guide to when language and functional training classes at FSI start, we begin to shape which positions are viable simply based on timing. They fall into two categories: "perfect" bids wherein they want me in October and I can arrive in October, and "imperfect" bids wherein they want me in October and I can arrive in either September or November.  We must whittle down the list to come up with 30 bids: 22 of which must be perfect, and there can be no more than eight imperfect. There can be ZERO "invalid" bids, which means they want me in October and I can get there in December or August only.  Plus we have to list a minimum of two different world regions and six of the 30 bids must be in our own cone; I'm Consular-coned. 

To add more wrinkles, if we were not at a hardship post (10% differential or more), we'd have to select a minimum of 15 posts at 15% hardship or more, and if I were still on language probation - I'd have to select posts that are language-designated so I could be trained in another language.  If I'd never served a Consular tour, I'd also have to do that. Coming to Juarez scratched all three of those requirements off the list in one go, so we didn't have to worry about that part. Phew. 

So now let's get personal.  We need to consider places where my husband has a better-than-average shot of getting a job, either in or out of the mission. We determine this by reading post reports from officers living/having lived at the post and from reports of how many family members are currently employed there and whether or not the host country has a work agreement for foreigners and/or an economy to support foreign workers.  

Then we consider hauling three elderly kitties to post: are there quarantines? Will it take three flights and 31 hours to get there? Will there be decent vet care once we're there? Will we be able to buy or import pet food? 

But wait, there's more: will we be learning a language that will be useful to daily life in the host country? For example, there are frequently officers trained in a non-native language to serve a particular population in the country. Example: learning Farsi (to serve the Iranian population) in Turkey, but not learning Turkish and therefore not being able to direct a taxi, order food in a restaurant or speak to your neighbors. Hmmm.... important considerations. 

We made an elaborate Excel sheet enumerating our priorities and tabulating how each of our top contenders ranked.  We're also realizing that the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts, meaning a post we really aren't interested in might just numerically come up the highest. We've decided to reserve vetoes for these occasions. 

And on a far more frivolous note, my husband and I also have a flag collection for the countries we've lived in.  Countries with cool looking flags are very attractive, like this one, and I'll let you figure them out...

But then the following flags of very interesting countries kinda' look all alike. Hmmm:

And keep in mind our last post looked like this:

So I think we need to mix it up a bit more. Oh the decisions!
Stay tuned, we should know before Christmas.

El Grito!

¡Mexicanos!

¡Vivan los héroes que nos dieron patria!

¡Víva Hidalgo!

¡Viva Morelos!

¡Viva Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez!

¡Viva Allende!

¡Vivan Aldama y Matamoros!

¡Viva la independencia nacional!

¡Viva México! 

¡Viva México! 

¡Viva México!

Thus goes "El Grito," the call that goes out on September 16th at 11:00 pm in towns and cities across Mexico to cap the Dia de Independencia. First delivered in 1810 by Miguel Hidalgo in the town of Dolores, it is traditionally a call-and-respond, with the President (or town mayor) calling out the names of revolutionary heroes and the crowd responding with a loud "Viva!"  In Mexico City, this takes place at the city center (the zocalo) and is delivered by the President in front of a massive crowd, accompanied by the ringing of a huge bell and followed by an equally impressive fireworks show. 

My husband and I only learned of this tradition a short time ago, and decided we'd love to see it first hand from Mexico City. However, by the time we learned of it, it was too late to book tickets or a hotel room in Mexico City anywhere near the zocalo. So instead - we got to take part in much smaller gritos that gave us a taste of the excitement. Yes, a very small taste, but we got the idea.

The first was last weekend in our neighborhood when the park near our house was transformed again into a party stage decked out in red, white and green bunting with decorated tables. Our neighbors handed out patriotically-colored beaded necklaces to the women and kerchiefs to the men. Like the Mother's Day celebration earlier this year, everyone gathered for food, music and dancing, this time to a live mariachi band that played until at least 02:00. Live mariachi has its place and time, let me say. In Bogota live mariachi in the apartment directly beneath ours in a sound-magnifying brick building = not so much fun. In a community park, under stars and waving flags, surrounded by your dancing neighbors and enjoying the warm evening breezes = yes. Granted, we left shortly after midnight and the party was still in full swing, but we were able to sleep courtesy of our white-noise producing air purifier machine in the bedroom. 

Community park getting dressed up for the party

Our neighbors' balcony carrying the colors

Party decorations: Mariachi dress

The spread! Traditional dishes served up by our kerchief-clad neighbors

Not exactly the President, but rather the homeowners board delivering el grito.

Patriotism under twinkling lights

The second grito was yesterday in the small northern California town where I'm staying visiting my father and sister. My husband stayed behind in Juarez, so I went down to the town park in my sister's town alone (which has a majority Mexican population) to see their version. There were booths selling tamales, tacos, elotes and all sorts of fruity drinks and a small (non-Mariachi) band playing. Instead of waiting until 11 pm, el grito was delivered at about 6:30 by the public affairs officer from the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco. She waved the Mexican flag as she called out the patriots names, and the crowd called back the obligatory "Viva!" after each name.  It was a far more subdued crowd than in our Juarez neighborhood, maybe because most of the families present have lived in the US for many years, their kids being born in the US, so it felt a bit more like a celebration of "things we used to do" to keep up the tradition. It was fun, nonetheless. However, no matter that I spoke in Spanish to the ladies selling the tamales, they always answered back in English. Ah well.

The color guard delivers the flag...

...to the Public Affairs Officer from the Mexican Consulate for the call. 

Next year we hope to take in the event from Mexico City itself. We'd better make hotel reservations about now. See if you can catch it on the news tonight wherever you might be.

The power of a flag

File this under: Silly facts for a Saturday.

So you're thinking of starting a blog?
Perhaps you've been thinking of clever topics that will be helpful, interesting, cutting-edge, insightful, funny or in general just make people think?

Sounds great. But how will your readers find you?

I suggest you include flags, lots of flags.

A quick look at the statistics of how people found this blog reveals that besides being linked to the Department of State's official blogroll, one of the largest sources of new readers was my inclusion of a Colombian flag on the blog last year. 
To be specific, the Google searches have been:

459 Colombian Flag

139 Cool Colombian Flag

35 Official Colombian Flag

30 Bogota Colombia Flag

My math tells me that there are now probably 659 disappointed 5th graders out there who found me and the Tabbies instead while working on their world history or social studies reports.

Who knows, maybe one of them stopped to read about this job and the interesting life it creates and it planted a teenie seed in the mind of a future diplomat?

Yeah, maybe not - but it would be pretty cool if that were the case. 

That's all for today. And don't forget to add and caption your flags! 

Flag Day! Part Two

Everyone remembers some big one-time event in their life: a high school prom, a quinceanera, or a graduation. Flag Day is that event for the FS, because all further assignments will announced via e-mail and with far less whooping, hollering and clapping. However, in the company of 90 classmates (three of us switching from Specialist to Generalist), I got to go through this twice. And it's just as fun the second time!

So, the new flag now proudly displayed in our little home is....

v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v


Mexican Flag

MEXICO!

We're border-bound for Ciudad Juarez!

Now I know it doesn't sound as exotic as some places whose names have a spy-thriller ring to them like Baku, Astana or Tashkent, but it's going to be a super training ground and an opportunity to finally get that elusive 3/3 in Spanish (as in they won't let me leave until I do!).

The Tabbies were pretty excited because we told them that they wouldn't have to go on an airplane to get there. We thought we'd mention the four-day car trip a little later on, after the excitement has worn off some. They'll be Mexicats, and are being fitted for serapes and huaraches as we speak (Toby wants a sombrero, too. His pink nose is quite susceptible to sun burn.)

My name was called about 75% of the way through the ceremony, so I got to watch my colleagues leap to their feet in many cases, even throwing their arms around our class mentor Ambassador in excitement. She took the exuberance in great spirits and kept a huge genuine smile as she waved each little flag in play in front of the crowd as the assignment was announced.

They always warn us that Flag Day will bring about surprises, and yesterday was no exception. We knew that not every option would be assigned as there were a handful more places than people, but there were some last-minute additions as well. One city  came up twice and I have two classmates instead of just one headed there, and there were two countries that weren't on our list that surprised everyone. One of my hopeful-highs didn't get assigned at all, but that's okay - beautiful, historic Europe is overrated, right? And while it would have been really cool to learn a one-country language like Mongolian so that Tim and I could use it to comment privately about the rude person behind us in line in the supermarket - it'll be good to deepen instead of lose our Spanish.

I was honestly surprised to get Ciudad Juarez, but only because the timing of the training and the projected arrival time were not an exact match for my language level. But in retrospect, when I review the list of priorities given to my career development officer: easy for elderly cats, work in my career track and possibility for Tim to work - it fits the whole bill. Plus, it's an easy hop over to El Paso if the need arises for, oh I don't know, movies without Spanish subtitles? To be honest, I can't think of what El Paso would offer that Ciudad Juarez wouldn't, but then again - I've never been to either place.

So here's another cool part: minutes after the last flag was doled out and my classmates started milling around hugging each other and looking for their families in the back of the room, two people approached me. They are from previous A-100s and are also headed to Ciudad Juarez and wanted to come meet another new coworker. They said that there's a core group that gets together regularly here while in training, each of us with different departure dates. It really meant a lot for them to offer the welcome mat, and how great is that to have an instant group of friends already!?

Well that's that. We'll all file back into our A-100 classroom on Monday, no doubt chattering about our new horizons, finally freshly in focus. I'm thrilled to be starting the training in the meat-and-potatoes of the work I'll be doing. It's been three years imagining this time and the Consular Affairs flag lapel pin is no longer just a hopeful symbol, but now a true association.

Woo-hoo!!