Abbey

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miscellany (french, tandem & abbey)

September 3, 2010 in Abbey Q. Howley, FSI, Tandem Issues by Alex | 2 comments

Ch- ch- ch- changes

Andy and I have been driving one another increasingly nuts, so… we’ve decided to split up.

Did I get you?

No, not split up like that. Here’s what I mean: we’ve decided that being in the same French class is no longer benefitting either one of us (yes, in terms of learning French, we are driving one another nuts), so on Tuesday I’m moving to a different class. And because I’m moving out, some new people will be moving in, so Andy will have a different class dynamic too.

Patience, my friends

This should be the motto of the Foreign Service.

It seems we won’t have any information about what the tandem couplehood gods plan to bestow upon us for quite some time. My Career Development Officer wants to wait until Andy’s actually on the Register before we explore the possibilities. That could happen as soon as two months from now or as long as two years from now; you just never know for sure with security clearances. Mine took four months, so we’re banking on revisiting this topic in early January…

SOS!

Help! Somebody! Please! This is Abbey, by the way. First, a warning for all you diplo-pets out there: don’t believe it for a second when your owners tell you not to worry, that you’re not going to be boarded this time. (Boarding=jail, in case you haven’t learned that one yet.) Don’t believe it when they say that you’re just going on a little vacation and it’s actually going to be a ton of fun. Let me assure you, it’s not.

For reasons I simply cannot comprehend (wedding, airplane, out of town… I don’t know or care what any of that means), my owners have abandoned me in a house that, yes, is much bigger and nicer than my house. And yes, it has two very nice people who seem to like me a lot, inexplicably, since I am being a pretty big jerk to them. And yes, there is a deck and a yard. And lots of toys. But before you start thinking this place couldn’t possibly be so bad, let me cut to the chase.

I’m living with dogs! Two dogs. Beagles. Who bark. And want to play with me. And want to sniff me. And who can’t take a hint that I don’t like other dogs and just want to be left alone to sleep. And who also steal attention from those two very nice people, who I’d prefer to have all to myself.

Just because boy owner won some big test, he thinks he can do whatever he wants now, abandoning me like this. Well, I’ve got news for him: if I ever see him again, I’m chewing three socks as punishment. Maybe four. That’ll teach him.

But in the meantime, I’m serious: can someone come get me? Someone without any dogs? And no cats either. Please?!

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take me home, country roads

August 29, 2010 in Abbey Q. Howley, Life in DC by Alex | 2 comments

Okay, not home. Not my home, anyway. But to West Virginia nonetheless.

I have to admit that I never thought I’d consider West Virginia a prime vacation destination, but when I began searching for places less than three hours away, it quickly emerged as a strong candidate. And when we found a lovely little hotel, the deal was sealed. (Plus, there may have even been an outlet mall on the way, but shh! Andy doesn’t know the stop was premeditated.)

The lovely Hillbrook Inn. I've unfortunately become kind of a hotel snob as result of the five-star properties I stayed in for my last job at a travel company, but this is definitely up to par (and without the five-star prices). Highly recommended.

Like any good centuries-old mansion, it has nooks and crannies galore, including this tunnel that led to our room.

Tubing on the Shenandoah. "My kind of rafting," says Andy. "The kind where you sit around and do nothing."

Flea markets galore. No good finds, but plenty of good people watching.

Mmm. Fresh fruit.

We also explored Charles Town (founded by the lesser Washington brother), Harpers Ferry (meh… kind of reminded us of the Annapolis experience) and had a great dinner in the tiny dining room at our hotel (think high ceilings, dark wood, mismatched antiques, capacity of 15). Sadly our camera broke, so you don’t get to see any of that.

But you do get to see this, taken back at home with our other camera.

After two nights in jail (otherwise known as boarding), Abbey was thrilled to come home and reclaim her throne. She was also thrilled with her two new toys (otherwise known as apologies), both of which have been in her mouth ever since.

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it must be nice

August 18, 2010 in FS Life, French by Alex | 9 comments

This is Nice, France. Looks pretty nice, no? Well, I certainly think so. In fact, it’s what’s been getting me through my long grammar-filled days lately.

Let me explain.

Some language departments at FSI arrange two-week immersion trips for their students. A bunch of my A-100 colleagues who are a few months into their Spanish training are actually off studying in Buenos Aires at this very moment. (Life is rough, eh?)

The French department doesn’t arrange any such trips, but they will allow me to go on one provided I work out the details myself. And pay for it. And convince them it’ll help me. (Read: Complete lots of paperwork. This is the government, after all.)

There are also some other bureaucratic… challenges. (Andy refers to these as bureaucratic nightmares, but I’m working on this whole diplomacy thing.)

Because my French has to be at a certain level before I apply, and because I must apply a certain amount of time before my trip, and because my trip must be a certain length, and because I must return to FSI for a certain amount of time before my final French exam, well, by my calculations, there’s a narrow window of somewhere in the vicinity of a few hours that I’ll actually be eligible to apply. Hmm. And that’s assuming I remain on track.

But no worries. I’m convinced to make it work.

I have to. I need something to look forward to. Focusing on French every day without an end in sight is tiring. Barring an emergency, I can’t take any vacation time during my training. And this immersion trip — because I would be learning and studying after all — wouldn’t count as a vacation. Not that it would be like a vacation. I would be in class as many hours as I would be at FSI. Maybe more. And then, of course, I’d have to use my French the rest of the day too.

It wouldn’t be easy, but it’d be a nice change of pace, and I really do think it would help.

If I am lucky enough to get to do an immersion trip, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in Nice, and maybe in the end it wouldn’t be. There are immersion programs pretty much everywhere French is spoken: Senegal, Morocco, Monaco, Guadeloupe, Belgium, Switzerland, elsewhere in France… But, thus far, price and reputation make the Nice program the front-runner. (And yes, I realize that late fall isn’t exactly perfect timing to visit the south of France, but you take what you can get.)

Andy plans to come too. So who wants Abbey for two weeks in early November? Don’t all volunteer at once.

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french, french and more french

August 4, 2010 in FSI, French by Alex | 2 comments

Proof we’re taking this French stuff seriously:

  • Abbey now answers to Abi (said with a ridiculously exaggerated French accent, of course), and has also taken to wearing a beret (okay, okay — not true).
  • We’ve accidentally said merci or pardon to random strangers more times than we can count.
  • We speak to one another almost exclusively in French at home, using caveman-like sentences of course, but is that really so different from usual anyway?
  • Andy downloaded a Sherlock Holmes audiobook en Francais and now spends more hours a night doing “homework” than I’m sure he ever did in high school or college.
  • Alex has traded People for Paris Match. (Well, mostly. Paris March doesn’t cover The Bachelorette.)
  • Our idea of a wild night out is the French conversation group at a nearby coffee shop.
  • Our Facebook accounts have been set to French long enough that we’ve got the translations for “wall post” and “…is now friends with…” down pat. (Useful stuff, eh?)

Although we of course wish progress would come more quickly (Can’t we just be fluent already?), we’re actually doing pretty well. Our class shrunk to five people at the beginning of this week, so we’re getting more conversation practice than before. And we both have a good enough grasp on the grammar we’ve been taught that we’ve been moving ahead to more difficult stuff on our own. (If only there weren’t still like 1,343 tenses left to learn…)

It’s easy to push ourselves that extra mile when there’s so much at stake.

My motivation: my job depends on it.

Andy’s motivation: the millions that await him when he’s fluent enough to create a universal translator app for the iPhone, à la Star Trek. (Yeah, yeah. I know. But let’s let him have his dream.)

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beagles on a boat

July 29, 2010 in Abbey Q. Howley, French by Abbey | No comments

My owners tell me the word “beagle” comes from the French word “begueule,” which means “open throat” or “loudmouth.”

Ain’t that the truth.

So imagine what happens when you stick a bunch of us together on a boat…

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3 weeks down, 21 to go

July 22, 2010 in French by Alex | No comments

For the first two weeks of French, Andy and I were in different classes held at different times. Well, no more. Our two larger classes were rearranged at the beginning of this week into five smaller ones, and despite my pleas to the powers that be, we ended up in the same class. (Kidding. There were no pleas. No casual requests even.)

Truth be told, though, I was a little worried about how this all would go.  Would I get frustrated if Andy caught on more quickly than I did? Would we get sick of spending all day every day together? Would Abbey rip the carpet to shreds in retribution for being abandoned by both of us at once?

Much to my surprise, it’s actually turned out fine. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s turned out well. We’re pretty evenly stacked as French learners: I remember more vocabulary and grammar than Andy, but his pronunciation doesn’t draw our professor’s ire the way mine does. (Side note: I’ve made no progress in Operation Conquer the French R.)

I’ve even discovered some perks to sharing a class with Andy. Like, if I finish my Coke Zero, there’s another one there for me to steal.

As for Abbey, she’s been sleeping her way through our absence just like before.

So, all is well. Well, everything except the fact that we’re supposed to be speaking real French by the middle of December. (My end of training exam date is officially set for December 14.) I still don’t see how that’s going to happen…

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beagles don’t swim

July 6, 2010 in Abbey Q. Howley by Abbey | 4 comments

I guess some dogs like to swim.

I guess some dogs like to swim.

Me, I'm not so sure.

But I'll give it a try.

It got too deep!

Where'd you guys go?

No, don't push me! I don't like this!

This is not fun.

Can you see the fear in my eyes?

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the great car pursuit

July 5, 2010 in FS Life, Life in DC, Personal, Transportation by Andy | 5 comments

Much to my chagrin I found myself spending most of Saturday hunting for a 4×4 that we will eventually take to Benin. Here are some things that happened:

1. We arrived via our Zipcar at the first dealership — the one with our #1 choice car — to find a sign on the door that said, “Happy Fourth! I’ll be back Tuesday.”

2. On the road again, I had the following conversation with my wife:

Her: Why is the flag at Bob Evans at half mast?
Me: I’m not sure.
Her: Oh, is it because Jimmy Dean died? Jimmy Dean was the Bob Evans guy, right?
Me: Um, no. Bob Evans was the Bob Evans guy.

It was then that I realized this was going to be a long day.

3. We found a seemingly great car with good mileage and a low price. It was still under the original warranty too. But we had a bad feeling about it; we couldn’t figure out why.

When we asked the dealer if we could take it around the corner to get it checked by a mechanic, he stammered and made excuses. It was his busiest day. (We were the only customers the entire 30 minutes we were there.) The mechanic was probably booked. (He wasn’t; we called.)

When he finally reluctantly agreed, we asked to see the carfax report first. He disappeared into the back for quite some time before emerging with the report. Reading carefully, we noticed that it listed the car as black when it was actually silver. He couldn’t explain why.

We had driven nearly an hour to get there, but we walked out.

4. A few cars and a few hours later, we went back to look at the first car we saw that day and negotiated (diplomatically, of course) a deal. $2,400 down from the ask price — not to shabby, if I do say so myself.  However, when we were signing the paperwork I realized that instead of bringing our checkbook, I brought a book of deposit slips. Oops. Fortunately we were able to combine debit cards from our new and old bank accounts to take care of the bill. At least we’ll get rewards points for our trouble.

5. We got home in time to use our newfound mobility to take Abbey to a dog park with a creek (thanks David!) next to it. Abbey was less enthusiastic about it than we were. I’m sure she’ll have a blog post about it later.

6. Alex spent today using the car to run a variety of errands that she claims would have been nearly impossible on the bus. I’m not so sure Loehmann’s and Marshalls are exactly necessities, and I grimace thinking about all the miles she’ll be racking up “running errands” these next nine months. However, I plan to drive it to the running trail daily. Those miles don’t count.

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beagle summit

June 30, 2010 in Abbey Q. Howley, Life in DC by Abbey | 2 comments

I'm not in this picture -- not that you can probably tell.

Beagles came from near and far for a very important gathering at an Arlington dog park. The top agenda item: how to get rid of those pesky things called cats once and for all.

After a meet-and-greet session of howling, digging and sniffing, we got down to business. Discussions started off well. In fact, all 15 of us were close to a consensus — until a squirrel ran through the park. Needless to say, the remainder of our agenda was tabled.

Our talks will resume in a few weeks on a boat cruising along the Potomac River, where there will be no squirrels to distract us. Yes, there’s such thing as a canine cruise. It happens every Thursday all summer. (Why didn’t someone tell me about this sooner?)

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advice for a-100

June 20, 2010 in A-100 by Alex | 2 comments

I’m getting ready to head off to a welcome reception my class is hosting for the 154th A-100 class, who start on Monday. I’m jealous of them. It’s definitely an exciting and memorable five weeks. (And I can’t wait to live vicariously through their bid list!)

As I’ve watched this new class gear up for tomorrow (my class hosted an online discussion forum for them over the last few weeks), I can’t help but wonder: if my today self could have communicated with my March 28 self, what advice would I have passed back?

Well…

  • Participate — Attend as many happy hours, dinners, poker games, camping trips and other unofficial class activities as you can possibly manage — even if you’re usually a homebody (ahem, me). This is when you really get to know your classmates. It’s important.
  • Appreciate the order — A-100 is a well oiled machine. Enjoy it while it lasts.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask — If you don’t understand how something works, now is the time to learn. Everyone (from your guest speakers to your course coordinators) will be very receptive to questions from you now. Once you finish A-100, though, it will be harder to get responses to emails, phone calls and inquiries. You’ll have to figure out a lot of stuff on your own. So take advantage of the opportunity to ask as much as you can.
  • Actually, be a little afraid to ask – Don’t be that person in class who has a question after every lecture, especially a question that’s only really interesting to anyone who did graduate-level work in, say, underwater basketweaving, like you. Some questions are better asked one-on-one, after class.
  • Don’t over think bidding — When ordering the posts on your bid list into highs, mediums and lows, don’t worry about how your classmates are bidding. And don’t employ a complicated strategy that you’re certain could only result in you getting your #1 favorite post. Just be honest. If you really want to go somewhere, bid it high. If you’d be okay going somewhere, bid it medium. If you’d prefer not to go somewhere, bid it low.
  • Involve your family – You’re going to be spending your days meeting interesting new people and embarking on an exciting new career. Your loved ones, however, aren’t. They’re going to be figuring out where the grocery store is, having frustrating conversations with the moving company delivering your UAB and struggling to find things to do in a new town where they don’t know anyone. Remember that. Keep them in the loop about what you’re learning and doing, and involve them in those after-class activities as much as possible.

Abbey would also like to offer some advice to pets of the 154th:

Bid high on places accessible by car, or this horrible thing could happen to you too.

That’s all I’ve got.

What would others add?

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