Where we drink from a firehose and listen to the rain

It would be a lovely Saturday afternoon in Washington, DC today with people to meet, sights to see. I saw "would be" because it's currently raining and from the water pooling in the drain spout of the floor of my balcony, I have no desire to test just how sturdy my $1 umbrella from Hong Kong will fare here. But of course this gives me the lovely opportunity to sit down and reflect on the madness of finishing my first A-100 week over a cup of tea and a Kinder Happy Hippo.

This last week has been an inspiring, challenging, breathtaking (and I don't mean just the view from the upper floors of Main State) trip that had me questioning more than once "what am I doing here" and "how in the world do I expect to compare with such brilliant and amazing people?" I've had the opportunity to meet a variety of bureaus and people of all ranks, statuses, and positions. You learn fairly quickly the hierarchal and pseudo military type of attention paid to people both within and without the department. You also learn (often to my own disbelief) how much the department does with the relatively tiny funding it receives compared to DOD. My classmates consists of such diversity both in their backgrounds and the experience they bring to the table. I can honestly say I've never been both this excited nor this challenged to work with them as colleagues.

                                                         Sunrises don't get old....right?

Living here without a car has been doable if not a quick lesson in how to ignore the pain of walking a mile in work shoes. I haven't had the chance to take buses yet but State and FSI have convenient shuttles to certain stops and for the rest the metro has sufficed. The metro stop is not far from me and I have the blessed relief of often being able to find people who live near me to tag along with.

Check out this lovely GWU hippo as we walked home one night. 

Happy hours and get togethers after work are an excellent way to get to know people, hear their inspirations and stories, and bond. I highly recommend PCS housing if you don't have the constraints of children (and perhaps even if you do. Falls Church Oakwood apparently has its own stories to tell about that!) Something about a long day (we often start our day around 7 or 8 and by the time you get home about 6, you're pretty pooped) correlates so well with the need to just let out steam with people who understand just what you're going through. As one speaker said, "FSO will often find that coming home, only other FSO want to listen to your stories for more than 10 minutes."

 Hey...is that what I think it is...?

Coffee on the other hand has gone a little nuts and decided to help support the US economy by buying packages left and right online for me. I've so far received pillows, sheets, a rolly shopping cart for my trek to the market and this lovely Nespresso Latissima+ which apparently is the Apple equivalent in the world of semi-instant coffee making. It's taken me a few tries but I have figured out how to do just frothy steamed milk for a lovely milk tea but the coffee capsules are actually quite good as well. I'm not sure how I feel about him spending the equivalent of a Playstation 4 on a coffee maker but he was insistent that I have excellent caffeine intake in the morning. At least it's pretty and small compared to my monstrosity (but well loved) Vitamix blender. And well, I have to admit the cappuccinos do taste quite good. 

Brunch at home.