Say Cheese!!!

Well lots has happened since my last blog. We celebrated flag day last week. This is a ceremony where everyone is presented with the flag of the country where they will spend their first assignment. Luckily they tell you what the flag is before your name is called or you may not know where the flag is from!! I have to say it is not as exciting when you know where you are going. As most of you know I will be going to the Hague in the Netherlands. When I was presented with my list (list of one!) you could have knocked me over with a feather, I would have thought I had a better chance to go to Toronto then to Europe. I have to admit I was a little disappointed at first-I was hoping for a country that didn't have a McDonalds, but I have given it much thought and how can you be disappointed in a country that has cities named for cheese? Gotta love being able to stop off in Gouda on the way home from work.

Last Friday was our swearing in at "Main State" Oklahoma was well represented with three Oklahoma friends. Ambassador John D. Negroponte was our guest speaker and swore all of us in-I must say I was a little teary eyed and I am not ashamed to admit it. This week I have been in security training will have medical training tomorrow and start HR training on Feb. 25th.

I am very excited about my trip to NYC. I have made reservations for a massage Saturday night and for a pedicure on Sunday morning at Bliss spa (the spa is in my hotel). My reasoning behind this is now I get to go the sauna, steam room and (this was the point that solidified my decision) and BROWNIE bar both days. I also have tickets to the Butterfly conservatory at the American Museum for Natural History (unfortunately no brownie bar there).

I hope everyone has now located the Hague on the map and is making plans to come visit over the next two years!!!

All is Well!!!

I have managed to survive into week 3 of our training. I will begin my Human Resources training on Feb. 25th which will last 7 weeks. Next week will be an exciting week. We have flag day on Tuesday, this is the ceremony in which we will be given the flag to represent the country that we will be starting our career in. The big deal is now making sure you know what the flags from your list look like (of course since I have one choice on my list it SHOULD be rather easy). On Friday we have our final swearing in. So that means I have to be on my best behavior twice this week. Our past two weeks have consisted of a team building exercise, taking the modern language aptitude test (don't even ask.....), choosing our insurance (it was not easy with a choice of 538 plans) and a day discussing culture. One of the big stresses was that they moved our name plates around after class on Friday, this meant mass confusion on Monday (it also meant two new people I had to be nice to!). The big excitement was that on Friday when we were discussing crisis management an unexploded ordinance from WWII was found on the grounds when they were doing construction. This meant that we were evactuated and got to go home at 12:00!

The first two weeks the main excitement were evening excursions to Trader Joe's (two within driving distance) and Target (two within driving distance). I kept thinking that I had heard there was more to do in DC than Target and Trader Joe's so this weekend 3 of us headed down into DC to expand our horizons. We went to the National Portrait Musuem, the Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and then on to the Natural History Museum! I saw the Hope Diamond-which I think means man I hope I get a Diamond that looks like that some day!!

I am going to New York City for President's Day weekend (surely they have Target and Trader Joe's!) to go to some museums, have some spa time and visit the mecca that is Tiffany's.

More this week after Flag Day!