Training Update and Other Stuff

I just realized it's been three weeks since my last posting.  Time flies!  

My cohort of new financial management officers (FMOs) and I started our management trade craft training (MTT) at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) on August 3, 2015.  I have a great group of new FMO compatriots (six of us, total) and look forward to calling them all friends and colleagues.  

Six FMOs were hired in July and all six of us will be posted domestically for our first assignments.  Three of us (myself, included) are going to Charleston, SC to work in the Office of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services (CGFS).  The other three are staying in Washington, DC and will work in the Office of Budget and Planning (BP).  Don't worry, we've been assured that we'll go overseas for our second assignments.

We've had instruction in fun topics such as:

• Appropriation Law
• Accounting*
• Budgeting
• Working with ICASS (International Cooperative Administrative Shared Services)
• Vouchering and Certifying
• The Federal Reserve System
• General Management
• Management Controls
• Embassy Week**
• Cashiering Operations
• And tons of other stuff still to come

It's been a lot of information, but generally fun.  Although, if I never see another PowerPoint presentation I'll be a happy man***!

I went back home for Labor Day weekend and got to hang out with Mark and Cosmo.  That was great!  I also got to pull together all of the things that I want shipped down to Charleston.  That part was sad.  I realized that the house I've spent nearly 15 years in, the home that Mark and I have made together (along with Jojo, Sydney, and Sonya as well as Cosmo), won't really be my home anymore.  Sure, I'll be back from time to time -- I'm planning Thanksgiving travel back home now -- but I won't really "live" in that house anymore.  When we do go overseas, I don't know if we'll keep the house and rent it or if we'll sell it and move on.  Either way, it's sad to say goodbye to it.

Mark with most of my stuff

OK, before I get too lacrimose...Last weekend I traveled to Charleston.  It was my first time there and I was pleasantly surprised.  It's a charming city.  I spent all day Saturday apartment hunting -- looking at 10 places.  I had decided on the downtown area and I'm glad I did.  It's busy and lively with locals, tourists, and students all day and through much of the night.  It's also fairly compact which makes walking and biking really easy.

Here's a sampling of places I looked at:

Blah!

Nice kitchen upgrade!

Great balcony...

...overlooking the pool (full of college kids in the summer)

Charming old building

With a tiny kitchen and attached bathroom

Gorgeous studio...but that's all the space you get.

Nice place on a quiet dead-end street.

Not afraid of color!

I so wanted to like this place...

There was a "Wow" factor upon entering (sorry for the blurry pic)

But a purple, bead board kitchen with dirty linoleum?

And this??  Uh-uh!

Great neighborhood of nice (pricey) houses

Good space, but with no w/d and no parking and the most expensive...I think not.

Pretty much the range from older to newer, clean to dirty (yes, that is a dead roach in one picture), large to small, good neighborhoods to "not so good" neighborhoods.

I chose this one, which, of course, turned out to be the first place I looked at on Saturday morning:

Upper floor, two bedroom apartment on a quiet, narrow street in the Elliotborough neighborhood of downtown Charleston. If you know Charleston, it's the area roughly bounded by Ashley Ave to the West, King Street to the East, Cannon Street to the South, and the "Crosstown" to the North.  It's a cute little area of older homes, many of which have been renovated fairly recently.  It's a nice mix of old-timers, young professionals, and some students from the Medical University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston.  There are a lot of small restaurants, bars, and cafes close by.  It will be easy to drive to work and easy to walk around and bike to further points in downtown or Mt. Pleasant, West Ashley, or even Folly Beach (maybe).

More pics:

Front entrance.

Living Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Guest bedroom or office

My bedroom

Exclusive-use side porch!

And, at the end of the street is the Elliotborough Community Garden...

I've only got two more weeks of training, then I'll move down and start working.  The good news is that the State Department is shipping all of my furniture and things (called HHE or house hold effects).  Mark is driving the car down to me in Arlington and then we'll continue on to Charleston.  I'll only need to worry about what I'll need with me for a week or two before my HHE arrives.  I'm also getting excited about decorating and have started a WayFair board here if anyone's interested.

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*Not really anything like the accounting courses I just took in my MSA program.  Really should be called "Accounting".

**A four-day week of case studies where us FMOs formed embassy teams with human resource officers (HROs) and general service officers (GSOs) and management officers (MOs) who are also in their training classes at the same time as us.

***This will not happen!