Onward to Charleston!

I've been in Charleston, SC for two weeks now, so I guess it's time for an update.  I finished up training on Friday, October 2.  BTW -- a big "Thank You" to Congress for not shutting down the government.  Our last day began and ended at Main State.  There is not one, but two gift shops in the basement of Main State and of course I visited both of them and bought myself yet another lanyard for my badge.  That brings my count up to seven, not including one that I bought at the gift shop of "The Agency".

Mark drove down to Arlington on Saturday so that I can have the car with me in Charleston.  Not much public transportation available in Charleston.  We packed up and headed out bright and early on Sunday, October 4.  Well, bright isn't the right word -- more like gray and ominous.  You may have heard about some rains in South Carolina that weekend.  Yep, that's the weekend we drove down.  It wasn't too bad until we got just past Florence, SC. That's where I-95 was shut down.  Long story short...we ended up staying is one of the less clean Day's Inn that I've been to.  Granted, I haven't stayed in a lot of Day's Inns; I certainly hope the others out there are nicer than what we stayed in.  However, it was dry and it kept us off the flooded roads at night.

Good bye wonderful wall of windows in Rosslyn

Sunday morning with Mark

Day's Inn at the interchange of I-95 (closed) and SC Rte 378 (closed)

Monday morning we were able to route ourselves toward Columbia, SC and then back down to Charleston.  Luckily, my new neighborhood and apartment were dry and not damaged by the flooding.

Mark flew back to Boston and I started work on Tuesday.  Standard new-job-first-week stuff.  My HHE arrived on Friday of that week so I spent four days (the following Monday was Columbus Day) cleaning, unpacking, assembling, and arranging.  Another short work week where I actually felt productive.  The people I'm working with are all very nice and quite excited to have new foreign service officers joining them.  The three of us are rotating through different areas of the Global Financial Services Center in Charleston, so it will be a great opportunity to meet people and see all the behind-the-scenes processes before heading overseas at the end of this two-year tour.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some work travel opportunities (called TDY in State lingo) while I'm in Charleston.

I'm getting my place all settled now, just need to finish up some little things like hanging shelves and art (I'm hoping to find some nice pieces while I'm here).  Here are some pics of my progress to-date:

Some of my flags on the side porch

The Living Room is coming along...

So is the bedroom...

New mattress (it's wonderful) and assembled the bed myself (I still need to finish the six drawers that go in it, though).

Got some art hung up...

And some art up in here...

Some coat hooks -- just in case.

And most important:  patio furniture!

Yesterday was gorgeous!  One of my FMO colleagues and his wife came over and we walked up to the Fall Greek Festival at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.  It was fun and I finally tried Retsina (which, surprisingly, wasn't half bad).  Good food, too!

A little entertainment...

 

The Church...outside

The Church...inside

Pew for 1, no waiting...

I bought an "anti-evil-eye" disc.  We saw them all over Istanbul, but the Greeks use them too.  I'll hang it over my front door...just in case.

To top off my week, my friends Jamie and Clinton who moved to Los Angeles this year sent me this...

From their own tree (the lemons, not the dryer sheets).  

I'd like to send them something from Charleston -- but I don't think they would appreciate a box of Palmetto bugs.