Testing, Shopping, and Celebrating

Well, it's been a busy few weeks.  Three main things have happened since my last update.  I tested in French; Mark and I went shopping at the mall; and we celebrated July 4th in Washington DC.

First, I took my interim language test at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in French.  My requirement for my next posting as FMO in Bamako, Mali is a Speaking 2 and Reading 2.  I'm happy to report that I achieved my 2/2!  Yay!  This means two things.  One is that I won't need to test again at the end of my French training since I've already reached my language requirement.  Which is good because while the test isn't necessarily difficult - it's anxiety-producing.  Who needs more anxiety in their lives - certainly not me!  It also means that I can take other training courses while I'm here at FSI.  That's nice because spending all day speaking French gets tiring.  Who knew?

Our next big adventure was to the mall - the shopping kind, not the National Mall (that's later).  We went to Tysons Corner Center.  I have to say that I haven't really been in a big, fancy mall for years.  Certainly not while I was in Charleston.  It must have been before I joined the Foreign Service.  At first I thought what a great opportunity to get in a little more good-old American consumerism before heading off to Africa.  That quickly wore out as we went from one store to another, each with a special July 4th sale going on.  How much does one need to dig through piles of - dare I say, Crap - with hundreds of others before one wears out?  I think we made it through four or five stores before we called it quits.  It was a bit of sensory overload.  I can only imagine how it will be after spending time in West Africa.  Will we enjoy it more - or less?  Mark did get a few new shirts, which was nice.

Finally, we got to spend July 4th - American Independence Day - in Washington DC.  Of all the holidays, I think July 4th is my favorite.  Other than Thanksgiving, it's our truly "American" holiday; it's in the summer; everyone is happy; and there are fireworks.  Mark and I went for a bike ride around the Mall.  We crossed from Arlington, VA into DC via the Memorial Bridge and there was security setup before we got to the bridge.  This meant that the bridge was closed to traffic - as was most of the Mall itself - which made it really fun to bike.  However, I think the security check points kept a lot of people away from the Mall during the day.  It was strangely empty, even during the July 4th parade.  For the fireworks, we went to Freedom Park in Rosslyn, which is a park created from an abandoned car overpass, which is a really nice touch in the condo canyon that is the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington.  All in all it was a fun day - even for a Tuesday.

Mark and I out on our bikes on the National Mall 

The Washington Monument and the reflecting pool from the Lincoln Memorial

Mark at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Here is a snippet of the fireworks courtesy of WETA public television

And one more.

So now we have just about six weeks until we leave for Bamako, Mali.  There's a lot still to be done, but I think we're just about ready to go.  At FSI I've met some people also heading to Bamako, even including my soon-to-be boss and our HR officer.  I've also met a few first-tour officers who were/are also in French and are excited about going to Bamako.  It should make for a fun tour.  Of course, I'm already starting to think about the next tour - I'll start bidding for it around this time next year.