Like Cogs Slowly Grinding Back Into Motion

Its been a quiet year in Arlington, our hometown. 

We've spent the past year settling into our current lives, and we've settled in quite comfortably.  We've spent precious little time or energy thinking or worrying about the next step.  We've simply focused on the current.  I decided sometime last year that all things related to the Move should wait until September.  We are scheduled to begin life in Caracas in December, and so September seems a logical point to begin planning.

We have reached the last week of August, which is also the last week of summer.  We're spending it at the pool.  We're staying up later than we ought to, because we're breaking back into the habit of waking to an alarm.  We're deliciously relaxed.  My To Do List for next week is silently growing while I enjoy these last few days with all of my girls surrounding me.

But yesterday, we did take one of our first steps of preparation.  Our family took a field trip down to the Main State Department building to apply for passports.  In our Virginia complacency, Sophia and I had both let our regular passports expire, so there was that to do.  But our travel to Venezuela will be as diplomats, which requires a diplomatic passport.  I believe this is partly to serve as solid identification of our diplomatic status in the country.  I believe it is also because our travel and customs rules are different when we travel as diplomats.  For instance, none of our luggage is to be inspected.  Our diplomatic visas mean that we carry our luggage straight through customs and are not subject to those laws.  We also get a shorter wait in the passport line, although I imagine that's more to do with different laws and questions than with keeping us from waiting.

So, our black passports are in process and our family will travel with 10 passports in hand when we move.  Other processes have begun, slowly as well.  Dave has been studying Spanish full-time at work since the beginning of July.  He is a good student, but feels that he is an average Spanish learner in his class.  Although he expects to pass in the 6 month allotted time-frame, he almost hopes to fail his test at the end of December.  You see, Venezuela has been rather snooty about handing out visas to their American diplomats.  No one has left on time for the past few months - most folks receive their visas after a few months delay.  Dave and I both like the classroom lifestyle that he enjoys right now, and he'd love to spend those extra few months studying Spanish.  More likely, he will pass his test on time but we will not move in December without visas.  We will likely be in Virginia a few months into the new year.

This causes some stress for our family.  We allotted a budget which allowed us to live comfortable in Virginia until December.  Those extra few months will be difficult.  We will need to cancel our lease with one month's notice, but we may move within a few weeks of receiving our visas and lose our security deposit.  Also, I'm unsure how to explain this to the girls.  Come December, we may not finish school with the knowledge of when we will move.  Possibly the girls will leave their classrooms in December without a visa, and it will arrive a few weeks later - in time for us to arrive in December.  A crazy month that would make - but it is what we are hoping for.

So, we plan for a December move.  And we begin that planning soon.  I plan half-heartedly, knowing that those plans will likely all be canceled for a later move - one I will not have the time to plan.  But I cannot complain too much.  I like life in Virginia.  And I like planning.

Said at the Smithsonian

Dave had the day off on Monday, because a truly fabulous storm knocked out power all over town over the weekend.  Luckily, our power stayed on and we enjoyed a 3-day weekend.  Happily, the Smithsonian also had power, and so our family explored the Freer Gallery of Art and some of the gardens surrounding it.  A few interesting tidbits from our kids:

Smithsonian lady:  Where are you from?
Lilly:  America.
Smithsonian lady (seeming rather thrown): Yes, but what part of America.
Lilly (without pause):  St. Louis

Dave and I were both surprised by her answer.

Later, in a Chinese garden modeled after the Temple of Heaven in Beijing:

Sophia:  That looks beautiful.  Can we go there?
Mommy:  We have been there, and it was beautiful.
Sophia:  Where is it?
Mommy:  Its in China.
Sophia:  Will we ever go to China again?
Mommy:  Probably.
Sophia:  Good.  I'd like to see what it looks like.
Mommy:  You mean this garden?
Sophia:  No, I mean China.  I'd like to see what it looks like.

We have passed some pretty significant milestones in this house.  Dave has finished his job with the Department of Human Rights, Democracy and Labor.  He has moved on to Spanish language training at the Foreign Service Institute.  We have lived at the same address for longer than 364 days - a first for our Sophia.  Annika has lived in the U.S. for over half of her life.  Lilly will very nearly miss that goal when we leave for Venezuela in December.

Enjoying Mundanity

Life has become much simpler over the past few weeks.  Dave finished his job in DRL, and is now spending his days at FSI - that's the Foreign Service Institute.  He's currently is class, learning how to process visas - that will be his job in Caracas.  At the end of the month, he will transfer into Spanish.  That will bring some stress back into his life, but will still keep his days to 8 hours.  Ah, it has been lovely.  And then last week, Sophia finished preschool.  And so ended the daily commute.  My life has become much more relaxed over the last few weeks, and at the onset of summer, things promise to become only more relaxing.  I haven't posted much lately, because life has become beautifully mundane.  That will certainly change as we begin ramping up for Caracas, with its lack of security and its political instability.  But for now, I'm enjoying the mundanity of life in Northern Virginia.

As part of that simple life, Sophia wrote me a story yesterday.  Saved here for posterity, and for your enjoyment:

Translated above in red, but also below:
    This is a Mommy and a kid.
    They are going to a party.
    The kid is shy, but the
    Mommy
    says "You are
    Pretty."  To Mommy  Love, Fia

Love the story, and the supportive mom.  Love that she spells party PRD.  And also love that she looked at a picture of a white woman and a black child and naturally imagined them as mother and child.

In the Right Place

Dave is in China right now.  He's staffing his Under Secretary - that's the head of the Bureau on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor within the Department of State.  I posted earlier that these two weeks in China are the pinnacle of his year working the China desk within this bureau.  That could not have become more true with the news this week.

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng rather impressively escaped house arrest and appeared in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing only days before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived for this big summit.  The news coverage has been exciting, with new bits of the story breaking every few hours over the past few days.  And I'm getting nothing more than random texts from Dave, who is right in the thick of it.

Again, I've got to admit that I'm pretty jealous.

And a little bummed.  Because Dave's supposed to get on a plane tomorrow morning and fly home to be with us.  Glad he's spending his time on such worthy endeavors.  But a little jealous of his time, too.

TCK

I like to indulge myself, thinking about how different my childhood was from the childhood of my own kids.  I suppose that's normal - my childhood was certainly different from that of my parents.  But I still find it striking how many parts of their young lives I will not be able to identify with.

As Third Culture Kids (TCKs), our kids fall into this psychological category of people who grew up outside of their passport country, away from their parents' homeland, and as foreigners in their resident state.  Add on the complications of moving every few years, and you can begin life as my children as well.

But don't worry - although there are some pretty typical psychological responses, there are also loads of benefits of this life.  And I'm meeting plenty of young adults (and older adults) who grew up abroad and are not only well-balanced but also pretty enjoyable.

This little video got me thinking about it:


So Where's Home? A Film About Third Culture Kid Identity from Adrian Bautista on Vimeo.

Culmination

After nearly 4 years living in China, Dave began working on China within a few weeks of his new job with the State Department.  Since last May, he has been working in the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor section with a focus on China.  He's enjoying the chance to focus on China more academically and politically, and certainly to think about their human rights issues.  He's becoming an Old China Hand.

He finishes the job in less than a month - which may disqualify him from eligibility as an Old China Hand; I assume Old is more than 5 years.  Anyway, he finishes this job in a few weeks, and will happily finish his work on a trip to China.  Dave leave this Sunday for 2 weeks in the middle kingdom.  He's busy preparing for the trip, and looking forward to his time there.  He'll catch up with his coworkers, and have a very different work day than he did while we lived there.

I'll admit that I'm a little jealous.  The girls are, too.  We're not really wishing we could relive so many Chinese experiences - I remember well the bad customer service, crazy driving, and people spitting on the sidewalks.  But we're all a bit reminiscent of our old lives.  Going back to China feels like going home.  I think that's why we're jealous.

Although, there are certainly things that I miss. 

I miss the food.  Chinese food is fabulous.  The stuff they sell on the streets is cheap, flavorful, and often healthy.  The stuff Wendy made was always amazing, so much healthier than what I cook, and so cheap - plus, I got to eat it with Wendy every day.  The restaurants were yummy - both the local Chinese places, and the world-class Western places.  The produce was big and fresh and cheap.  Grocery delivery was free.

I miss the lifestyle.  We lived in an urban city, and we really lived in the heart of it.  We walked whenever we could, and we metro-ed the rest of the time.  We did occasionally have a driver, but used him primarily for the school commute.  We walked to the grocery store and the markets, to the park with the carnival rides on weekends, and to the many restaurants in our neighborhood.

I miss the housekeeping.  Although I don't miss the cockroaches or the rats, the peeling paint or the dysfunctional heaters, the bad landlords and the squirrely agents, I do miss having a housekeeper.  Never washing my own dishes or folding my own laundry bought me so much time.  Someone wiping up daily meant that my bathroom mirror never got spitty and the floor never grew hair.

I miss the community.  I belonged to an amazing group of women who met weekly for Bible study.  Lilly went to an amazing preschool, with a small and lovely community surrounding it.  Lilly and Sophia attended a fabulous elementary school, with warm teachers and involved parents.  Wendy kept me company in our home every day, and we ate lunch together regularly.

I could go on, but I won't.  We have lived in this house for a few weeks shy of one year.  Its been a simple move and northern Virginia is lovely.  How funny that now that I've settled in America, I feel homesick for China.

Once Dave's trip is over, he has a few days off and then he goes back to school.  His schedule will change, and his hours should improve dramatically.  We're looking forward to a summer of Daddy home for dinner every night and evenings walks before bedtime.  And of leaving China behind for now, to draw our focus more keenly onto Venezuela.

Feeling Better?

I sat down this afternoon to post on a news story that I read earlier today.  A Costa Rican diplomat had been kidnapped in Caracas.  According to the Boston Globe, he was the fourth diplomat or diplo-family-member kidnapped in Caracas in the past 6 months.

But when I checked Google News this afternoon, the story had changed.  The top story was now from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and with a much better headline:  Diplomat Freed After Venezuela Kidnapping Ordeal.  The story says that he's back with his family just over a day after disappearing.  That's good news.  The story says that although the abductors demanded a ransom, they released him under police pressure and with no money paid.  That's good news.

And so I wonder - should this story make me feel safer about our next city, or should it make me feel nervous?