One caveat of the Foreign Service life is you’re faced with a rotating cast of characters at all times. No one is permanent here and tours end all the time.
Summer is heavy transfer season. It started in May and will continue through August. In our year here we managed to make friends with some amazing people. And a good amount of them are leaving us this summer.
When your friends transfer odd things happen. You get sad of course, but know we will all pass through DC at some point and see each other again. You go to multiple going away parties in one week. You eat at restaurants every night so they can experience their favorites one more time.
You buy their stuff. Our household goods are now peppered with our friends’ items. An inversion table, a wine rack, and a blue lattice rug. It’s completely normal to hoard your friends’ stuff right? Yeah, I know, I’m weird.
You also about double your consumables.
We’re about to hit our one year mark which in turn entitles us to a second consumables order if we’d like. If you had asked me two months ago “are you planning to do a second order?” my answer would have been an immediate “YES FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS!”
Now, after our very generous friends gifted or sold us their remaining consumables – and I’m talking about good stuff like black beans and quinoa and brownie mixes and tequila – I’m not feeling pressured to do another order. Sure it’s annoying to pouch in dog food and cat food and cat litter and good paper towels but it’s not the worst thing in the world.
Neither is your friends leaving post. It’s sad, and It’s making me feel like I have to start all over again, but at the end of the day, post isn’t home. We will all make it home at some point.
And when we do, no wine bar is safe.
And you’ll be home next month where you can enjoy so many things—how exciting.