Back in November, Misha and I, along with my mother and sisters, took an off-season trip to Greece. Keeping with the tradition of this blog, I will eschew a day by day breakdown of our vacation and instead recount a few anecdotes and highlights. An aspiring travel writer I am not. Even if I were, it’s a little late in the blogging game to be offering advice on what to do in Athens and Santorini.
Misha and I took advantage of the September holiday season in Israel to skip town for a week and head to Germany. Rather than return to Bavaria, this time we spent two days each at the beginning and end of our trip in Berlin with two days in Saxony sandwiched in the middle. The food was delicious, the weather warm and sunny, the trip a great success.
After several false starts due to ever-changing travel restrictions, Misha and I finally settled on an August vacation destination: Austria. We stayed at an Airbnb in a quiet little town near Krems an der Donau for two nights. Then, it was on to Vienna.
Last fall, I wrote a blog about my first job as a family member in the State Department. I described some of my duties as ESTH Assistant and a bit about our work. I also described my official role of Roving Administrative Assistant and how this role involves being plugged into different openings around the embassy as needed. I held the ESTH position while someone waited for a security clearance, so once that clearance came through I was freed up for another role. Cue my second assignment: Office Management Specialist (OMS).
Just like back home, American FSO's in Israel enjoyed an extra day off for the holiday. Rather than celebrate it on the beach in Tel Aviv, a friend and I decided to take advantage of the loosened travel restrictions and fly to Germany for the long weekend. One of the things we've missed out on most with Covid restrictions is cheap travel around Europe and the Mediterranean, so we weren't going to let this opportunity pass us by.
I doubt many people out there read these posts without also following one of our social media accounts, but if you are one of those people, sorry for keeping you in suspense. We found out only two weeks after submitting our bid list that our second destination with the State Department will be Guatemala City, which just so happened to be our top choice.
After nearly 14 months in Israel, it's officially time to start looking ahead to our next post. Â In State Department lingo, this process is called "bidding." Â I've mentioned the term "bidding" in several previous posts and in many conversations with friends and family. Â When using the term in conversation, I'm almost always met with confusion. Hopefully, I can clear up some of the that here.
The main reason we haven't posted in a few months is because there hasn't been much to post about. All we do is work or relax around the apartment these days. There are other factors as well, such as colder weather and lockdown protocols, but we've reduced ourselves to working stiffs who use the weekends to watch Cobra Kai or the latest episode of The Stand.
After being unemployed for seven months, I'm finally back to work. With an office job, no less. No more showing up to work in shorts and beer shirts to throw beer kegs around for 8 hours. Don't get me wrong, I tried to work in the beer industry here, but COVID has severely limited job opportunities. Instead, I have an office with a computer, a work phone, and (eventually) a view.
When we first moved to Tel Aviv, I wrote a blog about my first impressions of the city. Six months later, I've had time to explore the city, interact with locals, and notice trends both interesting and bizarre. In this post, I'd like to mention a few things people traveling to Tel Aviv should know in addition to other random observations I've made.
Beer and Diplomacy 
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