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.
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.
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.
A few weeks back, an electrical fire in our building caused smoke to flood the hallways and led to our rushed evacuation. I was only minutes away from finishing a batch of beer I was brewing, but abandoned that project as Misha tried to see where the sirens were coming from. A message from our... Continue Reading →
What a whirlwind the last year has been. It feels like only yesterday Misha got the call to join the Foreign Service. It's crazy to think that only a year ago Misha was going through A-100 in DC while I was planning my Massachusetts exit strategy.
The most exciting and nerve-racking day of this whole process was Flag Day. It's not even close. Following the events in the post "Now What?!", we went through a bidding process to determine what country we would be assigned to. We can only share general details, but the list of potential posts was slightly longer... Continue Reading →
By the time Misha got the call about the Foreign Service, we had been dating for three years. We had discussed marriage on several occasions, but didn't think it was an expenditure we would be able to afford for some time. Misha is a big proponent of the FIRE movement, which means Financial Independence, Retire Early. Having a big wedding complete with a hashtag was never part of our plans, but I still wanted to do something to celebrate our love in front of our families. Balancing these factors would take a lot of effort, so it was a conversation we decided to floor until it made a little more sense. The Foreign Service life changed all that.
Woohoo! Misha is joining the Foreign Service and I'm going with her! Deep breaths. Okay… now what? Once the excitement calmed down and we came to terms with reality, we realized we had a lot of work to do. I worked as a Beer Buyer and Marketing Manager for a craft beer and wine shop in Needham, MA, so we were in the midst of the busiest season of the year. UTEC, like most NGO's, was perennially over-worked and under-staffed. Misha was the Direct of Evaluation and Impact, so she had a ton of responsibility, and often had to take on tasks that fell far outside of her job description… and far outside normal working hours. So, on top of already being overloaded at our jobs, we were facing a major transition.
Beer and Diplomacy 
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