So this Friday at 1 am, I'm scheduled to be picked up by an embassy car (usually a large, white, extremely conspicuous Chevy Suburban with red diplomatic license plates), and taken to Almaty airport. Thus will start a 30+ hour re-entry journey that will put me, inshallah, in front of a bowl of steaming nabeyaki udon with the Fam(ily) at our favorite Japanese noodle place in San Diego. ["Special! Today only - Shrimp Crunchy Roll, only $4.95!!!!!"]
If everything goes according to plan, I won't be back in Kazakhstan until about February 20, 2012. If that seems like a long time, it is -- Home Leave is one of the secret gifts of the foreign service. Every foreign service officer, by law (if you can believe it) is required to take home leave in between each overseas assignment. I think it has something to do with reminding American diplomats which country they represent when they're doing their jobs (unlike the famous George Kennan, the American diplomat who authored our "containment" strategy against the Soviets, who was a consummate American diplomat but who basically hated Americans and always tried to avoid being in the US).
Home leave is accrued as follows: for every two-year tour, you get 6 weeks of home leave. So technically, after I finished with Pakistan back in July, I was supposed to take about a month of home leave (pro-rated, since I was there for only about 1.5 years). In order to sync-up with Amita's contract end date (December 2011), I deferred my home leave until...this Friday. In addition to finally getting back on schedule with my wife, this has the added benefit of letting me accrue a bit more home leave in the previous six months, so that now I'll have about 5 weeks of home leave. Toss in travel time, holidays (there a bunch between now and Feb), consultations in DC and what not, and that takes us to February. Then my Agency signed me up for some sort of leadership course in Virginia Feb 12-19, and that's how I ended-up with a Dec. 23, 2011 - Feb. 20, 2012 span.
Unfortunately, our blogger account seems to have used up almost all of our allotted memory (I think Miho's awesome photo expose is to blame), so this posting consists mostly of boring text. But what if I give it a splash of color? Are you more likely to read further? Is there an emoticon for an insecure author?
Anyway, the actual point of this posting is this: looking at home leave gives me the opportunity to reflect on all that's happened these past few months. The separation from Amita has been hard, and the emotional frustration of being apart has been compounded by the logistical
nightmare of having our stuff - furniture, papers, clothes, etc, thousands of pounds of it - scattered all over the place, in Islamabad, Almaty, storage units in the States, etc..Happily, being together for more than a month in the US, before heading back overseas, will give us a chance to get our affairs (basically: stuff + schedule) in order.
(map of where we and all our crap is)
So what am I thinking about, as I look forward to two months of relaxation, catching up with family and friends, and good good eating? Well, there's been the somewhat abrupt shift from life in Pakistan(Muslim country where everybody wants to kill us, haha) to life in Kazakhstan (Muslim country where everyone wants to wear mini skirts, high heels and carry iPhones). There's been the transition to a new job...I have alot more management duties here than I did in Pakistan. And, of course, the idea of finally being in the same city as my wife -- since we got married, we've been apart almost as much as we've been together! I hope Amita likes it here!!!
The view just outside of Almaty...
OK, that's all for me. I hope to see everyone in just a few short days!!!!
