Now that it's sinking in....

OK, so we're off to Manila. Our mindset has totally shifted and we have a lot of reading to do, talking to those who have been to or are from the Philippines, and generally exploring our options for housing, schools and travel.

A few perks right off the bat. No malaria drugs (unless we travel far outside the city)! Woohoo! The Philippines are a series of islands so.. beaches! Snorkeling! Scuba Diving! Beaches! Warmth! Beaches! On our way to post, we'll have three days in Honolulu for some last minute training. I don't know if we'll be able to cope with that :) And midway through our tour we have an R&R scheduled. Sadly, the point is Sydney, Australia. Did I say sadly? I'm sorry, that was supposed to be Woohoo!

More to come as we learn the ups and downs of our new home.

And the country is....

...represented by this flag! In March 2003, I'll be the new vice consul in the capital of this country.

It was very much a surprise to us, but we're excited about it. Now we have to read about this place, and we have a ton of stuff to do.

Flag Day Coming!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is Flag Day. That's when we get a little flag of the country we're going to. Everyone's pretty nervous about it. Even worse, we're spending the morning slogging around the muddy, snowy Mount Vernon in order to "take our mind off" it. Right.

Tomorrow it'll be a little more real. We'll know where we're going and when, so we can start thinking about what to buy, projects to finish before we leave, renting out the house..

There are a couple of contests among the class. One is who gets their lowest-most bid. Most of the class kicked in two dollars, so the lucky "winner" gets the pot. That's the pity pot.

Another is more of a March Madness sort of thing, where we guess where each person is going to. Whoever gets the most right wins. The best strategy for this, I think, is to throw darts. The same way the State Department chooses.

Stay tuned.. we're just as interested as you are to see where this takes us.