Holy crap it's really happening. I have a healthy mix of relief and disbelief - relief because, well, holy crap it's really happening...and disbelief because I'll believe it when I step foot in my new apartment in Kuwait. I'm sitting in the airport now and there are still any number of things that could go wrong so I'm leaving space in my psyche to deal with that if necessary. I'm still going to let myself get a little excited, though, because it's H.A.P.P.E.N.I.N.G.
My seven-country tour ended at the beginning of May. It was a whirlwind, and I now have status with multiple airlines and a few hotel chains. I stayed in Oman for a total of 4 weeks, which was enough time to make it feel homey and for me to collect some great new friends. {Oman is an amazing place and everyone needs to go there - it will change your life. It's hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and I haven't even seen all of it yet.} After Oman I spent a week in Abu Dhabi helping my colleagues prep for the Secretary of Commerce Pritzker's visit. I talked to her for all of 8 seconds but she said she'd heard of me so it was totally worth it.
My flight from UAE to Casablanca, where I spent 2 1/2 days, is worth noting because the entire experience was so horrendous: (1) I got to the airport at 6am only to find that my flight had been reserved but not ticketed. (2) My bag was overweight (shocking) and Emirates has an exorbitant rate per extra kilo. (3) Emirates is also very particular about carryon baggage weight, and mine was more than double the max (is anyone surprised?) so they made me check that, too. {I'm not going to divulge how much I ended up spending in extra/overweight baggage fees, it's too embarrassing.} (4) After sprinting to the gate to barely make it onto the plane, I sat down to find the earphone jack completely missing from my personal entertainment system. Someone had apparently ripped it out of the seat. It's an 8 hour flight and I was really looking forward to watching at least two movies. #firstworldproblems. (5) They forgot my vegetarian meal. But I'll stop complaining because after Casablanca I got to go to Cairo...
I spent two weeks in Cairo and it was amazing as usual. Except for the part when I was working from the desk in the embassy that was supposed to be mine. I MAY have been fighting back tears for a few minutes when I sat down, but after that I was too busy to think about it. (Besides, I try to make it a general rule to not be the girl who cries at work. I mean honestly.) Work went really well, I collected a whole new crop of friends, and spent more quality time with family which is always a huge plus. I will say this about my relocation: I am grateful the lack of a "situation" in Kuwait allows me to travel in non-armored vehicles.
After Cairo I backtracked to Kuwait for a week, then headed to the tiny island country of Bahrain for two weeks where I collected more great people. And I also worked really hard. {Some folks tease me when they see my pictures and say "yeah, looks like you're working really hard." Would you rather see pictures of me in meetings and of my desk and of me in more meetings? Didn't think so.} After Bahrain it was back to Abu Dhabi for a week, and then Amman for 10 days. It was really nice to see TREES after spending so much time in all those sandy places. I didn't go to Petra or the Dead Sea because those deserve more time than I had, but I did get to catch up with an old friend, and I will absolutely be back.
I rounded out the adventure with a weekend in Muscat (see note above about Oman = amazing) and a few days in Dubai. The trip was fantastic and exhausting, and it turns out I got back and realized I missed DC. A lot. Which brings me to right now...
It took over two months once I got back to DC to get everything sorted out (various clearances, visa, pack out, etc.) but it's finally happening. I'm going to miss DC and everyone in it AND I am super excited to move into this next phase of my life. The limbo, the waiting, the uncertainty - it's all over. The limbo was my normal for so long that it's sort of strange to not have it anymore. Strange and awesome. Limbo sucks.
It's been almost four years since I decided this job was mine. FOUR YEARS. Talk about persistence/the epitome of being stubborn. Deep breaths, one thing at a time, everything is as it should be.
Kuwait, here I come!
{for visuals, please refer to the last 5 months of my Facebook feed - I'm about to board a plane...}
