100 days until Ha Noi...

My name is Nicole Schirm and I am a lazy blogger. I am not sure if "lazy" is the most accurate. Perhaps I am the most creative at making up excuses NOT to blog. Regardless; I am recommitted to blogging after a swift kick in the pants from my favorite sibling(shoutout to my #1 fan JSwoll!)

We have 100 days until we leave for Viet Nam. There is a part of me that is jumping up and down and one part of me that wants to puke. This is normal. My favorite professor Meredith Alexander would always say to us "If you are scared and excited; you are in the perfect place." Therefore, here we are. Perhaps it's just me, my partner in crime is quite pumped.

Part of me wants to recap the last 6 months in a blog entry, but then again; most of you know what has been happening via the book of faces, so I'll start with the happenings of the last month.

We recently received our housing assignment. In Denver we shared a 400 square foot studio apartment(yes, we were newlyweds); in NoVA we upgraded to an 800ft one bedroom with a balcony overlooking a cemetery(our neighbors are so quiet!); and now we are preparing to move to a FIFTEEN HUNDRED square foot 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, 2 balcony apartment overlooking a lake in the middle of Ha Noi. Lucky for us, the yoga teacher/Public Diplomacy coned FSO couple who we have been chatting with live in the exact apartment we will be moving into and the yogini sent me pictures and I wake up every morning pinching myself that our apartment will be so nice.

I know what you're thinking "You diplomats are SO spoiled!" Haha! I'd like you to say that to the hundreds of people living in our current apartment complex who have been without power for over 60 hours. Somehow, the people across the street and the shopping center behind us has power but we are still one of the 161K people in NoVa without power. Apparently 832K people have been serviced already. Saturday night we had dinner with another diplomat couple--we sat on their balcony and drank a nice sauv blanc paired with peanut butter & jelly. We're so spoiled, I know. The best part of it all is we are in high spirits and have been laughing a lot. They say we will have power by friday at the latest. Chris's workplace is closed today but mine is across the moat in Georgetown so I'll be teaching this afternoon.  

I suppose this is just preparing us to live overseas....

In our preparation to move across the world, we have compiled a list of all of the things we need before we move, the list is almost 200 items! Since Ha Noi is considered "hardship"--mostly because US goods are not accessible--we are preparing ourselves to purchase a lot of toilet paper, ranch packets, peanut butter and wine and much more things. The importance is not in that order:)

Chris has been studying Vietnamese language and culture full time since February and I begin my training on July 16th! That is providing the State Department reopens by then. I am sure it will, and I am looking forward to immersing myself in Vietnamese. I love going to FSI, it reminds me of college. Only without the binge drinking and there is high security to get on campus. 

That's all for now, I will be blogging again soon, until then, this is Nicole Schirm, former lazy blogger rehabilitated, signing off from Panera Bread; the closest place with power and food and AC!