PORTLAND REDISCOVERED

Almost three years to the day after I left Portland to begin this Foreign Service gig, I returned home to spend a bit over a month rediscovering this place I call home – and, most importantly, reconnecting with all the family and friends here who make this place home. 

Yep - this feels like home

You’ve all heard of the principle that if you wash your car, it will rain the next day?  Well, I have discovered the reverse principle:  If you buy a new raincoat, the sun will come out for the next month.  After a few cloudy, drizzly days at the start of our visit (and my purchase of a new raincoat), the skies cleared, and we have been treated to one of the most beautiful springs I can remember.  I knew that a visit to Portland in the spring would at least treat us to blooming bulbs and flowering trees, but the warm, dry days were an unexpected gift.  I wasted no time getting in some hikes around town and walks through lots of different neighborhoods to take it all in.  

Tulips make me happy.

Trillium was in full bloom on my first hike back in Portland.

There is a lot that hasn’t changed – the mountains are still spectacular, everything is still green, our favorite restaurants are still delicious, there are still food cart pods, and Portland is still as weird as ever.  But I see lots of changes from how I left things three years ago.  New buildings are going up, a lot of them, everywhere.  Traffic is constant.  Everything seems busier.  I don’t want to sound like the grumpy old “in my day” codger, but it’s tough not to reminisce about how things used to be. 

In the category of things that haven't changed: waterfalls...

...ice cream at Salt & Straw...

...and Portland keeping it weird.

In the category of things that are new, a ping pong bar.  I actually think the beer improves my game.

Part of the trick of planning “home leave” (as the State Department calls it), is figuring out where to stay and how to get around without a house or car during “homeless leave” (as I call it).  Fortunately, we have amazing family and friends who came to our rescue and offered us refuge during our time here.  Bonus #1: We got to stay in and explore lots of different neighborhoods.  Bonus #2: We got to dog-sit!

Our "brunch club" reunion.

Dog sittee #1: Gali.

Dog sittee #2: Maverick.

Spending several weeks here afforded us the opportunity to catch up with almost all of our family and friends here at one point or another.  We got to celebrate my mom's birthday and Mother's Day with her in person.  We were also able to visit with out-of-town friends who ventured up to Portland to see us.  We are so lucky to have found so many amazing and generous friends.  You all know who you are.

Happy birthday, MM!

The whole crew I used to work with at the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation.

Our visitors from Santa Cruz enjoying a cart pod dinner...

...and a hike at Mt. Tabor.

Andrew and Joe, keeping it weird AND hipster.

Of course, we didn’t spend all our time in Portland enjoying artisanal pour-over coffee, admiring the latest hipster beard styles, and perusing the shelves at indie book stores.  We also had lots to do to get ready for our upcoming move.  And Andrew was still working full-time at his job.  We had to rent a storage unit to hold all our accumulated stuff.  Except for the two suitcases we will carry with us, all that stuff will be packed up and shipped off in a couple days.  After that, we’ll have a final week to get in our last visits with all our favorite Portland people and places. 

Did I mention that we've eaten our way through Portland?  Exhibit A: Voodoo Donuts.

Exhibit B: Por Que No, because por que no?

Exhibit C:  Ruby Jewel.  That smile is courtesy of fluffernutter ice cream.

As I write this, it is raining here for the first time since the second or third day we were here.  The weather reports make it look like it will continue raining for the rest of our time here.  Not going to lie – I am kind of happy to see the clouds return and to know that they will be here when we head off to our next destination.  I know that as much as Portland may change, the clouds will always be here, and the rain will always keep things green.  I’ll look forward to rediscovering it all again next time.

SPRINGTIME IN DC

We arrived in DC in February for two months of training.  The first several weeks were cold – really cold – single-digit cold.  I had one snow day and one delayed start due to snow.  Coming from Belize this was a shock to the system.

No choice but to enjoy fancy cocktails at fancy DC hotels when it's 8 degrees (F) outside.

But over the last couple of weeks, spring has sprung!  The weather warmed up, I was able to walk to and from work each day, and the flowering bulbs and cherry trees put on quite a show.

The requisite photo of the Jefferson Memorial with cherry blossoms in full glory.

So many cherry trees!

Many of our friends from my orientation class were back in DC after wrapping up their first tours abroad too, as well as several of my Belize colleagues who also just finished their tours, so we were able to reconnect, share some to laughs… and a lot of meals and wine.  I should have brought stretchy pants!

I don't have any good shots of our group get-togethers, but I do have this one of more cherry blossoms.

And here's a shot of Ben Franklin at the Foreign Service Institute... with tulips!

My parents came to visit for a few days, and DC continued to impress.  They played tourist on their own while I was in class and Andrew was working on the weekdays.  But on the weekend, we were able to check out some of the museums together, and we visited Mount Vernon via a boat trip down the Potomac. 

My parents at Mount Vernon.

The Rose Family doing what we do best.

We visited Ford's Theater, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the National Portrait Gallery.  This was one of my favorites there.

Alas, all good things come to an end.  My training is completed, which in theory means I learned how to do my next job as a Political Officer in Zimbabwe.  (Of course, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you really learn how to do your job by actually doing it.  At least I didn’t have to try to learn a language this time!)  So our time in DC has come to an end for now too.  I’m writing this blog entry from the Dulles airport while we await our flight to Portland.

I also did some "training" for Africa while visiting the National Zoo.

One of the (many) perks of this job is that we get a few weeks of paid leave between each overseas post.  They call it “home leave” – I call it “homeless leave” since we will be surfing couches and pet-sitting our way around Portland for the next few weeks.  We had the option of taking this leave before my training in DC… but that would have meant being in Portland in February and March.  Not the best time to visit Portland unless you’re particularly fond of grey and rain.  This way, we’ll get to visit Portland in the spring, and I expect we’ll see even more flowering bulbs and trees.  Springtime in DC AND Portland – the best of both worlds!

HOME(ISH) AGAIN

As I write this, I am sitting in Washington DC (not quite home... but close), where the temperature this evening will dip into the teens during the latest polar vortex to hit the east coast.  Though it’s been less than a month since we left Belize, the heat and humidity are already a distant memory. 

After packing up and shipping off most of our stuff (except for the two suitcases each that we will now be living out of for the next several months), we spent our last week in Belize doing some of the things we loved most – having dinner parties with friends, dogsitting, and taking one last trip to the Belize Zoo to bid farewell to the tapirs, jaguars, and macaws.

 

Last visit to the tapirs and spider monkeys at the Belize Zoo.

My last day at Embassy Belmopan was February 8, and on February 9, we flew back to Washington DC where we’ll be for a couple of months while I do some training in advance of my next assignment in Zimbabwe.  We arrived at our apartment in Arlington, VA, and within 18 hours, we left again for a week-long training course in Shepherdstown, WV.  In case we had any disillusion as to whether we were still in the tropics, Day 1 of training started two hours late due to a snow delay.  

Some final scenes from Belize, including this random horse who was grazing in front of our house one day.  (Our Belize house is on the other side of that orange wall.)

And the main drag in Belmopan.

 

And our last glimpse of the jungle as we flew out of Belize City.

Goodbye, Caribbean Sea...

...and hello Arlington apartment!  A friend from my Foreign Service orientation class who is living in our same apartment building - in cahoots with Andrew - provided this stellar welcoming on our apartment door.

We returned to our Arlington apartment at the end of the training week, and within 18 hours, we left again – this time for a long weekend in New Orleans with several friends from my Foreign Service orientation class who have all recently finished their first assignments.  One of them is from New Orleans and her family is part of a “krewe” that participates in a Mardi Gras parade every year.  It seemed the perfect place for us to hold a reunion, celebrate the fact that we’d all survived our first tour, and blow off some steam.  It did not disappoint.  We returned to Arlington on February 18 and finally spent more than 24 consecutive hours in our apartment for the first time.

A jazz band playing for us at a restaurant in New Orleans.  This is apparently the only photo I took from that weekend.  That may be for the best...

Our Arlington apartment is more or less in the same neighborhood as where we spent about 6 months in 2016 before heading to Belize.  Despite the weather being at or below freezing most of the time we have been here, we’ve managed to venture out to explore our neighborhood a few times.  We have a Whole Foods right across the street!  And a Trader Joe’s about 2 blocks away!  Oh, the civilization!  After spending the last two years having to drive to at least 3-4 different stores to get our groceries, the ability to walk across the street and find wine, cheese, meat, and vegetables all in the same place is a true luxury. 

Our new digs.

And our new snowy view (during last week's snowstorm).  We're definitely not in Belize anymore.

We’ve already had our first visitor!  Wendy, my friend from college, came down from Connecticut to stay with us for the weekend, and Wendy and I had an amazing day playing tourists in DC.  The day was cold – but dry – so we put on our layers and ventured out.  We walked the length of the National Mall visiting many of the monuments, checking out several museums and other places of interest, and ending the day by meeting up with Andrew at one of our favorite restaurants in DC.  There were no lines anywhere, so we were able to just walk right in to the museums – and even got in on a tour of the Capitol without a reservation and without waiting for more than five minutes.  Word of advice: If you ever want to see DC without all the crowds, bring your long underwear and a coat, and come in early March.

An epic day playing tourist with Wendy.

And so now we have pretty much settled in to what will be home(ish) until we get back to Portland in mid-April.  Feels good – albeit cold – to be back.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Next Friday, my tour here in Belize will come to an end, and one week from today, we will head back to DC.  My assignment here lasted almost exactly two years.  Some days, it felt like 10 years.  But in the waning hours, I realize how quickly the time really has gone by.  In an effort to try to cram as many memories into our brains as possible, last month we had lots of get togethers with friends to remember how many amazing people we’ve met here, and we took one last hike in the jungle at the Sleeping Giant resort to remember just how beautiful this country can be.

View over the Sibun River from the lookout at Sleeping Giant

One of many dinners with friends.  Our friend Rob who had just left post was represented by a rum bottle with his face on it.  No one is forgotten.  

Of course, getting ready for a move back to the States and then on to Africa entailed a lot of household preparations, so January was also filled with lots of logistics.  Since Zimbabwe is a right-hand drive country, we had to sell our trusty Pathfinder.  I turned the keys over to the new owner – a locally employed embassy employee – yesterday.  We also found a new(-ish) car to buy in Zimbabwe.  We bought it from another embassy employee in Harare who will be leaving a week or so after we get there.  Good timing!

Goodbye 2004 Nissan.  Enjoy your retirement in Belize!

And hello 2008 Toyota waiting for us in Zimbabwe.  Can't say we don't have a type.

We also had to sort through all our stuff to see what gets sent to Zimbabwe, what goes back to Portland, and what just gets tossed out.  Our stuff all shipped out on Tuesday. 

So... much... stuff.

Oh yeah.  This is definitely making the move - our "ulee" game.  Sort of like corn hole.  Or, "polo hole" as I guess it's called in Belize.

Oh gosh.  This.  Is.  Happening.

Goodbye, worldly possessions!  I hope we meet again!

Since all of our worldly possessions – except for a couple suitcases each – are now in a container awaiting transport, we are living out of an embassy-supplied “welcome kit” that consists of some towels and sheets, a few pots and pans, and place settings for four.  No more big parties for us this week! 

Drinking wine from welcome kit coffee mugs?  Sure.  Necessity breeds invention.

A week from today, we’ll check into our corporate apartment in DC that will be “home” for a couple of months.  Then on to Portland where we’ll impose ourselves on family and friends for a month.  We haven’t totally figured out that plan yet.  At the end of each tour, we’re required – REQUIRED – to spend at least 20 days back in the U.S. to become “repatriated.”  They call it “home leave.”  We call it “homeless leave.” 

As we enter the final countdown here in Belize, a little piece of me will stay behind.  That little piece primarily consists of my patience and sanity, which were tested daily by U.S. citizens here for the past 14 months.  But there’s also a micro-portion of my heart that will stay here.  This was our first post, our first exposure to the Foreign Service life.  What a glorious adventure it has been so far.

OLD TRADITIONS, NEW TRADITIONS

Happy New Year everyone!  We’ve just wrapped up quite a month of celebrations down in Belize.  First off, we celebrated our 4^th wedding anniversary.  The traditional gift is flowers and fruit.  Andrew gave me a collage of photos we’ve taken of Belizean flowers (so creative!) and we enjoyed some wine with our dinner that evening.  Flowers AND fruit covered!  Good to carry on traditions.

Happy anniversary to us!

Heading into the holiday season, we attended all sorts of festivities.  We also hosted our second annual “White Tapir” gift exchange party.  We had about 30 people at our house to carry on that tradition.  And at work, we donned our ugly sweaters to celebrate the season.

Nothing says "It's Christmas" like tasteless clothing.

Leading into Christmas, we hadn’t planned on going anywhere or doing anything special.  But with just a few days warning, Christmas Eve was proclaimed a Federal holiday, and we wasted no time booking tickets back to Portland so we could celebrate Christmas with family and friends.  It was our first Christmas in Portland since 2015.  We were there for four nights, and managed to catch up with quite a few friends, including at a happy hour at the neighborhood watering hole.  And it was fun to celebrate some Christmas traditions with my parents that had been on hold for the past few years.

Our car's temp reading the week before Christmas.  So, yeah, let's head somewhere cold and rainy instead.

We weren't the only embassy folks heading out of town for Christmas.  We ran into a few others at the airport bar (of course).

We welcomed the new year with a progressive party on the embassy housing compound.  Five different houses hosted the evening festivities, with each featuring a particular cocktail and appetizer.  It was a great turnout and almost everyone who was in town attended.  Perhaps a new tradition has been born.

The first stop at the new year's eve progressive party.

Now we're getting into it.

The full cast of progressive partiers at the last stop just before midnight.

Of course, if the progressive party does become a new year’s tradition, we won’t be here to see it.  We’ll be departing Belize in five weeks.  Between now and then, I’ll be wrapping up work, packing up for our move, selling our car… and hoping the government is open for business again soon.  There are inherently a lot of unknowns in this line of work – What will my next job be like?  What will the people be like?  What will our house be like?  But now, Will I get paid? is also a great unknown.  I’m not among those who are furloughed - I'm still reporting to work.  But who knows if the folks who process our paychecks are working too.  The government shut down for a few days about this time last year too.  Apparently, and sadly (and embarrassingly), government shutdowns are also becoming a tradition.  I’ll hold out hope for a speedy – and reasonable – resolution.  

In the meantime, I wish you all the best in your new year’s resolutions as well, and all the best to you for a happy and healthy 2019.