Our First TDY

Well, it's official! We have survived our first TDY.  You foreign service veterans are laughing so hard right now, I know.  But it was a big deal for Erik and me. We have never, in 13 years of marriage, been separated for 2 weeks, much less, half the globe apart.  It was a wonderful experience for Erik and to be honest, not too bad for me.  We both had some learning experiences, and some moments when we realized we could do more than we thought we could.  I call that success.

Erik left on October 10 at night, flew all night and landed in Dubai on Sunday morning.  After a four hour layover, it was back on the plane for Bishkek.  Bishkek was a learning experience for him.  The main language spoken there is Russian.  I'm not sure if you knew, but Erik doesn't speak Russian.  The work experience was a good one, however, the souvenir he got from that trip was the crud.  Crud paired with jet lag... not a good combination, but he powered through..  After Bishkek was a 24 hour layover in Dubai. That was the highlight of the trip. The Taj hotel in Dubai is wonderful and offers a great view of Burj Khalifa   which, for this architect, was a major item checked off the bucket list! 

After Dubai was Jakarta. This leg of the trip he met up with a fellow classmate from the 138th and they were trained for the job when you are overseas. For Erik, this made the job not seem so elusive. It also provided him the opportunity to meet some of the contractors on the site. It was a great learning experience. Erik was impressed by the organization and the security on site. 

After Jakarta was a 24 hour layover in Tokyo. It was enjoyable but by that point, he was ready to be home. By his arrive in Dulles, he'd literally flown around the world. It was the first time he had had to apply and provide visas, go through customs during a layover, try to buy over the counter cold medicine in a non English speaking country and he did it all like a champ.  

On the home front:

The kids and I kept busy. It was fall, so many things to do during that time of year and we pretty much stayed busy. Nights were tough, I missed him. It was two weeks! But we did great and the time difference worked to our advantage. We talked before he went to bed which was in the morning for us. The kids made him a welcome home sign and we all breathed a sigh of relief when his feet hit US soil! Here are some pictures of our adventures while Dad was away.