Main Pakistan Main Rahta Hoon!!! - That’s Urdu for I’m living in Pakistan!

I got my #1 choice – Islamabad, Pakistan!  I am scheduled to depart here October 6th. Woohoo!

The flight from Washington is over 14 hours, so I am entitled to a rest stop.  The original itinerary they gave had me flying to Kuwait and then on to Islamabad with just a plane change. I went down to the travel office and said that I would like a rest stop. The travel tech asked, “Where do you want to stay”? I never thought I had a choice..  I thought I’d have to stay in whatever city I was scheduled to pass through.  So I said, “How about “London”? He said, “Sure, no problem. I found out I could also have stayed in Paris, Frankfurt, Istanbul, or Dubai, but London will be very nice.  I really love that city, and the rest will do me a lot of good after the long training.  He then booked me a night in a nice 4-star hotel, at government expense. Sweet!

I emailed my future office-mate and told her that I was flying in on Sunday.  She wrote back and said that Sunday is their only day off – so if I don’t mind would I please stay another night in London?  Oh yah!  That would be excellent!  I immediately called the travel office, changed my tickets, and booked another night in the hotel!  Sweet!

Now I still have OMS training here at FSI – plus the Foreign Affairs Counter Terrorism course.  Adding in some leave and I do not depart for Pakistan until October.