The DipNotes

Ok, I just about completed a wonderful 10 days with my daughter who is a student at the University of New Mexico.   Tomorrow I head to Tokyo for a night before continuing on to Singapore.

New Mexico is a fantastic “enchanted” state, not only for the wonderful weather and landscape, but also for the food which is a wonderful mix of Mexican and Native American.  When I am back overseas I am so happy for mail-order so I can cook up these authentic dishes no matter where I am living.  I’ll include a few links to my favorite online food mail-order sites later this week.

My visit to NM coincided with the annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, one of the largest balloon events in the world.  Every morning, during “Mass Ascension”, hundreds of balloons all take off together and drift slowly over the NM high-desert.  In the evening, they secure the balloons to the ground, fill them with warm air, and then all at once they turn on the gas burners which lights the balloons up like giant Christmas ornaments!  This “Balloon Glow” is a spectacular event, and seeing hundreds of balloons all flickering brightly is a sight to behold!

Further north is one of my favorite regions in NM, the Valles Caldera National Preserve.  This collapsed volcanic caldera is located in the Jemez Mountains and protects 89,000 acres of wilderness and wetlands.  It hosts hundreds of elk and other animals, and the Park Service severely restricts human encroachment.  In addition to the Preserve, the area has the Jemez hot springs and Bandelier National Monument –  ancient Native American Anasazi ruins.  Techies can visit the Los Alamos National Laboratories, where the first nuclear bomb was built.

While I am away on assignment, far from America, its places like these that remind me what home is.

* Home Leave:  Home Leave (paid vacation time) is special leave time accrued while we are overseas.  We generally earn 15 workdays a year, so after a two-year tour of duty overseas we would have earned 30 days of Home-Leave.  Home-Leave is not Annual Leave, which is accrued at a different rate depending on rank.  While Annual Leave can be used anywhere in the world, Home-leave must only be used in the 50 United States (or its territories, if that is your home).  Also, Home-Leave is usually granted only after a tour overseas, but can be deferred to a later date with a waiver.  30 work-days mean that you do not use it on weekends and holidays.  As an example, if I had just completed an overseas two-year assignment and started leave on February 1st, 2010, I would be able to take off all of February and not have to end the vacation until the 16th of March!  30 days goes a long ways, and many members take a full 45 workdays after a 3 year assignment.  The State Department also pays for travel for you and your dependent family members to your designated Home-Leave address, and then on to your next assignment.  This is something to think about if you do not have a home, as you MUST take Home-Leave, and the State Department does not pay for lodging or meals – all of that comes out of your own pay check.  At least you do get paid while on these extended vacations!

After my consultations I split my home-leave* up into some time with my family in New England, and then my daughter in New Mexico.

I went up to Vermont and New Hampshire and spent a week visiting my mother, brothers and sister.   While the foliage was just changing colors, I arrived just a few weeks before peak color, something I miss a lot from my childhood as I have only been home once since 1980 during peak color change.  New England is spectacular in the fall – and is my favorite time to be there.  If you think the following photos show a lot of color, this is nothing compared to what New Hampshire and Vermont is like at peak foliage!

New Hampshire on Fire!

This is the old mill dam is located in my home town of Claremont, NH, and is a place I used to play around as a child.  Why I never drowned I’ll never know!  I would be terrified if my 10 year old child was using this area as play ground, but I guess things were different back in the early ’70s.  Most likely my mother just never knew!  Anyways, this was an old woolen mill and was built in the 1850s.  By the early 1900′s it was producing the finest cotton “Monadnock” style linen in the world; the White House was a customer as well as the Waldorf (Astoria) hotel in NYC, while in 1918 the mill produced army bandages and blankets for our troops during WWI. When I was a child it was a cotton label factory and was an exciting and adventurous place to play for a kid, so I stopped by just to relive some distant memories.  It is now a classy (for Claremont) restaurant and hotel.

New England Mills

While home, I was able to relax and get back into the normal routines again and go out in public without being nervous.  In Pakistan every time I drove past a parked vehicle I would turn my face away to avoid getting glass shards in my eyes from the impending explosion.  I watched every person on bridges to see if they were carrying an RPG.  It’s nice to be back home!

After 2 weeks in Vermont, I fly out to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

* Home Leave: Home Leave (paid vacation time) is special leave-time accrued while we are overseas.  We generally earn 15 workdays a year, so after a two-year tour of duty overseas we would have earned 30 days of Home-Leave.  Home-Leave is not Annual Leave, which is accrued at a different rate depending on rank.  While Annual Leave can be used anywhere in the world, Home-leave must only be used in the 50 United States (or its territories, if that is your home).  Also, Home-Leave is usually granted only after a tour overseas, but can be deferred to a later date with a waiver.  30 work-days mean that you do not use it on weekends and holidays.  As an example, if I had just completed an overseas two-year assignment and started leave on February 1st, 2010, I would be able to take off all of February and not have to end the vacation until the 16th of March!  30 days goes a long ways, and many members take a full 45 workdays after a 3 year assignment.  The State Department also pays for travel for you and your dependent family members to your designated Home-Leave address, and then on to your next assignment.  This is something to think about if you do not have a home, as you MUST take Home-Leave, and the State Department does not pay for lodging or meals – all of that comes out of your own pay check.  At least you do get paid while on these extended vacations!

Well, I landed in DC on the 11th of September, and checked into my hotel, directly across the street from the State Department.  It’s a decent hotel, but the meals are priced way above anything I want to pay.  Foreign Service members come back to Washington between assignments for a few days of duty called “Consultations”.  This is a time we can check in with our career development officer, meet with colleagues who we will communicate with at the new post, and take care of other business such as our bank, long-term storage, and any other issues that are best handled in Washington in person.  We can also take some courses at FSI if any are available during our transition.  I’ll be here for a total of 7 days, and then I’m taking a few weeks of Home-Leave up to my mothers home in Vermont and out in New Mexico to visit my daughter.

Tonight I just got back from watching one of the funniest movies I have seen in years! It’s a smart comedy from Britain and has the highest critic and viewer ratings of any movie playing this week – but sadly is only in a few theaters as the subject may be too political for our corporate cinemas. It’s called “In the Loop” and while the language is certainly rough, if you enjoy Foreign Affairs and British Humor then you should find this movie a riot. Those who work for the State Dept. will especially love it, as half the movie takes place at Main State in D.C..

Tomorrow I have to check-in with the State Department, update my contact details, and then visit my Career Development Officer. It’s so wonderful to get out and move about and eat at restaurants without the constant worry that someone may blow me up!