9.21.2012

FS BRU ... Where You Show Us Your John Hancock

In every Foreign Service chat group I belong, there's a specific way we sign our names to our messages ...  first and last name, along with our current and previous posts.  I love it!  Because you can see where everyone is and has been ... and decide, based upon where someone lives, whether their question, answer, or opinion really pertains to you.  

As many of us are in the midst of bidding season, preparing for holiday vacations, and attempting to reach out to our friends who are in high threat posts, I thought that now would be a good time to publish our FS Bloggers' signatures.  Most of us know where each other currently reside.  But some of us have been in the Foreign Service FAR longer than we've been blogging ... and our previous locations may not ever have been discussed. 

With this handy guide you can now reach out and ask someone about a vacation spot, future assignment, or check that a favorite restaurant from 10 years ago is still open!  You also know whether or not to take what someone says with a grain of salt ...

My request in the previous FS BRU, was to send me names / links of your blogs, how you wanted to be addressed (or if you wanted to stay anonymous), and your previous postings along with the years you served. 

And here's what we all said ... along with a mini acronym guide:


* UT = unaccompanied (without your family) tour
* ISMA = Involuntary Separate Maintenance Allowance (one gets this when their family is at an unaccompanied tour)
* SH = Safe Haven (when one stays at their overseas location while their spouse is on a UT)
* Bidding = the painful, stressful, ridiculously long wait to find out if you've kissed enough tushies and where you will arbitrarily hopefully be sent ...


The Perlman Update
Jill Perlman
NYFO (2000 - 2003), Muscat, Oman (2003 - 2005), Tel Aviv, Israel (2005 - 2008), Chennai, India (2008 - 2010), Baghdad, Iraq / ISMA in CA (2010 - 2011), DC Headquarters (2011 - 2012), Herat, Afghanistan  / ISMA in DC (2012 - 2013) and bidding ...

Sadie Abroad
Sadie
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2010 - 2012), Kampala, Uganda (2012 - 2014)

Rambles and Ruminations
Linsey Crisler
Lima, Peru (2006 - 2008), Caracas, Venezuela (2008 - 2010), DC (2010 - 2013), Beijing, China (2013 - 2015)

Fabling
Sunny
Manila, Philippines (2008 - 2010), Brussels (2011 - current)

Email From The Embassy
Donna
Moscow, Russia (1999 - 2001), Yerevan, Armenia (2001 - 2002), Almaty, Kazakhstan, (2002 - 2004), DC (2004 - 2007), Beijing, China (2007 - 2010), Amman, Jordan (2010 - 2013), bidding ...

Well, That Was Different
Kelly
Africa, Latin America, one UT, Prague, DC, currently in Vienna

Our American Family
Lisa
Manila, Philippines (2004 - 2006), Santo Domingo, DR (2007 - 2009), Taipei, Taiwan (2010 - 2014)

wife-mommy-woman
Sara
San Jose, Costa Rica (2010 - 2012), Manila, Philippines (2012 - 2014)

Just Us
Melissa
NHSO (2007 - 2009), Baghdad, Iraq (UT) (2008 - 2009), Jerusalem Israel (2010 - 2013), Kabul, Afghanistan / SH in Jerusalem (2012 - 2013), bidding ...

Tuk & Tam
Daniela
DC (2010 - 2011), New Delhi, India (2012 - 2014)

The Globehoppers
Michele
Manila, Philippines (2003 - 2005), Lome, Togo (2005 - 2006), Chennai, India (2006 - 2009), DC (2009 - 2012), Amman, Jordan (2012 - 2015/6)

The Briden Bunch
Crystal
Kuwait City, Kuwait (2009 - 2011), Bamako, Mali (2011 - 2012 authorized departure), Santiago, Chile (2012 - 2014/5)

Like Nomads (but with more stuff)
Lynne
Valletta, Malta (2007 - 2009), St. Petersburg, Russia (2009 - 2013)

Sherwood Family Nonsense
Ashley Sherwood
Cairo, Egypt (2009 - 2011), Baku, Azerbaijan (2011 - 2014)

kitchen cables
Sarah
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2011 - current)

Mom2Nomads
Heather Harper-Troje
Guinea (2005 - 2007), Malta ISMA (2007), Dublin, Ireland (2007 - 2010), Baghdad, Iraq / UT (2009 - 2010), DC (2010 - 2011), San Jose, Costa Rica (2011 - 2014), bidding ...

The Wandering Drays
Heather
LAFO (2009 - 2010), Baghdad, Iraq / ISMA in Ohio (2010 - 2011), Cairo, Egypt (2011 - 2013), bidding ...

The New Diplomat's Wife
Ania Krasniewska Shahidi
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia / ISMA in DC (2006 - 2007), Vienna, Austria (2008 - 2011), DC (2011 - 2013), Copenhagen, Denmark (2013)

Where in the World are Luca & Juliana
Nicole
Sao Paulo, Brazil (2010 - 2012), Vienna, Austria (2012 -)

The Dinoia Family
Jen Dinoia
WFO (1998 - 2000), Caracas, Venezuela (2000 - 2002), DC (2002 - 2005), Reykjavik, Iceland (2005 - 2008), SFFO (2008 - 2010), Bagdad, Iraq / ISMA in DC (2010), DC (2011 - 2012), Kabul, Afghanistan / ISMA in DC (2012 - 2013), Managua, Nicaragua (2013 - 2016)

Pryor Adventures
Vientiane, Laos (2011 - 2013)

Something Edited This Way Comes
Zoe Friloux
Port of Spain (2007 - 2009) Milan, Italy (2010 - 2012), Kabul, Afghanistan / SH in Milan (2012 - 2013), London (2013 - 2016)

Novakistan
Sarah Novak
Manila, Philippines (2009 - 2011), DC (2011 - 2012), Lima, Peru (2012 - 2014)

FiveGs
Narra
Guadalajara, Mexico (2011 - 2013), DC (2013 - 2014), Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (2014 - 2016)

Cyberbones
Shannon Mullins
Jakarta, Indonesia (2006 - 2008), Frankfurt, Germany (2008 - 2010), Lilongwe, Malawi (2010 - 2013) bidding and praying ...

A Sojourning Life
CC
Recife, Brazil (2012 - 2014)

La Vie Overseas
Natasha Padgitt
San Salvador, El Salvador (2012 - 2014)

AdventuresIn
Dhaka, Bangladesh (2010 - 2012), Seoul, South Korea (2012 - )

Carla Runs the World
Carla Reinisch
Manila, Philippines (2011 - 2013), DC (2013), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2014 - 2016)

Schlink Attack!
Emily Schlink
Bucharest, Romania (2011 - 2013)

Here, There and Everywhere
Lydia Penrod
Cairo, Egypt (2005 - 2009), Baghdad, Iraq (2009 - 2010), Manama, Bahrain (2010 - 2013), bidding ...

Hot Pot
Dani
Chengdu, China (2010 - 2012), New Delhi, India (2012 - 2014)

SubjectVerbObject
Theresa Sondjo
Freetown, Sierra Leone (2012 - 2014)

A bit of trip
Becky
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (2009 - 2011), DC, (2011 - 2012), Taipei, Taiwan (2012 - 2014), Beijing,  China (2014 - 2017)

Erica J Green - Navigating Wonderland
Erica Green
Belfast, Ireland (2000 - 2002), DC (2002 - 2006), Adana, Turkey (2006 - 2009), Moscow, Russia (2009 - 2011). Reykjavik, Iceland (2011 - current)

from the back of beyond
Eve Josar
Luanda, Angola (2011 - 2013), Santiago, Chile (2013 - 2015)

Bfiles
Santo Domingo, DR (2011 - 2013), DC (2013 - 2014), Guangzhou, China (2014 - )

views from a yoga mat
Tiffany
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (2012 - 2014)

Pulling Stakes
Kate
DC (2010 - 2011), Brasilia, Brazil (2011 - present) 

Peeps From Abroad
Jessie Bryson
Guangzhou, China (2010 - 2012), DC (2012 - 2013), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2013 - )

3rd Culture Children
Raquel Miranda
Maputo, Mozambique (2006 - 2008), DC (2008 - 2010), Recife, Brazil (2010 - 2012), La Paz, Bolivia (2012 - 2014)

inAnkara
Miranda Zolot
Ankara, Turkey (current)

Poppies and Polka Dots
Angela
Bujumbura, Burundi (2008 - 2009), Baghdad, Iraq (2010 - 2011), Madrid, Spain (2012)

Wanderings of a Cheerful Stoic
Meredith
Conakry, Guinea (2011 - 2013), Dublin, Ireland (2013 - 2015)

Where in the World Am I?
Stephanie
SFFO (2006 - 2008), Bujumbura, Burundi (2008 - 2010), Hyderabad, India (2010 - 2013), UT (2013 - 2014)

Life After Jerusalem
Digger
Baku, Azerbaijan (MOH 2002 - 2004), A-100 (2004), Jerusalem, Israel (2005 - 2007), DC, DC, DC (2007 - 2011), Tallinn, Estonia (2011 - 2014)

Stumble Abroad
Ana Gaby
Frankfurt, Germany (2007-2009), Bangkok Thailand (2009-2011), Jakarta, Indonesia (2011-2014), Pleeeaseeeee somewhere in the Western Hemisphere next! ;)



If I've left you off the list, email me at thefsroundup@me.com with your information. 

The next edition of the FS BRU will be out on Friday, October 19th.  The optional talking point is ... your "dream" post.  Just as I dream about winning the lottery, most of us have also dreamt about one place we've always wanted the State Department to send us.   What's yours?

Of course, the optional talking point is just that ... optional.  Feel free to send along anything you'd like linked.  Just do so by Monday, October 15th.  Don't forget to include the one sentence blurb about your link as well.  Send it to me at thefsroundup@me.com.

Until then ...

7 comments:

Raquel Miranda said...

What a fantastic work, Jill, gathering all this info! It's actually a pretty good resource/tool for other families/FS expats/aspiring FS bidders! Thanks for the inclusion, as well.
Greetings from our first day of Spring, in La Paz, Bolivia!

Anonymous said...

Great list! Mine has a couple of mistakes, but it could have been my own. We'll only be in DC in 2013 (we're scheduled to arrive in Rio 2 days after the new years, and hoping we can leave before christmas), and we're in Rio for 2014-2016.

Anonymous said...

Great list! Mine has a couple of mistakes, but it could have been my own. We'll only be in DC in 2013 (we're scheduled to arrive in Rio 2 days after the new years, and hoping we can leave before christmas), and we're in Rio for 2014-2016.

Alex said...

Thanks for this great resource.

Christy said...

Jill, I swear, I NEED to be in the FS. I just love these round up posts so much! I can't tell you how many times I've clicked on these posts. A LOT. I love clicking through and reading your friends stories. The amount of work you put into these posts is amazing - you should totally be paid!

LOVE this one - the info is so neat. You all must just have your signatures stored somewhere so you can copy and paste it into forums, right? Writing that out each time would be ridic.

Nomads By Nature said...

Jill, great work as always! I was late on the draw, but am so glad to see so many participants and their info. Thanks for putting so much of you into these round up and making them so helpful and great!

Natasha said...

Thanks for compiling, as always. I have a lot of new blog subscriptions in my Google Reader now!

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