This has been a delightful week in bengali class. We have learned exquisite words like "tiktiki" (lizard) and "jok" (leech), which I imagine will be key in my life in Bangladesh. We have also learned to construct complicated sentences like, "All the people in the world from , I the tallest am," or "I, of all my brothers and sisters, tastiest am." Apparently, "tasty" doubles as "witty" in bengali. Plus we count from 1-50 two times every day. You can just imagine our anticipation.
Forget the guilty pleasures of rote memorization, however. I have to say that my schedule of work and school is slowly starting to kill me. I have no time for anything outside of Bangla and work and the few times a week I try to come home earlier than 9 pm in order to see my poor child. Someone asked me to meet for drinks this week "after work" and I had to laugh sadly at the idea. I can only imagine that my project at work is nearing its end. My current employer has expressed an interest in keeping me for future work, but for that to happen we need to have a little talk about working hours because otherwise by the end of this whole adventure I might simply not be alive.
On a positive note, the Diplomat has truly stepped up to the plate and become a rather decent Mr. Mom. I think he might be taking the role a bit far however: yesterday afternoon he took Son to the house of our friends and hung out there with two other mommies and their children, sipping afternoon wine. Then, when I came home, he complained loudly to me that (1) going to school from 7.30am to 12.30 pm and then (2) going for a tea and cookies info meeting in downtown DC with one of the FSI dignitaries, followed by (3) the above mentioned wine-infused playdate, (4) reheating a rice dish (which I cooked the previous night at 11 pm AFTER coming home form work), (5) feeding Son (in front of the TV) and then (6) giving him a bath was all so very exhausting and he is tired all the time. I just looked at him with my tired, blood-shot eyes, having just ran home from work earlier in order to read Son a book before bed and before he forgets who I am, thought about how I needed to go back to the computer now and work for another 2 hours and THEN learn 34567 new bengali words, then go to bed at 12.30 and get up back at 6.30 am and decided not to say anything. I imagined that my wild look explained it all. I don't think it did though because when Son woke up and started screaming at 1 am from his room, Mr. Mom-tastic dreamily told me to "go check on him." The Diplomat is lucky he did not get strangled last night.
All in all, I have to say that the Fledgling Diplomats live a rather pleasant life before their first posts--they have 5 hours of language training per day and the rest of the time they live life to the fullest At least I imagine they do. I cannot wait to be in that position one day.
Another piece of good news is that my security clearance is well under way. Hopefully, it doesn't take too long, so that I can get an invite to the FSI class in late March, which would put me in a perfect position to join the Diplomat in Dhaka as a full-fledged Mrs. Diplomat rather than just Wife. I also need to pass a telephone Russian test on October 21st, in order to boost my FSOA scores, which will help in getting an invite to join the Foreign Service sooner rather than later.
I knew this was going to be the situation in course of time. It is good that u are still walking sane with such a long winding dailing learning cum work schedule. I do not know how u took care of emil for long two years all alone during his active day hours, but i found it very tough to engage him for just 2 to 4 hours of the day, when we stayed there. Of course, i could get good sleep in the night thanks to the physical exhaustion that was the result of managing my ever energetic grandson. I hope things will come to a happy conclusion, once u get the formal posting as a Diplomatess. Till then enjoy the spouse fihts as myself and amma used to have when she was going for teaching job when our kids were young in Hyderabad.we really miss all of you.particularly i miss the releif and happiness I could see on your face when I could make something for you to eat and even compel u into eating. but the way u have accounted the events of the day anyone will sympathise with you, but i would like to take the side of my son to some extent for the reason that men are poor managers of their young kids, which is the domain of only moms.
ReplyDeleteSuper Diplomatic Mom, which languages did you learn in order to get an invitation to join the FS?
ReplyDeleteHow many languages do you speak?
Dear Anonymous, I did not have to learn anything. It is not a requirement. But most people do. At present, I speak, in various levels of fluency (or lack thereof) 6 languages and about to learn a 7th.
ReplyDelete