Bid List Surprise

When we met with our CDO (Career Development Officer, the one mainly responsible for deciding our fate for our first post) last week, she asked if we had any other considerations for her.  My Man leaned back in his chair and declared, "Well, I'm just holding out for that Russian post that's going to pop up at the last minute."  In fact, throughout this whole excruciating exciting process, he's been saying stuff like, "You know, it probably doesn't matter.  I just have a feeling that there's going to be a Russian spot that opens up." 

Well today was the deadline for turning in our bid list, marked high, medium, and low.  Last night My Man came home grinning.  Guess what got added to the bid list at the last minute?  Let me give you a hint.  It's the opposite of tropical, and it's in a part of the world that rhymes with "Iberia."  (OK, it's not actually in Siberia, but it's on the edge and wimpy Americans like to claim it anyway to get bonus sympathy points when they have to live there.)  It's one of those posts where they have to bribe people to go because it's so far from ANYTHING and chances are you've never heard of it. I mean, it's the only place in the world where Siberian tigers still live, if that tells you something.

That said, I am from Gold Beach.  It's not like I need a lot of big-city excitement to be happy.  In fact, the more we researched this little outpost of diplomacy, the more intrigued I became.  It really is a beautiful little city.  And it hits most of our quality of life priorities: good air quality, good outdoor recreational opportunities, survivable climate (kind of) . . . The only thing it's really lacking is affordable airfare to other places and great schools (there are options, but we'd have to do some serious research into this if we go).

But we didn't give it too much thought (if obsessing about it until past midnight counts as not "too much" thought).  Afterall, the posting is available NOW and we still didn't have My Man's Russian test results back.  He didn't feel like he did very well on the test and if he didn't ace it, we wouldn't be ready in time to be considered for this post.  So we sent off our bid list, and didn't think too much more about it.

Then this morning, My Man got his test results back.  He aced his test (Way to go Honey!!!). . . . This could be our home as early as March!  Yikes.  I better start brushing up my Russian skills, just in case.

(Disclaimer: None of these pictures are mine.  I shamelessly stole borrowed them from Google images.  If we end up going here, maybe I can update with pictures of my own . . . )