Well, it is early, so the news on the Foreign Service is not good.  I didn’t make the grade.  You know they said “you should be very proud that you made it this far, blah, blah, blah” which is true, but doesn’t make you feel any better.  I did well, just didn’t make the cutoff.  I can always go back again next year!  There was one of the candidates who said a friend of hers took the oral assessment seven times before getting in.  I don’t think I could do seven times, but maybe one more stab at it.  I also felt like I was in very good company – two of the folks who didn’t make it either were lawyers and another had her Phd in Mandarin, so not to shabby company!  The strange thing was, I passed the part that I thought I didn’t do so well in, and didn’t in the other two parts that I thought I did well in.  Who knows!

I spoke to David (thanks Liz) and told him the whole story, and he actually sounds like he is speaking more.  Marjorie Ellenbogen also sent me an email saying that she thinks he is talking more too.  I can’t wait to get back tomorrow to check up on him!!