Awww yeahhhh, that’s what I’m talking about. It was last Friday (and then comes Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards) and there’s nothing more that I needed to do than get some SHOTS!

Wait, hold on. Not those kinda shots. I’m talking about the nearly dozen shots (and typhoid pills) that I needed to have injected into my pristine body before being catapulted into the desert.

I’m okay with needles. What I’m not okay with is getting lame bandaids. State Department needs to stack up on these babies:

For those of you who are as morally opposed to vaccinations as I am to potlucks, let me explain how they work. BOOM! Dead/weakened disease goes into your body, BOOM! Immune system is all like, “I got this, ma.” and attacks and wins, BOOM! Immune system now recognizes the diseaseamabob and is now capable of destroying it back to the future.

But when your immune system is constantly attacking these fake diseases for an entire month, you know what’s going to be happen. Yeah. Guess who is spending their last week in the states SICK.

Oh well, you know what it is.

I went back home last weekend to say goodbye to my family and friends and to grab some more things from my old room to bring overseas with me. It definitely wasn’t easy.

I’m a very sentimental person – I keep nearly everything that reminds of memorable moments. That is why when my family presented me with a photo album filled with pictures of me, my friends, and my family – from the times when I was a kid to even moments captured on camera that I wasn’t around to witness myself – it moved me.

The hardest part of my trip home was going back to my bedroom. I had to decide what in my room was important enough to take with me on this new journey, and which parts of my life weren’t important enough. To even think that there were unimportant parts of my life, it gives me pause.

But because I’m going to Saudi Arabia, I needed to also think about what was worth taking, that would definitely not be confiscated at the airport/customs because of their strict laws. I couldn’t imagine bringing with me something that meant a lot, and never actually seeing it again. I couldn’t risk it – I left nearly everything at home.

After this tour, I’m going to need to do a consular tour, but since I already finished consular training, between this tour and the next, I highly doubt I’ll spend much time stateside. So besides saying the difficult goodbyes to my friends and family, I also had to say goodbye to where I grew up and the culture I grew up in.

You guessed right. I’m talking about cannoli and Ralph’s Italian Ices.

New York City, it’s been real..

What’s the point of being a diplomat if you can’t have diplomatic license plates?

For many of us going in the foreign service, having a vehicle at post is an incredible convenience. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to ship a vehicle overseas. Here is what I learned:

If you don’t currently own a vehicle:

• About 6 weeks before you’re scheduled to arrive at post, talk to the GSO and inquire about the types of cars they recommend at post, and also if there are any import restrictions (age of car, color of car, etc.)

• Join USAA and browse through their vehicles online. They have pre-negotiated rates with dealers that are often below MSRP.

• Open up a checking account & credit card with USAA to be eligible for their financing. It’s nearly impossible to finance with the dealership because banks frown up financing those who are overseas. USAA is your best bet.

• About 4 weeks before arriving at post, call Transportation at State to go over your plans. They may offer you some information that you might have overlooked.

• Since you do not plan on driving the car stateside, you can avoid paying registration and all those other fees (sometimes even sales tax) by using a Certificate of Origin ( JF-49) instead of a title (applies only to NEW vehicles).

• Confirm that your host country accepts imported vehicles that do not have your name on the title.

• Because the USG’s name is on the Certificate of Origin, contracted movers can go to the dealership lot, pick up the car, and ship it directly to you at post.

Click here to view the State Dept’s official guide on shipping a vehicle.

Click here to view the JF-49.

Haven’t posted much lately because I’m beginning to realize that with a gig like this, there’s only so much you’re allowed to talk about, that all you can really discuss is your personal life and nobody wants to hear about me partying.

I finally packed out and tomorrow I’ll be flying down to DC to get settled in for A-100. Packout went smoothly, and I’m glad I read the “It’s Your Move” booklet. It was filled with noodles of information such as, “you might not ship a boat.”

I also learned that for HHE, you need a minimum of 200lbs of storage or else you pay for it. I only had 100lbs of HHE. Solution? Add another 100lbs of weight plates.

The movers seemed a little confused, though, when they handed me forms to sign saying that the items that were being packed were on a “need to know basis”.  Everyone knows that the condition of my Super Nintendo is in the interest of national security.