Aitäh!

For all of you said little prayers, thought good thoughts, sent positive vibes (especially the Fairy Vibes...thanks Tom!), pressed or held thumbs, crossed fingers and toes, or asked the universe to be kind...

Thanks! You did it!

I am now professionally proficient in Estonian.

I actually thought I had blown it.

I was convinced that had screwed up the reading portion. The reading portion has two parts. In the first, you have six minutes to give the gist of six short articles. Based on how you do with those, they give you two long articles to read.

I had some trouble with the gisting. And I thought the articles they gave me were fairly easy.

So I assumed that meant that they had given me easier articles...meaning articles that would not get me a high enough score.

I even texted my wife that I had a bad feeling.

But alas...something worked. The examiner seemed surprised when I said I thought I screwed up the reading...she thought I did well. She said I had a broad vocabulary and was very fluent too. Yay!

Also a yay...checking a senior foreign service "box." You now have to get a 3/3 in a hard language at some point in your career to cross the SFS threshhold. I don't actually expect to make Senior Foreign Service...I just want to have a fun career in cool places and get to retire with my pension. But I don't want to be excluded from it.

So now I can relax...because I have three years to reach my self-inflicted goal of a 4/4 (professional fluency).