One Year Here

Today is my one year anniversary in Estonia.

Actually, yesterday was one year in country, and today was my first day on the job.

After less than this amount of time in Jerusalem, one of my favorite local staff members called me "the embodiment of anger."

And most of you who know me know I am not a generally angry person.

One year into my tour here, I still love it here.

I have an excel file called "Rotation Tracker." It tells you to the second how much time you have left in your tour. I looked at it practically daily in Jerusalem.

I have yet to look at it here. In fact, I find myself resenting the bidders contacting me about my job. While I know my job is on the bid list and that they are doing what they are supposed to because they will get their assignment a year before starting a year of language, they still feel a little like vultures to me.

I am not eager to leave.

And that is on top of a touch of homesickness. I really want to go home, see my family, and see my beach.

But then I want to come back.

Some of it is Estonia, and some of it is luck.

As everyone in the Foreign Service knows, a tour in a great place can be awful with bad management or nasty colleagues.

But here, not only is Estonia beautiful, the people friendly, the food tasty, and the travel easy, but the job is fun, my team is amazing, the management is good and there is not one of my colleagues that I dislike.

One year in, I still feel very lucky to be here.