Just a place to say thank you to a few blogs that have inspired me along the way and given me some idea of what exactly life is like in the Foreign Service. If you are here, I seriously recommend you check out these blogs. These are real diplomats living the life, and it is obscenely interesting. All that said, the most important shout-out goes to my lovely wife Angeli, who has been obnoxiously supportive of me throughout this entire process.
https://place2place.blogs.com/studio/ – Written by a husband and wife, where the husband works as a FS MP, it mostly covers their family travel and lifestyle, with a few golden nuggets of information in there with regard to the day to day of the MP work-life. It goes back to 2006 where posts were very frequent, to present day, where you might get a couple of posts a year. Still worth a read for any aspiring MP, especially the earlier years.
http://npworldview.blogspot.com/ – Another solid MP FS Blog. It started in 2009, and unfortunately went dark in 2013 when the blogger retired from the Foreign Service. It starts when she is already a pretty seasoned Foreign Service MP with her children already grown, so a lot of it focuses on her current experiences and perceptions. Still a fascinating read that is well worth a look, and I am glad the site is still up.
https://ordersabroad.com/ – A great blog, written by a seasoned Generalist on her experiences in the FS. Her journeys from Mexico, to China, to Malawi are absolutely captivating, all with a young child in tow. Until recently, she was the main political officer for the US Embassy in Malawi, where she got to witness history in the making with multiple elections and relatively peaceful transitions of power in one of the worlds most impoverished nations. Now on a D.C. tour, her travel with her young daughter makes for a compelling read.
https://collectingpostcardsblog.com/ – Another fantastic Foreign Service blog. It’s a lengthy beast from start to finish, but you get inside the mind of a Generalist Foreign Service Officer(Consular) from the very beginning of her FS career, before she even gets invited to the A-100, to today, several tours in. It includes advice on each step of the hiring process, her experiences, learning new languages, setbacks in both medical care and vehicular issues, and absolutely lifechanging trips/experiences in her post countries. I can’t recommend it enough.
https://www.talesmag.com/ – Probably one of the best resources out there for unfiltered reviews on just about every embassy and consulate posting on the planet, nearly always done by the diplomats that lived the experience. Want to know how it was living as a diplomat in Vientiane, Laos? There are several reviews telling you exactly what it was like. What is the housing like in Rangoon, Myamar? They’ve got you covered. Concerned about the schools in Kenya? These get reviewed too. I’ve found myself getting lost in all the reviews for hours at a time, and if you are thinking of joining the Foreign Service, you should too.