Training in DC and Prep for Georgia

As mentioned a few posts ago, I took a new job back in the US starting in mid-January. I flew back from Japan to my hometown in Ohio at the end of December, arriving just in time for New Year's. My initial contract in Japan ended along with 2020, so it didn't make sense to start a new one for a week or two in January. This way I was also able to spend time with my parents and my sister and her husband (who live nearby) before moving to Washington, DC.

In addition to family time, I had a lot of administrative tasks to take care of before the move; my new job is with the government, which involves a long, at times frustrating onboarding process. I had to fill out several HR packets, arrange temporary housing for my training in DC, decide on consequential things such as life insurance and thrift savings plan contributions, and choose my healthcare plan. By the way, why is healthcare so complicated here?! The electronic form listed over 200 healthcare options to chose from! After eliminating regional (non-national), family, and plus one plans, the list was somewhat more manageable, but I still had to sift through dozens of options.

I also had the task of actually getting to DC. I don't own a car in the US (I've been living abroad for the last year and a half), so transporting all my belongings could have been a challenge. As luck would have it, a good friend of mine from grad school got an offer to join the same training class, and he was driving cross country from San Diego (yes, from San Diego to DC). He offered to pick me up on the way so I could tag along for the last leg of the road trip.

Me (right) with my buddy Lucas (left) and Johnathan

during our West Coast road trip just after grad school

We arrived in DC on January 17th, and started training Tuesday the 19th (Monday was a holiday). Initially, the plan was for our group of 22 trainees to stay in the capitol area for less than two weeks, after which we would go to Georgia for a three month training course. In what was to be one of many schedule changes, the powers that be extended our initial orientation to six weeks.

During those six weeks I stayed in a temporary apartment near Howard University in an area called the Shaw. Most of my colleagues were in Northern Virginia--the physical training center and majority of the temporary housing options are across the river, but I figured that since our orientation would be nearly all virtual, commute time was a non-factor. Better to be in the District with lots of restaurants and a metro stop within walking distance.

My apartment in the Shaw; a big step up from my 200 square foot place in Tokyo!

View from the apartment roof (with the Washington Monument in the background)

Overall, the orientation workload was light, with one or two live virtual sessions per day with corresponding self-study material. My grad school friend also stayed in the same apartment building, so we spent a lot of time hanging out and exercising in the free gym downstairs. I also tried to take advantage of our location to explore DC--at least when the weather was dry and above freezing.

Following the six week orientation, everyone from our training class moved out of our temporary apartments to a hotel in the suburbs of northern Virginia. Our start date for Georgia had initially been pushed to early April, then TBD, with rumors that we might not begin before the summer. Fortunately, we have since received a definitive start date in late April (and as of this actually posting, I am already in Georgia). In the meantime, our handlers assigned us a few dozen online courses. We also had an in-person day where everyone from training was finally all together in the same room. I'm looking forward to getting to know the group more once we are battling the heat and humidity in Georgia instead of Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings.

I spent a lot of time with Lucas (right), as well as

Nasri, one of the other guys in our training class

I wanted to take the opportunity to update my blog again while I have the time, because once in-person training starts I'll be much busier. Hopefully, I'll also have more chances to socialize with my colleagues instead of sitting in front of a computer. So what I'm saying is, if things go well, I may not update the blog for awhile! If that's the case, there's still plenty of material here for you to browse if you're interested. Thanks for reading!

Below are some pictures from my time in DC. Eventually I'll be in a semi-permanent location, where I might pick up the blog again (or if training is delayed another time, the updates will come sooner!).