I got drinks with one of the Fellows also going to Kosovo under the same grant yesterday and she was awesome. i got kinda nervous when i did the math on her linkedin to figure out her age and was worried i'd just feel super junior or whatever bc she's in her 30's and i am un petit infant but it turned out to be nbd/yet another imposter syndrome moment. We've both worked at DTRA (tbh apparently a ton of people do a stint here which is hilarious to me because I'd honestly never even heard of it before I started working here and it turns out like every other person I talk to from my grad program or whatever has worked here at some point) and she's spent time in Kosovo on contracts to total about 6-8 months. she was able to answer some of my weird niggling questions (do i buy snow boots here or wait til i get there, answer: get them here, Kosovo has no shopping options) and was super familiar with all the hotels the embassy wants us to use for the first week and all the sights we needed to see. we bonded over having type A personalities and being frustrated with the agenda for this weekend only being posted yesterday (wtf are out of towners supposed to do w/ no info/short notice??)

this weekend is the predeparture orientation and i am stoked to take 3 days off work and hang out in conference rooms in a hotel all weekend. there's also a mysterious White House trip on a day that was supposed to have no programming (literally the agenda entry says "9:30-10:30 Meeting". no further info ETA: just got a confirmation email and a note that they hope we "look forward to the magnitude" of the opportunity :O). i'm excited to meet the Mysterious Program Manager who has been my point of contact throughout this whole boondoggle and also to meet the other fellows and commiserate over how much of a boondoggle the whole process has been. also free food. the fellow i met with yesterday was saying her contact had advised her to stay in the hotel rather than staying home (bc duh free hotel??) because the days have "late nights and early mornings" so idk wtf is in store for this weekend lulz. "early" means breakfast 7:30-8:30 so?? although a few of us, Kosovo fellows inclusive, have skype calls w/ the embassy ass early one of the days so that makes sense.

the alum for kosovo (who i have been warned by a previous grantee is somewhat intense...w/o elaborating on the type of intense) is also going to give us a tour of the embassy of kosovo in DC so that will be cool too

should be a neat weekend. it'll be my first travel blog input so i'll share that probably next pubski.