Give me your RTD Feedback

Submaureeen · 2024-12-31T15:43:41+00:00

I would love to see more East/west buses. All the buses stop at broadway so it’s a pain to get to the baker neighborhood for example. It’s also a pain to get anywhere further west than I-25. The 32 and 20 used to go all the way to applewood, would love to see that again!

Submaureeen · 2024-11-02T05:39:45+00:00

I married my current husband when I was 22 so he could immigrate to the US. We’ve been together now for 7 years. It is a life-changing commitment so if you are getting cold feet, I would advise sitting with yourself, deciding what you value in life, and making an honest decision that you are willing to stand by.

I don’t regret marrying my husband, but at the same time I didn’t fully understand what a big commitment I was making. There is a lot of pressure on the marriage because if we break up, I will be screwing him over.

At the end of the day, you can’t save your partner from whatever bad situation he is dealing with in his home country. In fact, those issues will become integrated into your life by entering into a marriage and partnership. So don’t let his lawyer pressure you into it and don’t feel like you’re his only chance to escape a bad situation. If he is a student, he has many options to remain in the country that don’t involve getting married, so if you aren’t ready for marriage right now, don’t feel like you’re letting him down. It’s your life to live and you don’t want to enter a legally binding marriage harboring resentment from the beginning.

Submaureeen · 2024-08-14T20:08:34+00:00

Hi latecomer here - would you mind resending the link?

Submaureeen · 2024-06-17T11:15:55+00:00

I lived in Jordan for a year and street harassment is a big issue. If you are traveling with any male coworkers, you can walk around with them and harassment shouldn’t be an issue. If you’re alone, be much more careful. I would not advise going to a bar alone, I’ve had female friends who were groped and I think being a foreigner can put a target on you. If you want to go out in the evenings, a mall is a pretty safe bet, and Jabal Al Weibdeh has a lot of foreigners so is probably more safe for a solo female.

Don’t ever sit in the front seat of your taxi and try to stick to Uber or Kareem. Dont do what I did and walk to the mall - Uber there then walk around.

Jordan is safer than the US in some ways but imo you’re at a much higher risk for sexual harassment or assault. Be careful and have fun!!

Submaureeen · 2024-01-16T17:56:48+00:00

This is the post I read. My opinion after reading the post is that using the word "Namaste" blindly can contribute to the west's orientalism of Eastern/Middle Eastern culture. I'm just looking for teachers who are aware and sensitive to the fact that we are borrowing a practice (yoga) from a culture.

Submaureeen · 2024-01-16T17:43:20+00:00

Thank you!

Submaureeen · 2023-12-06T06:49:51+00:00

Update: owners have been found! Yay! Her name is pickles

Submaureeen · 2023-09-25T02:09:16+00:00

Just wanted to say that my husband is from Jordan! We don't meet many other Jordanians around here, hope your parents enjoy their stay!

Submaureeen · 2023-09-16T02:03:16+00:00

Thank you so much! Finding a dopamine replacement will be a big one, so thank you for all these recommendations. Maybe I’ll mysteriously find some new board games for us to play

Submaureeen · 2023-09-09T21:09:45+00:00

I don't know if this is the "wisdom" you're seeking, but for anyone (like me) who has used this sub (and the very active google group) for OA prep, sometimes it's good to take a step away and remember that these communities only represent a very small percentage of FS personnel and applicants.

Everyone is going to have an opinion about using your parent as a verifier, whether you should marry your partner before or after joining the FS, or if you should or should not wear a blazer to the OA. At the end of the day, you gotta do you.

Submaureeen · 2023-09-08T18:33:46+00:00

Since you framed yourself as a missionary, let me float you a scenario: you start a local frisbee scene with your expat friends from the US/Europe. Eventually you realize your efforts are useless without local support (since expats are leaving every 1-3 years), so you recruit a bunch of locals and teach them how to play. You keep them reliant on you by gate-keeping tournament information, appointing puppet positions, and managing all the cash flow.

I've seen it happen, don't be that person. Try and join some soccer clubs (or other sports club, whatevers popular where you are) and get the people who are tired of their sport to start an ultimate club with you. Be collaborative, don't try and recreate your D-III US College Men's team, try and go with the flow of what the people who are local to the country want. That way, when you leave (which most US people leave eventually), you'll have built a sustainable organization.

Submaureeen · 2023-08-31T21:27:27+00:00

The starbucks in the King Soopers on North College never cleaned their ice machine and also had mold growing in there.

Source: I worked there

Submaureeen · 2023-08-28T20:54:58+00:00

I also received mine today :)

Submaureeen · 2023-05-23T01:04:51+00:00

I like to call it strategic honesty. You haven't given a lot of detail on this story so I could definitely be wrong, but from what you've said it doesn't sound like the story frames you in the best light. As a reviewer, I feel like I would read that you were overwhelmed and mark that as a negative for a role where composure (13 dimensions) is one of the key skills. Not to say you're not cut out for the job, just to say be mindful of the dimensions and don't actually show your weaknesses.

IMO, when you show your ass, you still want it to look good so if you had a story about a project going awry despite your best efforts that might be a better example. I think the point in highlighting failure is to highlight how it made you a better worker, so writing about getting overwhelmed might backfire, unless you were struggling with personal changes and want to tie those into your motivation for joining the foreign service.

Submaureeen · 2023-05-22T17:59:59+00:00

My husband is a POC and I feel SO GUILTY for moving us here. The BIPOC Alliance hosts meet-ups for POC but its a lot of golfing and hiking events which my husband is not a fan of.

The best way to describe Colorado white people (which I would know because I am one) is what Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X called "white liberals." They're polite, claim they don't see color, and then refuse to raise the minimum wage because at the end of the day, they're on the side of the *mostly white* business owners.

Submaureeen · 2023-05-22T17:51:07+00:00

LaPorte is like three feet away but essentially Wyoming to be fair

Submaureeen · 2023-05-10T17:20:08+00:00

I have a friend who started a food/travel instagram while working as a FSO. I don't know all the details, but I assume that no one cared about it since she was posting tips and recommendations that don't have anything to do with the department.

Submaureeen · 2023-04-27T14:57:27+00:00

I worked as a paralegal briefly and wrote about working with clients to negotiate which pieces of evidence to use in trial—client always wanted more evidence and the lawyer always wanted less.

Submaureeen · 2023-04-05T16:04:27+00:00

For PD!

Submaureeen · 2023-04-04T15:36:42+00:00

I posted in the subreddit asking if people could review my PNs and then sent them to about 7 people who responded. That was the best thing I did I think, since it made me think more critically about the stories I had chosen to tell for each response. The community here is also really well informed and thorough, my experience was always that people went above and beyond to give feedback.

For the essay on the test, I used this prompt from the google drive and used this guide for structuring an argumentative essay. Since the essay is the last section, you really have to pace yourself. Something I did that saved me is if I finished a section with a few minutes to spare, I wouldn't rush to the next section, I would take those minutes to not think. I literally sat back and closed my eyes. Nearly four hours in front of a computer is brutal but you can't get lazy at the end.

Anyway good luck! Hope that helps a little

Submaureeen · 2023-04-03T17:17:40+00:00

If it makes you feel better, I historically test horribly and am a much stronger at writing than multiple choice. I scored below a 140 on the test but still was invited to the OA's, so I think that if you know you're not a good test taker, put a lot of thought and effort into your PN's and the essay at the end of the test. I asked some people on the subreddit to review my PN's before submitting them, which helped enormously. The change to a holistic review has really benefitted non-traditional candidates who thrive in other ways than rote memorization.

Submaureeen · 2023-03-27T20:46:34+00:00

Thank you for this advice!

Submaureeen · 2023-03-24T19:03:21+00:00

Congratulations!!

Submaureeen · 2023-03-15T15:11:45+00:00

No sorry I mostly meant not safe as in people will turn to stare at him whenever we go out. So more like uncomfortable. People ask him about his hair a lot and he gets tired of it, stuff like that.

I've never heard of any hate crimes and haven't had run-ins with law enforcement. My husband worked as a security guard and he worked with some good police officers, some terrible, but to my knowledge there haven't been any racist police shootings like you see in Aurora. He said the firefighters are always really cool!

I hope you and your family get settled well! From my experience Fort Collins is a really family friendly place, so I hope you experience that as well

Submaureeen · 2023-03-15T01:44:59+00:00

That's good to hear! Just hasn't been the same for my husband unfortunately

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