The Foreign Service Written Exam ran the gamut for questions. Some were complete jackass questions—I couldn’t believe they would actually lower themselves to ask such a basic question—while others, the first one particularly, where kicks in the head. The results won’t be available until late July.
In Surabaya, I didn’t do a whole lot. Despite it being the largest city in East Java, there aren’t that many tourist sites kept up. Surabaya is also known for having the largest red-light district in SE Asia. I didn’t go looking for that part. In my research on accommodation I was pointed to a Fulbright lecturer, Shaianne. She gave me some ideas and I met her and a few of the ex-pat Surbayans for dinner after the exam and Café Sampoerna, an upscale joint with attached museum. After that we all went to the Mahjaphit Hotel for a nightcap. This hotel happened to be immortalized by Joseph Conrad in one of his novels as well as the place where the nationalists first raised the red and white flag of Indonesia. A small engraving is on the wall to note this.
After getting back to the hotel, I managed three hours of sleep before having to get up and make a run to the airport for my 6.30a flight. I’m tired and ready for bed. Tomorrow is a holiday. A three-day week for us here.
4 Comments
Shaianne seems like an interesting woman. (By the way, I fixed the link.) Is she referring to you in her entry about a fellow she met who skillfully moderated a dinner conversation?
Not at all, Scott. I didn’t meet her until this weekend. It turned out she had been to Makassar the week before. Thanks for fixing the link.
So, what was the first question on the foreign service exam?
It was some crazy graph interpretation of government spending from the 1970s to the 1990s. Why did spending spike in the early eighties? Then there were a couple options regarding government spending and one regarding the scale on the Y-axis. I guessed.