Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Catching Up

Well I can't have you all thinking I dropped off the face of the Earth, or anything, so I'm back to share with you all some fun.

When we last spoke, I was unsuccessful in my efforts to gain .4 bonus points for Turkish.  I'll be honest, there were a few dark days after that.  Between narrowly passing the OA, budget crises in Washington, shrinking OA class sizes, compatriots getting "the call" and the realization that I expire off the register on Christmas Eve of all days, I came to feel a little defeated.  And while I think it's fair to feel defeated after a defeat, I reminded myself that I took the test when I did because I had time enough to take it again, so that's exactly what I will do.

I've enrolled in a summer Turkish immersion class, which will hopefully be sufficient instruction to push me over the edge.  I've also reached out to some previous Turkish-passers and gathered good resources from them.  All-in-all, the plan is to keep up to date, keep working on language, and have a good 4 months of 5.7 with seniority on the PD registers and just pray for the best.

That prayer may well be necessary throughout, too -- I just found this helpful guide to Turkish (click to open full size in a new tab):