Alex mentioned before a little about her thoughts on the bidding process. In the end, I think we’re pretty happy with how we bid (ask me again tomorrow and hopefully I’ll say the same thing), but getting there was not an easy process. At first it was overwhelming. Then stressful. Then merely time consuming. Then back to stressful. Then we were relieved when the list was submitted. Then more stressed and even a little excited as we get closer to knowing where we’ll be for the next two years.

Since Alex had her chance to weigh in on the process, I thought I would put together some of my own thoughts for anybody out there wondering what it was like. Here are some of the things that went through my head:

• All those crowds and traffic? India sounds terrible.
• Exotic culture, reliable internet and the Cricket World Cup? Maybe India doesn’t sound so bad.

• Paris would be amazing!
• No hardship pay? Non.

• I wish we had more time to research all these posts.
• I wish we could turn this thing in today so I can stop thinking about it.

• I’m glad they don’t make us rank each post individually.
• This one is a “high-high” and that one is a “low-high.” I sure wish we could rank each post individually.

• We have to go someplace we can take Abbey.
• New Zealand has a six-month quarantine for pets, you say? Who’s Abbey?

• Cotonou translates as “mouth of the river of death.” No thanks.
• Actually, Cotonou is our dream post.

• Excellent, we’re bidding high on Maui!
• What do you mean we just bid high on Mali?

• I really don’t want to stay in DC.
• Come to think of it, DC is a whole lot better than some other places.

As you can see, it was a great deal of work organizing a list of 100 jobs into three categories. Places I never thought I’d want to go ended up being some of our most desired posts. Other places that I’ve longed to go wound up at the bottom. There was a method to all the madness, and tomorrow we will find out just where it will take us.