(Almost) security cleared?:

I met with the background investigator for the State Department today, who showed me his ID when we were walking in like the FBI do in movies. Pretty cool. The meeting went pretty well. He asked about foreign travel, drugs, and the vast number of addresses I've had over the past three years.

Foreign travel was fine. Over the time period he asked, I'd been to Italy, the UK, and Canada. He asked for the name of the program I went to Italy with and the name of the guy in charge, which I couldn't remember. For the UK, he wanted to know who I went with and how long I was there for. The Canadian trip was the twenty minute excursion to Windsor for Kindereier for ScavHunt. He wanted to know what Kindereier were and why US Immigration didn't want to let us back in the US. Like the immigration agent, he didn't find the story very amusing.

The address thing was no big deal. They'd messed up apartment numbers and the addresses didn't match the addresses on my credit report since I didn't change my address when I moved within the U of C. And I explained it was a dorm, so I moved every year.

Drugs, again no big deal. But let me tell you, talking about marijuana use with a federal agent is uncomfortable. And he wanted the name of the boy I was with, which I felt vaguely bad about giving. Not that they're going to track him down or anything, but still.

Anyway, he told me everything looked OK to him, and he'd send the stuff back to Washington. I should hear pretty soon, I hope. My boss here would love to know when I'm leaving, and I would like to be able to make plans.