Eight days ago I landed in Tucson, Arizona. It’s our new home. The intervening days have been full of acquiring bicycles, building furniture, and checking out the city. Meanwhile I’ve been slack in writing here because of the shuffle. Before I go into too much detail of what’s going on, I thought I would explain why we’re here.
It’s not our first time here. Mandi first took me to Tucson eight years ago to join her on a short vacation.
Even though it’s always been a getaway for us, we’re now settling in at the beginning of August (which is anything but the tourist season) to get ready for the next school year where Mandi will start her PhD program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching.
Just about two years ago we started trying to figure out what we would do next with our lives. We applied to graduate programs, overseas opportunities, remote-working jobs, and spoke with missions agencies. The end of all that searching was a job for me at Automattic and a PhD program for Mandi in Tucson. The University of Arizona had the best program for what she wants to do and they came back excited to have her. Our plans changed, of course, when she was also awarded the Fulbright grant to teach in Germany for a year.
Now the year is over and we spent a few weeks at home, it’s time to start the program at the University (they deferred Mandi’s enrollment on account of the Fulbright).
Life here is much different than Germany but also from Indianapolis. The climate is different, the customs are different, the demographics are different, and the landforms are different. It’s a good city into which to return from Europe because it’s full of bike lanes and the downtown area is small and walkable. It’s an exciting little town where something is always happening.
We now have a few weeks before school starts and will surely fill the coming days with preparation, settling here at our condo, and exploring the area. What new adventures await us?
the afterburner 