Time for a break

When did I even get here? It’s been at least two weeks, I’m pretty sure. Things have really flown by since settling in out here in the American Southwest. This is the first time I’ve really sat down to blog since arriving; the first time to pause and reverse the trend of cramming stuff in for later processing. It’s a beautiful day for it too: it’s sunny and 91º outside as usual, traffic passes by in front of the window here at the Sparkroot café while Lykke Li sings about the little things, and I am supposed to be doing a full tune-up of my bike at the local community bike workshop.

The first part of this story is familiar to many of you: assembling furniture, unpacking, and settling in. After spending more than a year with not much more than my backpack and laptop you can imagine how overwhelming that was. It took us about a week to get everything together and in its place.

We found some used Schwinns on Craigslist that have been great assets, even if they do require a little bit of love. My brakes have gone out a few times but luckily the intersections were empty and the approach uphill (they are fixed now). Tucson has great biking opportunities and great bike laws though the drivers aren’t too accommodating. Pretty much the only thing we can’t do without a car is bring home ice-cream from the grocery: but fear not, reader, because I have an ice-cream maker with two freezable bowls that would let us make ice-cream ’round the clock if we wanted. Tragedy avoided.

The city of Tucson has pleasantly surprised us with what it offers. I’ve already attended five different programmingrelated meetup groups in the city and the coworking culture here is active and plentiful. In contrast to life in Hannover, there has been no lack of coffee-shop with power and Internet access, open restaurants, coworking labs and facilities, all within about a fifteen minute bike-ride from home. On my birthday we will be attending the German language meetup group here for a night of speaking German and sharing in stories of life in the land of Spargel (asparagus) and Currywurst. There are several different theaters in the downtown area, a thriving art community with frequent live-music and collaborative art studios. Of course, we also have the mountains surrounding us and greeting us daily.

Mandi starts school on Monday with all the other thousands of students and life enters the routine. My wanderlust has already started itching but the ability to have a stable and clean home base is comforting. I’m just hoping another one of my friends gets married soon in some exciting exotic place or I get invited to a conference across the world to give me an excuse to do it all again. Here’s looking at you, WordCamp Europe 2016!

Who knows what the next year will bring. Last year was a big year and was more eventful than probably the rest of my life. Growing up it was hard to believe I’d ever get much further than a day’s worth of driving could take me. Now I only hope that I can continue my adventuring and this doesn’t turn into one of those things you do once in a lifetime and repeat the same stories forever. I do have my next mini-adventure already planned: I’m going to drive up to our all-company meetup with a coworker from Albuquerque and we are going to go off-road and explore the territory (he also came from the other half of the country). So maybe you will and maybe you won’t be bored of my updates here.

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“Not all who wander are lost.”

Tucson, Arizona

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.

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On the trail to the top of Blackett’s Ridge, ca. October, 2007

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.

Journey to Hannover
So long, New York! We’ll be back next 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?

Share a story with an adventurer!
Share a story with an adventurer!