Departures and Goodbyes

Well here it is. Another overseas adventure, and another mediocre attempt at blogging about my excursion. For those of you who don't know, I've written one of these before, back in Fall 2013 while I worked for a few months in Sweden. As you will likely note in the near future, that blog was updated much more frequently (~twice a week) than the one I will be writing here, namely due to the limited time I spent in the way way north of Sweden. I don't foresee spending that much time and effort doing the same during my time in Auckland, but who knows..

The low-down on how this came to be:  As I was nearing the end of my PhD studies in Madison, Wisconsin this past winter/spring, I was looking pretty hard at finding a post-doctoral position. I had a few offers and options in the U.S. as well as back in Sweden, and was strongly considering most of them. When I did my Skype interview with the group in Auckland it still seemed like a pipe dream, and yet just two weeks later they sent me an offer letter. Hem and haw, hem and haw, repeat, and suddenly I had made up my mind. Leaving friends, family, comfort, security, and general ease of life in the U.S. was a difficult decision to make, but I knew that ultimately I would regret passing up on this truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

So I'm off to Auckland, New Zealand for a post-doctoral fellowship that will last at least 14 months. Not that long of a time, but the distance, oh man.

Anytime you see these fake travel posters in this blog I'll refer you to the excellent HBO show 'Flight of the Conchords.' Incidentally, this is the only way I've built up any knowledge of NZ so far.

It's been over three months since my PhD defense and this decision, and now it's becoming very real. You'd think the reality comes from the knowledge that I'll soon be halfway around the world (But not really antipodal, as the Midwest to Auckland is only around 8500 miles away, truly halfway would be somewhere in the south Indian Ocean. Interestingly, Auckland's antipode is between Seville and Malaga in Spain, see below for other antipodes of interest).

No, I've always accepted trying and being somewhere new. It's that in travelling this distance, it creates a physical barrier between myself and those people and places that I love. For the past 5 weeks, I've been all around the USA visiting friends and family. Every event has been precious and memorable to me, and every farewell has felt like closure on a chapter of my life I'll fondly remember. As always, it's the people, not the things or places, that I'll miss most. Because without people, places and things have paltry value.

People like this second family in my second home of Madison:

6/20:  Something inappropriate was probably said just before or after this photo was taken.

7/11:  Beer, the star of every Madison show.

Or friends in DC (now Okinawa!)/Minneapolis/Boston/Philly:

7/4:  Switched shirts, feet caked in mud, great music. 

Or friends in Michigan, Charlotte, and Seattle (now DC!):

7/17:  Derek and Jaime's wedding in Bay City. Photos appropriately blurry.

7/14 and 7/18. Top:  Worst of three beards, but still a beard.
Bottom:  Ben and David's stunning rendition of 'Can't Stop' by RHCP.

7/23. Nothing says PDX like a sampler of Ciders in 'matching plaids,' surrounded by wood paneling. 

Or that diabolically distant family out in Portland (Michigan and Oregon):

7/26:  Family portrait in a rose garden. Baby Emmett and his mommy stealing the show!

7/26:  Two PhDs, both alike in dignity...

Lee and Eric conquer yet another (fog-covered) hike. Dad at Founder's Brewery.
Reverse selfie on the Pacific. And the monster I woke up to everyday in Portland.

And everyone/everything else in between.

People always say that travelling provides you some perspective on life. I think in reality it's a kind of double-perspective. There are things and people and places that you'll certainly discover when you travel, but you'll also be simultaneously discovering the things and people and places (nouns upon nouns!) you may have taken for granted in the places you're leaving.

Ultimately it builds a person up to appreciate the diversity and substance that life has to offer. In the spirit of this blog and of the many posts that are yet to come, I want to invite you to discover some of these nouns that New Zealand has to offer, all while appreciating the ones that have brought me to this moment of change.

Cheers!




Antipodes! (it turns out almost all of North America's antipodes lies in the South Indian Ocean)
Seattle - Port-aux-Français, South Indian Ocean
Santiago - Zhen'an, China
Bogota - Cabang, Indonesia

This map helps you appreciate all that damn water covering our planet..