Moving

Consider this the official announcement: I’m moving to Peru!

More specifically, I’ll be moving to Lima on January 8th, 2011. I just bought my one-way ticket, so unless the TSA becomes even more Nazi-ish (sorry, Godwin’s law), I’ll be an official Limeño-gringo in 55 days.

For some backstory: my wife, Sandra, is already living in Lima while taking a year off from medical school to do some really awesome research on tuberculosis. She’s been there since this past July, and the original plan was that she’d return in a year while I held down the cat-fort at home. But she recently confirmed the option to extend her stay for another year, and spending two years apart just did not sound cool. Plus, Lima is a pretty awesome place, which I’ll try to cover in more detail in later blog posts. Sandra also has a blog about her experiences there, which she is worse about updating than I am with mine (if you can believe that!).

We’ve already spent some time abroad while in the Peace Corps, so this isn’t exactly new for us. As we’re still quite young, despite what all my gray hair might suggest, with no (human) children, no house, essentially nothing holding us down, it’s the kind of opportunity we’d be silly to pass up. And I get to resurrect all that Spanish I learned in high school and then completely forgot!

So, we currently expect to be there until mid-2012, assuming the world hasn’t ended before then. Don’t fear – there is abundant internet access in Lima, so we’ll be in touch. And if you’ve ever thought about going to see Machu Picchu, which I cannot recommend enough, you’ll have some friendly faces in Peru to help you find your way.

In the meantime, I’ve got some stuff to get rid of. Anyone in need of a color printer/scanner/copier? Sorry, the entertainment center is already spoken for.

From my recent visit to see Sandra, when we climbed a million steps at Machu Picchu

Bad Timing

I thought about why starting a blog would be a good idea. I thought about where, and how, and what.

I did not think about when. When turned out to be in the weeks leading up to a move to a new city. Bad Timing.

This will be, by rough count, my 10th move in 8 years, although easily the largest since most of those were either for college or the Peace Corps (the latter being long distance moves, but you don’t exactly pack up a whole house when you go to the Peace Corps). It’s an intrastate move, only 70 miles, but there’s a very narrow time window to do the actual moving, plus the amount of junk my wife and I have accumulated since those first moves is just astounding. I can’t actually fathom how all of those stuffed animals, board games, juice glasses, fake decorative flowers, Hannukah candles, crappy end tables, bean bag chairs, and ice cream makers fit into our little two-bedroom apartment. And there was no way we were going to cram them all into the next one. Let’s just say the Goodwill drop-off center was a little more crowded this year, and that I’ve had a little less time than expected for extraneous web musings.

Once the move is completed, I’ll follow up with some thoughts for anyone else preparing for a life-upheaval. Until then, why don’t you all enjoy the weather for me while I’m taping boxes.