Tuesday, June 5, 2018

The Point of This Blog

Some of you may remember that we lived in Budapest, Hungary during the 2003-2004 academic year. During that time, I kept a bit of a daily diary which you can still find here: https://carrot.whitman.edu/Budapest/Journal/journal.html

The diary was mostly a documentary project for the family to help us recall some of the details when we're all old and grey. However, friends and family also seemed interested, so it became an easy way to keep in touch. A lot has changed in the 15 years since we lived in Budapest. In particular, high-quality, on-line blogging software is much more accessible. Fifteen years ago, I basically wrote the Budapest web pages from scratch--which is why they look so primitive. This time around, I'm going to use this Blogger platform to document the year.

On June 11, 2018, Laura and I will leave Walla Walla and not return for at least a year. I'll be on sabbatical leave from Whitman College working on my mathematics research as well as the development of a new introductory course in machine learning for the math dept. Laura will take the year off from formal employment, but will be working remotely on a project for the WA state 2-year colleges.

We're relocating to Seville, Spain for no particular reason other than we'd like to learn to speak Spanish and live in a relatively warm climate. We applied for and received year-long visas from Spain (that was an ordeal). We also have rented a small 2-bdrm apt in downtown Seville through AirBnB. We arrive in Spain on July 2 and Seville on July 4. Former Whitman student, math major, good friend and all-around great person, Halley McCormick, will be living in our house in Walla Walla for the year. She'll be looking after things while working at Garrison Middle School.

Between July 11 and July 1, we'll be driving across country towards Miami, camping and visiting with folks along the way. The big goal is to leave the car with Rachel in Miami for the year (since she doesn't have a car and we certainly won't be needing it).