It begins where it ends
6 months ago, I wrote about things coming to an end, about making a decision to do three things in one swoop.
On Friday, December 16th (2011), two things came to an end:
- My time as Science Fellow at Gemini Observatory in Chile, and
- my time as an astronomer.
The third occurs on Christmas Eve when five years of residing in Chile draws to a close, and I hop on an overnight flight back to North America to begin a brand new phase in life.
For the next year, I’m living out of a suitcase which should prove to be an interesting experiment. For the first four months of 2012, I’ll be in North America going west to east (slowly to avoid the frigid depths of winter), before embarking on an around-the-world (RTW) trip in May.
It’s going to be an exciting yet simultaneously terrifying challenge, because of the huge shift by the way in which I’ll be living in the next year. While it’s not much different than others who’ve changed their lives and gone on to travel, plans now go into action, now that the time has finally arrived.
It’s all become very real.
Here’s the North American tour with initial and approximate dates to be confirmed:
- December 25 — January 3 (2012) : San Francisco, CA
- January 4–12 : Vancouver, BC
- January 13–16 : Victoria, BC, for WordCamp Victoria
- January 18–24 : mystery location
- January 25 — February 8 (or so) : Vancouver, BC
- February 8–15 : Seattle, WA
- February 16 — March 5 : Los Angeles, CA
- March 6–12 : Ciudad de México
- March 13–19 : San Francisco, CA
- March 20–26 : Bentonville, AR
- March 27 — April 2 : Houston, TX
- April 3–9 : Toronto, ON
- April 10–16 : Minneapolis, MN
- April 17–23 : Washington, DC
- April 24–30 : Baltimore, MD
The first stop of the oneworld RTW starts early-May in the Bahamas. Despite my worry for boredom, I’m looking forward to taking it easy with some sun on the beach.
The phrase ‘North American tour’ is appropriate, as I’m also going to ‘rediscover’ a majority of the Pearl Jam catalog over the last 20 years.
The top and bottom photos were made by Martha Boyer and by me, respectively. This post originally appears on Fotoeins Fotopress on fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-18r.
Fotoeins Fotografie 
11 Responses to “It begins where it ends”
I look forward to your Australian tour! 🙂
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So am I, Simon! Thanks!
Best wishes with your impending arrival, and I’ll be seeing you in a few months!
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I’m so excited for you! Can’t wait to see you in early January!!!! 😀
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Thanks, Jen! Have a good holiday back East, and I’ll see you in a couple of weeks!
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Will you pass through Miami? It’s about an hour from us and Steve and I would love to see you States-side! Safe travels, my friend.
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Hi, Sezin. I did in fact make a note of where y’all are going to be. 🙂
I’m planning on hopping over to Miami either during or after my time with friends in the Bahamas. While I’ve flown through Miami a number of times, I’ve never spent any time there – I’m hoping to change that. I’m also a big baseball fan, and I’d like to see a Miami Marlins game in their brand new ballpark.
Thanks, and happy 2012 to you both!
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We will be very happy to see you here in March. The weather should be great by that time. Have a good initial flight!
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Hi, Eva. I haven’t gotten that far “into March” to booking flights yet, and I’ll focus on those flights once I’m in Vancouver next month. Thanks for reading and for your comment; I’m looking forward to going back to D.F.!
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Enjoy your adventure, Henri! There is no better feeling than the one of freedom 🙂 Btw, if you plan to meet new people everywhere and don’t know this possibility yet, I advise you to try Hospitality Club (www.hospitalityclub.org) or Couch Surfing. I’ve met some very good friends through the former 🙂 Happy 2012!
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Aurea, thanks for your kind comments and recommendations! Best wishes to you in 2012!
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[…] One year ago this week, I arrived in San Francisco, after having completed five years of living and working in Chile, ended my time in astronomy after 15-plus years, and began my year-long journey around the world (RTW). […]
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