My Plans for 2015
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So there has been so much upheaval in my (and @dominica) life as of late I thought that it would be best, now that we have a pretty solid idea of what is happening, to put it into writing in a central location so that everyone can figure out what exactly is going on and so that everyone can stop asking me individually to update them as I am repeating the same information over and over for each person because it is not centralized anywhere.
To some degree, all of the information is on my blog, but that isn't so much of an announcement as it is an ongoing narrative of the decision process around what is happening so it is pretty disjointed and can be difficult to piece together.
So here is the deal, as much of it as I can share - since I had originally posted there is now more that I can share. Dominica and I are beginning a major new chapter in our lives and embarking on a pretty significant adventure. Primarily that is.... moving our primary residence outside of the United States and attempting to try our hands at being semi-professional travelers.
The big piece that triggered all of this is that I have left the investment banking industry and taken a position doing DevOps and Architecture with the Infrastructure Engineering group at Change.org where I get to help make the world a better place.
There is a ton that is not written in stone. There are many moving parts in motion right now and a lot of decisions that have not been finalized. But things are in serious motion and some big things are happening. So, where is where we are:
- I joined the team at Change.org
- Before Christmas our family left New York and moved our US residence to Houston, Texas. This makes a far better base for us to be out of as it is lower cost than NY, easier to deal with and the majority of our family is there at this point.
- Our NY home has been rented out. Our old renters who have already lived in the house for more than twice as long as we ever did are moving back in and have committed to living there for the indefinite future with a minimum duration expectation of likely half a decade or more.
- All of our "stuff" is going into super long term storage. We don't expect to see the bulk of our possessions for several years.
- Dominica is homeschooling the kids. We have been planning for this for many years.
- I am going to San Francisco in one week and will be there for two weeks doing some preparation for the trip and getting our ducks in a row. Can't disclose all of the details there.
- We will be completely packed with nothing left in the NY house by the first half of February (although we have already not been living there for the past month.)
- We will be in Houston all of the time that we are not getting the house ready to rent out.
- Dominica and the kids will be going to Disney World in early March for Spring Break. I am going to be really busy and do not have time to go on a vacation with them at that time.
- In late March, once they have recovered from the round trip drive between Houston and Orlando we will be packing up the kids and catching a flight for Andalusia, Spain!
Yes, these means that we are "moving" to Europe. No, this is not a short term thing. No, we will not be in Spain indefinitely, we will be moving all over Europe on a regular basis. No, we do not know where we are going next. Yes, we might be at SpiceWorld London, that is not known yet. Our next destination might be Scotland, we don't know that either yet. Yes, we will be back in the US regularly to see family, we will be in NY during some warm months and Texas during some cold ones. No, we don't speak Spanish or any other non-English language.
I think that that mostly covers things about what is happening. Now, how do you follow along?
My personal blog, Sheep Guarding Llama, always has the latest details. But this is my raw "diary" and not written to be like a travelogue or anything of the sort.
Our travel website is Kidding Around Europe and is all about traveling the European world with kids! We have posts and podcasts there. We are still podcasting our last trip to Europe, look for lots of updates to that before the updates from our next adventure go live. This will be the most polished place to see things, but there will be a significant delay in information.
Our travel community, built on NodeBB and used to demo the platform before MangoLassi uses it, is The Kidding Around Europe Travel Community. Great place to talk about travel in general, our travel, etc.
As we get closer we will have a Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels just for our KAE Travel activities too.
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As this is a tech community, people will be wondering about gear, I imagine. Last time that I was in Europe I was pretty much limited to an HP Folio 13 and a Nikon AWS100 for everything that we did.
This time we get to carry more gear and have more time to prepare. The Folio 13 was great but this time I am going with a MacBook Pro, fully loaded. And a top of the line GoPro Hero4 Black for 4K Ultra HD video recording. Plus the Nikon that we had previously. Still no DSLR, though, it is just too much to lug around.
Additionally, Dominica will have her Lenovo Yoga 2 as our Windows machine.
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As far as learning Spanish goes, we are currently using DuoLingo and just today bought our Rosetta Stone full suite of Spanish. So we will be working on those pretty hard between now and the end of March.
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What are our goals in the travel arena?
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Get a pretty serious podcast out on a regular basis. We are pretty happy with what we are producing already, we think that it is pretty entertaining and informative for people looking to explore Europe. We want to make people feel like they are traveling with us and learning from us but having fun too. It will be a combination of travel info and travel stories. You can already subscribe and listen via the Podcast app via iTunes. Works great.
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Get the blog going with similar content. But the podcast will likely have the most stuff. If the podcast really takes off and we get a lot of traffic the focus on the blog and website will increase.
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We really hope to see people using the travel community much like people use this one. Talking to other travelers and sharing experiences, ideas, getting information, etc.
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We want to get a lot of video and produce a travel show. There are very few of these out there and those that are out there tend to focus mainly on the "sights to see" and little else. We want to focus on traveling with kids and on seeing the actual places. We want our show to be less about convincing you to go or telling you want to see as much as bringing you along with us so that you can experience the place with us.
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Maybe eventually write a travel book.
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Congrats! Wish you the best!
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@thanksaj said:
Congrats! Wish you the best!
Thanks, AJ!
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If anyone is unfamiliar with Andalucia, this is the region in which we hope to be living by March.
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That's a nice part of the world, though I've only been to Seville.
Will you still be doing IT work whilst you're away?
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Hey right on! That's an adventure for sure!
Go raise a pint with some of the El Reg staff (half are in spain)
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Good luck on your travels.
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@MattSpeller said:
Hey right on! That's an adventure for sure!
Go raise a pint with some of the El Reg staff (half are in spain)
They have Canadian writers too. One of them hangs out on ML!
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Good luck
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I could never live in Europe. No Applebee's....
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On that note, off I go to Applebee's for dinner!
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@thanksaj said:
I could never live in Europe. No Applebee's....
UK and Netherlands at least have them. Although that is one of the saddest culinary statements ever.
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Hey, you're a die-hard fan of waffle house...You can't talk...Back me up @Minion-Queen!!
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Good luck @scottalanmiller
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Live long and prosper.
Hope you can pick up Espanol quickly.Here's a little something to get you started:
Feliz viaje. Por favor, disfrutar de manera responsable.
... I hope that translates as expected.
     :squirrel:
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@thanksaj said:
Hey, you're a die-hard fan of waffle house...You can't talk...Back me up @Minion-Queen!!
Neither Applebee's or Waffle House are good! YUCK!!! Even before when I could eat at Waffle House I thought it was horrible.
