HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
Thinking about the up-coming year made me curious to see how far we've come in the past year. So I put this post together to remind us of all the awesome things that happened in 2011.
We started off the year strong spending time with our dear friends Hamsa and Danika (first in Delhi, then in Bihar on our Buddhist adventure). Next was the intense Vipassana meditation course I did in Sarnath; I'll always cherish the lessons I learned in that course, even if I'm not good enough to keep my meditation every day. After that was the South India trip Allen's brother took with us, where we saw elephants and house boats in Kerala and beautiful temples in Tamil Nadu.
By March we'd found out that I had gotten a full ride to the University of Michigan's School of Information and that changed all our plans. Next stop, Ann Arbor, Michigan! Our last months in India were a bit of a blur after that, but we did get some time relaxing in the mountains of Mussoorie (and thankfully, Allen got some good writing done on his dissertation).
Once we had gotten back to the States it was a whirlwind of family reunions at the beach, preparations for the move to Ann Arbor, and friends' weddings.
The shift to Ann Arbor and grad school was a little rough for me because Allen had to stay behind in Brooklyn trying to sell our apartment. In the meantime though, Allen was keeping himself busy going to conferences, getting interviewed on TV about his work, and writing up his dissertation.
But by Thanksgiving we had finally lined up a likely buyer for the apartment (whoohoo!) so we lifted Allen's temporary exile at Brooklyn and moved (almost) all of our stuff to Ann Arbor.
And then, as far as our blog is concerned, we dropped off the face of the planet basically. But not without good reason. We've been up to a lot.
While I had a very eventful (read: extremely busy) semester, it was at least extremely productive and I'd say for the most part successful. My grades for the semester were stellar and one of my professors wants me to work my term paper into a conference paper. I got elected to be an officer for our Student Organization for Computer Human Interaction (basically the society that thinks about how to make interaction/interfaces with digital information more user-friendly). I'm also coordinating a Data Without Borders inspired datadive at our school this February. So, yes .... I'm keeping busy in grad school.
Allen is plugging and chugging at his dissertation and we marveled the other day about how far he's come in the last couple of months. Meanwhile he's already gotten a scholarship to work on his dissertation for 6-weeks in London this spring and is a finalist for another post-doc (won't jinx it by saying much more). He's well on his way to finishing this year - if that's what he decides to do. Playing the game of academia means that he may want to take an extra year of fellowship funding next year while testing the job-market waters instead.
So that, my dear family and friends, leads us to now... the holiday season. We were especially excited to come down to Asheville for Christmas this year so we could play with our 3-month old niece, Caroline and let me tell you she is a CUTIE!
And of course we had a blast with our nephews, Joseph and William ... Allen got a special treat by playing Santa for them on Christmas day because at 6 and 3 they still believe in the magic of Santa. Grandma and Grandpa explained that Santa was leaving by going up the stairs because he had to go to the bathroom before he continued on his way. HA!
After the orgy of presents and family crazy fun time Allen and I had a nice relaxed New Year's Eve in Asheville ....... of course playing bridge with his folks! Ha!
We hope that you all had a wonderful time with all of your friends this holiday season and have a very very HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thinking about the up-coming year made me curious to see how far we've come in the past year. So I put this post together to remind us of all the awesome things that happened in 2011.
We started off the year strong spending time with our dear friends Hamsa and Danika (first in Delhi, then in Bihar on our Buddhist adventure). Next was the intense Vipassana meditation course I did in Sarnath; I'll always cherish the lessons I learned in that course, even if I'm not good enough to keep my meditation every day. After that was the South India trip Allen's brother took with us, where we saw elephants and house boats in Kerala and beautiful temples in Tamil Nadu.
By March we'd found out that I had gotten a full ride to the University of Michigan's School of Information and that changed all our plans. Next stop, Ann Arbor, Michigan! Our last months in India were a bit of a blur after that, but we did get some time relaxing in the mountains of Mussoorie (and thankfully, Allen got some good writing done on his dissertation).
Once we had gotten back to the States it was a whirlwind of family reunions at the beach, preparations for the move to Ann Arbor, and friends' weddings.
The shift to Ann Arbor and grad school was a little rough for me because Allen had to stay behind in Brooklyn trying to sell our apartment. In the meantime though, Allen was keeping himself busy going to conferences, getting interviewed on TV about his work, and writing up his dissertation.
But by Thanksgiving we had finally lined up a likely buyer for the apartment (whoohoo!) so we lifted Allen's temporary exile at Brooklyn and moved (almost) all of our stuff to Ann Arbor.
And then, as far as our blog is concerned, we dropped off the face of the planet basically. But not without good reason. We've been up to a lot.
While I had a very eventful (read: extremely busy) semester, it was at least extremely productive and I'd say for the most part successful. My grades for the semester were stellar and one of my professors wants me to work my term paper into a conference paper. I got elected to be an officer for our Student Organization for Computer Human Interaction (basically the society that thinks about how to make interaction/interfaces with digital information more user-friendly). I'm also coordinating a Data Without Borders inspired datadive at our school this February. So, yes .... I'm keeping busy in grad school.
Allen is plugging and chugging at his dissertation and we marveled the other day about how far he's come in the last couple of months. Meanwhile he's already gotten a scholarship to work on his dissertation for 6-weeks in London this spring and is a finalist for another post-doc (won't jinx it by saying much more). He's well on his way to finishing this year - if that's what he decides to do. Playing the game of academia means that he may want to take an extra year of fellowship funding next year while testing the job-market waters instead.
So that, my dear family and friends, leads us to now... the holiday season. We were especially excited to come down to Asheville for Christmas this year so we could play with our 3-month old niece, Caroline and let me tell you she is a CUTIE!
All dolled up for Christmas
And of course we had a blast with our nephews, Joseph and William ... Allen got a special treat by playing Santa for them on Christmas day because at 6 and 3 they still believe in the magic of Santa. Grandma and Grandpa explained that Santa was leaving by going up the stairs because he had to go to the bathroom before he continued on his way. HA!
Check out the Brady Boy Band! You heard 'em here first, folks!
We will take ALL OF THE TRICKS!
We hope that you all had a wonderful time with all of your friends this holiday season and have a very very HAPPY NEW YEAR!
