Return of the Nerd!

Since this post, I have been letting the subject of my plans for September fall by the wayside. Now that the North Island, the South Island, and Saipan are behind me, it's time to explain my next adventure.

In the three years since I finished my undergraduate degree, I have intentionally worked a variety of different jobs to broaden my experience. Potential career paths have been spinning through the back of my mind, each with roughly the same level of appeal. After three years spent investigating, the biggest conclusion I have made is that it would take several lifetimes to explore the possibilities offered by every one of my interests. However, I also realized that I did not want to spend the rest of my days making coffee and sandwiches for just above minimum wage. I wanted to be doing something that made positive change, so at least I could finish each day comfortable in the knowledge that I was doing what I could to improve the world. Being a barista did not do that for me.

It became clear that graduate school was in the cards, and I used my extended stay in New Zealand to explore various options online. The study of planning (you may have heard it called urban planning) has attracted me for several years now. I have long been convinced that humanity's relationship with the planet is out of sync, and the planning of towns and cities seems like an excellent way to manage that relationship. Planning also combines several of my other interests, allowing me to get a sense of what the aforementioned "several lifetimes" might have been like.

After coordinating references, transcripts, and personal statements through the wonder of the internet, I was enthusiastically accepted at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their MPlan is a two-year degree with a mandatory work term. My only hesitation about it was the two-year commitment (European degrees are one year), but the more I hear about it, the more I'm glad I accepted their offer. I recently made a visit to Halifax to arrange housing and get acquainted with the city. A number of friends from my undergraduate years happen to be living in the area as well, and one is even in the same program.

I will do my best to update the blog while at Dalhousie, although much of the material might be filed under "planning nerd." Time will tell.

Meanwhile, here's an assortment of photos from the past three years.

Logroño's bridge over the Rio Ebro.

Bambi, the deer that the staff took care of at Pueblo Ingles.

Eating clam chowder from a bread bowl in San Francisco - it was better than my facial expression indicates.

Stormtroopers guarding the Willis St mall in Wellington.

The crayfish tail I cooked in Arthur's Pass.

A ringtail possum in the tree outside Chris' house in Brisbane.

Bird Island near Saipan.