BURRITO WEST BLOG

Happy 2013!

Very exciting news for Peter and I!!

Starting in April, we'll be moving to Europe for a year-long 'sabbatical'!

Yup, we're taking a year off to go live abroad and travel! Thanks to my awesome bosses*, I've secured a 1 year unpaid leave from my fantastic job, meaning we can go have this adventure and then I can come back to continue doing the work I love.  I'm feeling pretty lucky!

Peter and I have been saving for a big trip for several years, and all the pieces fell into place for a 2013 start.  The plan (subject to much change as we work out details) is to go live in a college city in Poland called Wrocław, establish a bit of a life there, do short trips from there (hello Prague & Vienna!), then we'll spend the last month or so traveling further afield (Korea?).

Soon this blog will be written from someplace old & European

We've got a lot of big things to work out, such as: subletting our apt, finding a superhero (or two superheros) who will take care of our cats for us (and dote on them), getting my visa, planning our travels, etc. but - it's real enough now that I can announce it!

The official approval from my work came through just before the holidays so Peter and I have started the serious planning. We decided a few days ago that one thing we're going to do is go to a ball in Vienna at the Imperial Palace in January 2014.  A chance to waltz in a palace ball room?  oh yes.  Just need to step up our Viennese waltz practice over the the next year... which I think we'll have time to!  Dance will be a part of our year off; the point is to spend time doing things we try to cram in the margins of normal life - dance lessons, reading, learning photography, taking some courses (the Polish uni has courses taught in English), and most of all - travel.

Stay tuned for desperate pleas for leads on people who might want to sublet our apt for a year and for the hero who will take a cat for us!

I expect this blog will get a whole lot more interesting soon. :)

*The awesomeness of my bosses can't be overstated - this is a huge headache for them (they have to back fill my position and structure all my projects so they can be handed over, and then a year later, transition it all back again). I'm super lucky that they are totally supportive of me doing this!