One year ago, today, I headed out the door for a year-long sabbatical. The professional core of that sabbatical was my Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellowship at Imperial College London, but I also enjoyed meeting colleagues at University College London, during visits to universities across the UK in England, Scotland, and Wales, and at conferences in France, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The year was academically very productive! And the year also presented incredible opportunities for travel, much of it described in this blog. Here’s a quick summary, with one photo per month. Each month’s heading is a link to the blog posts for that month, and the bullets link to a few travel highlights.
August
- My dad and I traveled to Iceland and Greenland
- Then I spent a few days in Iceland (solo)
- wrapup
September
- I arrived in London and we settled in for the year.
- Mid-September, I started hiking… and have continued every weekend.
October
- New Hampshire (and Gile Mountain, Vermont)
- Blue Ridge waterfalls photography workshop
- Smoky Mountains solo photography expedition
November
- We visited South Carolina for a wedding, before heading around the world:
- Australia (southwest) followed by a Dartmouth cruise around New Zealand
- South Carolina again, for Thanksgiving
December
January
- a weekend Paris right after New Year’s Day
- Yellowstone + Teton in winter, another Dartmouth trip
February
- three days in Kuwait, to visit the American University of Kuwait
March
- French Alps (Correçon-en-Vercors) for an academic workshop
- Svalbard photography workshop: Longyearbyen and a visit to 80º north at Moffen Island, Svalbard… I still owe you a gallery of my best images!
April
- a weekend in Amsterdam to visit friends and tulips
- a quick trip to the village of Dartmouth, in the UK
May
- two weeks in Scotland and the Shetland Islands, with friends
- an overnight to Manchester (England) to visit my birthplace with my parents
- Lisbon to visit old friends from our 1979 life there
- Oxford to visit the university
June
- a weekend in Wales
- King’s Birthday Parade, in London
- Cambridge for an academic conference
July
- a week in Snowdonia, Wales with Dartmouth friends
- Lisbon again, for a conference
- ending our year in London
- then two days of California meetings followed by my cross-country drive
August
- NSF conference at University of Maryland
- home again, to stay!
Whew!
That’s a lot of travel! Between my departure last August, and finally settling in at home last week, I visited Australia, England, France (twice), Greenland, Iceland (twice), Kuwait, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway (Svalbard), Portugal (twice), Scotland, United States (three times), and Wales (twice). (That’s 13 countries, if you count England, Scotland, and Wales separately.)
Indeed, since I’m counting: the year involved 36 flights and 150 nights away from home (including 5 nights on planes, 17 nights on ships, 2 nights at a friend’s house, and 6 nights staying with family). Over the 365-day year, I slept only 21 nights at home in NH. I’m glad to be home now, for good.
David Kotz 