Life

So, since my last post, our sabbatical in Colombia celebrated its 1-year anniversary. With this milestone came a some pretty amazing news: it's no longer a sabbatical. If we've learned anything from our time in Colombia, it's that nothing is ever 100% certain, especially if it involves a prospective employment opportunity. As such, we've been understandably hesitant to write a post on this until it became a little more "real."

Robin has a job! She's been talking with Colombian-based think tank CEELAT about a part-time mapping project for the past 6 months or so. Over the last month, that part-time one-off project got upgraded into a part-time-plus-bd-so-we-can-bring-you-on-full-time permanent position running a GIS lab for CEELAT. The job comes fully-equipped with benefits, computer, and visa(s)! I'll let Robin tell you more about the details of the job, but it's some pretty exciting news.

In related news, now that Robin's joined the Colombian elite, anyone got an old blackberry they don't need anymore?

Yaaaaay!!!! ... but what does Jerry think about this? I've heard plenty of people joke about kept manhood as the ideal life, but how many of them really feel that way? We've had a year of off-and-on futility in the Colombian job market (up until Robin's home run, of course); would I be happy with that for another 2 or 3 years? The short answer: yes (see previous post). Seriously, though, leather working's taken over my life... It's awesome. I spend all of my available free time at the workshop. It's tons of fun. Once I finish the latest bags that I've been working on, I'll finally take pictures of everything and put it up on flickr. To those people who are lucky enough to be receiving gifts when we head back to the US of A - all of the bags are looking beautiful.

On a slightly different level, some time before November we're going to roll out the Taller's entry into the U.S. market. Stay tuned for some serious Etsy-hyping.

Despite my love for leather, the job search hasn't ended. I recently took McKinsey's first round problem solving test and passed, but because we're leaving for Atlanta on Thursday, I'm missing the first round of interviews in the August/September batch. The good news is that I can still jump right into the interview rounds in November, and I get an extra 3 months to study. In either case the start date would be in 2012, so interviewing in November just gives me extra study time.

If that falls through, the plan is to continue with the leather working, add some woodworking classes, maybe learn how to build my own bike at the bike workshop, and possibly pick up a master's degree at the Externado or Los Andes.

See y'all in Atlanta! (and I promise that my next post will have photos)