Taking the road less traveled…

The Basics

My name is Aaron.

I was born and raised in Haverhill, MA and I’ve spent the last 5 years or so living in Ithaca, NY attending Cornell University and, more recently, doing research. I’m a scientist, traveler, and geek who loves the weather, the outdoors, and just being on the move.

About a year ago I had the realization that my career plans were not quite as clear as I once thought they were. So, I decided to take a year to work and then apply to graduate school. Two weeks ago I was offered an opportunity I could not pass up.

I was accepted into the Erasmus Mundus Master of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management [MESPOM] program. It’s a two year program that allows students to attend at least three out of six universities in Hungary, Greece, Sweden, the US, Canada, and the UK. I was also accepted into other amazing programs in the United States, but as cheesy as it sounds I had to follow my heart and this is the program I’m most drawn to.

I’m not entirely sure where this path will take me, but I do know it will be one hell of ride.

 

The Blog

The purpose of this blog is to share my experience living abroad and hopefully compile a bunch of useful resources for others to use. I’m also hoping to get advice from others through comments and guest posts. Also expect to see articles, posts, and links to other things that interest me like grad school life, science, and technology.

I promise I will do my best to write a post at least once a week, even if it’s just a bunch of pictures. I had a blog a couple years ago during my semester abroad in Australia, that quickly fell to the wayside. I bought the domain AaronAbroad.net to make sure I had a stake in keeping the site active and the content current.

Finally, for the first couple months I’ll continue to make changes to the blog/website, including minor structure, pages and categorizing. If you have any advice about changes I should make please let me know!

 

The Plan So Far…

I’m still working full time as a research assistant at Cornell University, and will continue to do so until sometime in June, at which point I’ll go home, spend time with friends and family, and panic. In the meantime I’m going to try and do most of my research and Pre-Departure planning. Mainly figuring out things like banking, transportation, cell phones, classes, and trying my best to learn Hungarian and Greek. From there things will get complicated…

August 2012 -> May/June  2013: Hungary

June 2013: Greece

September 2013 ->December 2013: UK or Sweden

January 2014 -> May 2014: ???

June 2014:  Hungary

I’ll keep you updated, stay tuned!