The Mayhem of Leaving....

Kira modeling with our luggage!

We made it...barely.  We were still cleaning the house as the people renting it were moving in.  Of course, this was Saturday, and we were leaving on Sunday, so I suppose that this was still doing pretty well!  To make matters interesting, Saturday must have been one of the most humid, still, uncomfortable days in recent memory in Greenville!  Shoving all those boxes into the attic made us really happy for air conditioning!  I have to say, besides actually leaving the house, the last couple of weeks overall were rather intense.  Lots of decisions to make, Carol leaving her job, the girls starting online school, finishing the repairs in our master bathroom, cleaning, more cleaning, and packing.  Packing was an interesting problem - how does one pack an entire life into 8 roller bags, 4 carryon bags, and 4 backpacks?  Decisions on clothes were difficult as we don't entirely know what to expect and need to account for field work/hiking, casual, and business - all for four seasons.  And then, there was the decision on phones...

Really, I never knew that there were 10,000,000 different phones out there, each with pros and cons.  What does one do when you need four phones and you are moving to Croatia?  Well, Amazon, lots of research, and someone in your department that has lots of experience with phones.  The choices were seemingly simple - modify our Verizon account so we could make international calls on our existing phones, we could get a plan in Croatia, or we could purchase unlocked phones and purchase sim cards.  In the end, given a 10 month stay and the cost (and limits) of plans in Croatia, we decided to purchase unlocked phones (but see sentence #1!) and get sim cards.  We ended up getting one smartphone (Google maps!) and three sort of dumb phones.  This allows us to communicate with each other, locals in Croatia, and within Europe without breaking the bank.  Carol and I got international numbers (Estonian!) from OneSimCard and we all will get Croatian sim cards and numbers on arrival.

So, the panic more or less peaked on Saturday, but we did finish!!  And then off to a friends house to spend the night with our 431 lbs of luggage that will get us through a year in Croatia....

One of the many things we leave behind (Brannon's bike)...

And another...

Tomorrow, we leave at 2:30 pm...hopefully, all goes well!  There were tears shed as we drove away from our lovely home in Greenville.  We'll miss my parents, all of our friends, and of course, our three amigos - Lewiston Acadia Ellsworth, Lord Belfast; Sir Maximilian Emyriss Benedict; and Julien Augustus, Emperor of Little Creek (pictured above).

The Fulbright Pre-Departure Orientation, Washington, D.C.

View of the U.S. Capital building

As a Fulbright Scholar, I attended the Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) in Washington, D.C., in late July.  I made sure that I had an early morning flight, so was at the hotel before 10 AM.  Since the PDO did not begin until 6 PM that evening, I spent the day on the capital mall.  There was some sort of Chinese demonstration going on, but the number of tourists were manageable.  I FINALLY was able to see the Smithsonian Air and Space Musuem, a place I've wanted to see since I had a glimpse of it in 2001.

Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis", Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  I grew up on Lindbergh St. in Appleton, WI.

I also made it to the National Museum of Art (mainly to see the Gilbert Stuart portraits of the founders, especially those of George Washington) and the National Archives Museum to see the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights.  The last time I was in D.C. and had time to go to the National Archives (~2006), the line was out the door!  This time, it was about a 15-20 minute wait, and well worth it to see the documents that created our form of government.  A very big deal for an early American history buff like myself!

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

The Fulbright PDO meetings, focused on southern Europe, were very well done.  I found that information sessions that covered material in the PDO packet weren't particularly informative, but the country sessions were VERY good and worthwhile.  In the country sessions, I met all the Fulbrighters that are going to Croatia and Croatia Fulbright alumni.  The alumni provided excellent tips regarding food (its really good!), travel, housing, the issues facing faculty in Croatian Universities, best modes of transportation, must see locations in Croatia, and so on.  Additionally, just meeting all the scholars, English teaching assistants, and students was truly awe inspiring.  Fulbrighters are a really passionate group of people, and the students in particular were incredibly impressive with their understanding of the world and empathy for people in southern Europe region.  The PDO was both a humbling and exciting experience!

Getting ready...

Marina-Dalmacija in Zadar, Croatia.  Our first apartment will be near the marina.

You would think that the hardest part of a Fulbright is the proposal stage.   Finding the perfect place, the right people to work with, the honing and refining of the proposal, fighting the internet to submit.  Then, the wait is pretty stressful as well.  Hoping that the proposal makes it through peer review, the anxious wait to hear from the Fulbright Commission, and in my case, the emotional roller coaster of learning of alternate status, then actually receiving an award.

However, I'm telling you that is not the most most stressful and difficult part.  Like every field excursion I have ever been a part of, the "getting ready" is by far the worst part.  In the case of the Fulbright, everything is magnified because the whole family is going, not just me.  Figuring out how to enroll our kids in an online school and how to ship all the materials to Croatia without breaking the bank...  Finding someone willing and able to rent our house and take care of our three cats at the same time on very short notice...  Getting the house ready for whoever might hopefully rent our house (Goodwill is our friend!!)...  Worrying about whether Carol will be able to keep her job...  Finding a place to live in Zadar, Croatia while in the U.S...  Trying to learn a bit of conversational Croatian... All this while the both of us are working (though my schedule is far more flexible).  But, I suspect, like every trip I have done, once on the plane to Zadar, all will be good!  And, the stress will be fair exchange for the experience of a lifetime.

This last weekend we cleaned out the pantry, my closet, my dresser, started on the office, and cleared out part of the attic.  And, we fixed our dryer.  We've already started on cleaning out the garage.  One massive Goodwill donation on Sunday.  As Carol pointed out, maybe we should do this every couple of years as we'd keep the house free of accumulated clutter.

And, we have had success finding someone to rent our home and, with the help of Home In Zagreb, we have found an apartment in Zadar.  First, we'll spend a week in an apartment near Marina Dalmacija, then we will move to our apartment in central Zadar.  Its all very exciting, but we still need to finish up getting the house ready and pack!

The Big Day!

The University of Zadar

On Friday, May 23rd, I learned that I was awarded a 6 month Fulbright Scholarship award to the University of Zadar in Zadar, Croatia.  Of course, NO ONE was at home to tell the news!  Carol was on a flight to Los Angles, the kids were in school, and most of my colleagues were out of the office.

With help from Furman University, we will spend about 10 months in Zadar, where I will collaborate with faculty in the Department of Ecology, Agronomy, and Aquaculture.  Additionally, I will work with faculty in the Department of Geography.  My main goals are to integrate concepts of sustainability and biogeochemistry into the curriculum.  I'll likely teach courses in biogeochemistry and environmental science, but that remains to be seen as there has been a change in leadership in the Department of Ecology, Agronomy, and Aquaculture.  My research will focus on the potential for using rotational grazing as a method of improving soil organic carbon content in the regions grazing lands.

The past two weeks have been a bit hectic, as trying to figure out what we need to do to prepare for leaving the country for nearly a year is a bit overwhelming.  A word of advice to future Fulbrighters - Fulbright is really  helpful at this stage, but you have to be patient!  Your program officer will send information about the country.  And, at least for Croatia, contacts at the US Embassy in Zagreb and the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education, and Sport have been incredibly helpful in terms of what documentation will be needed, how the temporary residence visa application is handled, and finding an apartment.

I have to admit, however, the prospect of getting the house ready for 10 months away and suddenly needing to find someone to rent our house is a bit overwhelming!