So why are you moving?
Jarrod and I are attending graduate school at the University of York! [pictured below] We will both be going for our Master's degrees, which will take about a year, and then we are going to be applying for our PhDs. We expect to be in England for about 4-5 years, which is a scary thought, since so much can change in that time. As my Dad said at our wedding, we plan to keep our feet light and always expect change.
We are really excited to go to such a great university and even more excited to experience a different culture for a few years!
What will you be studying?
I will be studying Early Modern British History (think end of War of the Roses to the beginnings of the British Industrial Revolution). Basically, lots of dead people with very alive ideas! Some of the great events which you should know about during this time are Henry VIII's many wives, the Protestant Reformation, Elizabeth I's reign, the English Civil War, Charles I's beheading, and the Glorious Revolution (when William & Mary of Orange came to rule)! So jam packed.
Of course, there's so much to study in history and you can get as detailed as you desire, but I am considering studying the society that elite women created by social climbing, whether using their wits, marriage vows, or bodies as a means to gain power.
Jarrod will be studying Fusion Energy (details on that in previous post). Here's a brief explanation, bear with me science folks! Basically, there are 2 ways of achieving nuclear energy - fission, the splitting up of atoms, and fusion, the combining of atoms. Our sun works this same way!
The products of fusion are water and energy, making it much safer and creating more energy than fission, which is what we predominately use currently. "Well, why the heck are we not using fusion??" you might ask. Well, it's not very cost effective. But wait! That's what Jarrod is going to be helping with. Fusion energy studies are now focusing on creating new methods to make the process more efficient. Also, it's freaking cool!
So... why England?
Oh, this is a whole other monster....
Our tale begins in a bedroom of a teenage girl, her nose to her book in eager anticipation of what will happen to her imaginary wizarding friends next... Okay in all seriousness-- Harry Potter is what got me thinking about England as a place to visit, but it wasn't until I studied abroad at Oxford University summer of 2008 that got me thinking about living there. But of course, I didn't know Jarrod then and my life would have to change, twist, and turn a lot before I would get to a place where not only is Jarrod my husband and love of my life, but also that we would be moving in only a few short weeks.
So yea, fast forward a bit -- I meet Jarrod and --BAM-- love strikes! Oh and a plus... he wants to live abroad too.
So last summer, we go on a fun tour of Europe with our very good friend Adam. While in Amsterdam, Jarrod and I took a nice long walk around the canals, discussing our future. That was the moment we really decided to try this thing, try to move to Europe. At this point, we weren't narrowed down to England, but we also considered Amsterdam, Spain, Ireland, and good ol' Scotland as well. All places we loved and could see ourselves thriving in. We also decided that grad school would be the best means to do it. Not only did both of us want to extend our education, but it also turned out to be the easiest way to get there! Man, God is good.
So Jarrod and I started on the hunt for programs that would fit our interest. Our game plan? Find schools we like, apply to them, and then see which ones accept us, from there, we would make a decision on where we wanted to go based on schools we both got accepted to and schools that were close enough together to commute too.
Well, it turns out that the University of York was the first school either of us heard back from, and we both got in. Pretty much immediately we decided to just get a jump start and decide that was where we were going to go.
And the rest is... well, present day.
3 weeks to go
3 luggage to pack
1 crate to pack for shipping
1 cat to get a pet passport
2 people so excited to start this awesome adventure!
-Gabs
p.s. if anything, stick around to see how long we can stick with the British literature titles as blog titles thing. Cool kids do it.
