Category Archives: Uncategorized

May18

Leaving the United States, and the travels afterward.

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Wednesday, 01-May-2024


Everything I’ve been writing has led up to this point.

Everything I’ve been generally planning for the last 5 months, and specifically planning for the last 2 months, was in preparation for this singular moment.

Planning, preparing, making ready and laying the groundwork for one simple action – stepping out of a car, hefting some bags, and walking up to a plane.



Let’s start at the beginning, a bit of a recap.

In 2021, I gained my dual citizenship between the United States, and Austria.

In 2022, I applied to various universities around the world for their MBA programs. I was accepted to Trinity College in Dublin, and deferred my admission until 2024.

Around October of 2023, I gave my manager at Raytheon an ultimatum – I get promoted by the beginning of January, or I leave.

In January of 2024, I still hadn’t gotten a promotion.

In mid February of 2024, I turned in my 2-weeks notice. This was somehow a complete surprise to my manager.

March and April of 2024 are spent relaxing and preparing for my imminent departure from the United States, for at least a year but likely longer.


Now, what exactly is my itinerary? Well, I’ll be visiting:

  • Nuuk, Greenland
  • Reykjavik, Iceland (and the rest of Iceland, via camper-van)
  • Oslo, Norway
  • Stockholm, Sweden
  • Helsinki, Finland
  • Tallinn, Latvia
  • Riga, Estonia
  • Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Warsaw, Poland
  • Krakow, Poland
  • Prague, Czechia
  • Vienna, Austria
  • Marseilles, France
  • Cassis, France
  • Zermatt, Switzerland
  • Stuttgart, Germany
  • Brussels, Belgium
  • Dublin, Ireland


Each country and city will have a different amount of time that I’m there – for now, I’ll keep that as a surprise for those following along… but it varies between a two evenings in some places, to two weeks in others. There’s a sort of method to my madness, regarding duration, though I’d have a challenging time fully explaining it in retrospect.

The key is that I spent time confirming it, and until I have reason to doubt my previous self… well, I have a simply massive document detailing where, when, how, and why I’m going to each place. How to get there, where I’m staying, what I’m doing (in some cases). Mostly, I’m excited to explore and decompress. To let myself stretch out, explore new places, and meet new people.

It will be glorious, but the first step is the simplest.

I stepped into the airport.

May16

A final shot at a shooting range in the States

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Sunday, 28-April-2024


One thing I wanted to make sure to do in the United States, and specifically in Oregon, before leaving was to hit up a shooting range. It’s not that shooting is particularly important to me, but it’s very much something that I won’t be able to do in Ireland quite as easily… and it felt like a perfectly American thing to do before heading out.

So… I gave them a call, and found out that they were booked up for the next two weeks. Which… would be challenging, since I’d be in Iceland.

Thankfully, people are pretty rad. When I mentioned why I was hoping to come in, and where I’d be in two weeks, the range office got quiet for a moment, asked me to hold for a few moments longer, and then came back saying that he’d opened a spot at 4pm that same day.

You know, people are pretty rad sometimes.


I drove over at the appointed time, got an impromptu masters course in pistol work, and even earned a bit of an accolade from the range officer on my shooting. I’ll absolutely take it as a lovely win!

(Yes, I always pick a different spot to practice on, so I can tell where my sets are ending up each time. I find it very helpful, but to each their own)

Apr19

Touching up the Mustang

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April, 2024


So this is just a quick note, but it’s something I’m proud of. Part of leaving Oregon, and the United States, is putting my car into storage. I’ve brought it in for a full maintenance, cleaned it up, and then did some touch-up work on some chips in the paint on the hood.

It worked well!

For anyone debating if they can touch-up the paint on their car… well, I did it. Wasn’t too tough, so… give it a try, I guess?

All I did was headed to the autoparts shop, asked for a touch-up pen, and then followed the directions. Cleaned off the chips, snapped off any bubbled paint, cleaned the surface… then applied two coats of paint and two coats of clear finish. Took me 20min total, over the course of… maybe 3 hours, letting everything dry.

My only regret? Not having kneepads. Kneeling to do the paint was kinda painful on the asphalt.