Following my trip to Antarctica in February, I returned to the US for three months. While there, I bought a truck and spent one of those months road-tripping down the east coast of the country, from Massachusetts to Florida. The primary reason for the trip was to attend a few courses in Ft. Lauderdale, but I figured I’d take some extra time to visit friends and check out a couple new places along the way.

I’d seen countless National Geographic and Discovery Channel shows on Antarctica, but nothing could have prepared me for the experience of being there and seeing it myself. Antarctica’s grandeur, its starkness, and its surprising abundance of wildlife blew me away. I’ve been lucky enough to visit some pretty amazing places in my life, but Antarctica stole my heart and shot to the top of the heap.

As I’ve caught up with friends and family back home, this question has come up over and over, in one form or another. And it’s a valid one. While Courtney came to Japan with the clear and defined goal of completing a postdoc, I had only vague ideas of what my future would hold. So, to answer that burning question that everyone has been asking, here’s what I’ve been up to since landing in Okinawa in January.