Brisbane was the end of this particular three and a half year journey, but the start of another one. Somewhere in the last part of the Pacific we had decided to try living in Brisbane rather than head back to our old lives in Boston. This was an easy decision for me (Mark) as this was my home town with family still living here, but a difficult one for Marta as she was now adopting yet another country and culture. The kids didn’t seem to mind either way, but were looking forward to getting back in to a regular school with friends who didn’t sail away after a month of getting to know them.

When we made the decision, I don’t think any of us had realized quite how small Brisbane still was compared to Boston, particularly for Marta’s and my professional lives, but that’s a story for another time.

As I write this in August 2017, Alec and Roan are over half way through grade 11 at Hillbrook Anglican School, where they are doing very well and seem to be happy with friends and life. Marta is over half way through her first year as a high school science and maths teacher, after doing a Graduate Diploma in Teaching in 2016. She’s finding it a mixed bag of long hours, frustrating students, and occasional bright spots with good classes and enthusiastic, growing students. I’m still searching for my next job, after a 6 month stretch as VP of Products for a local software company that was not quite ready for me, and keeping busy mentoring local start-ups, learning to glide, and writing blogs …