We're heading north! Twin Cities, here we come!

Hello friends!

It seems appropriate that the only other published entry in this blog is about shoveling, because now this post is about how we are moving to a land of more snow! Michael, Emerson, the kitties (Mae and Aspen), and I will be moving to the Twin Cities area in Minnesota this summer. 

Michael and I both accepted new positions at the University of Minnesota. Michael will be a Pediatric Neurologist, with a speciality clinic in Neuroimmunology (which means he will have ~1 day of clinic per week where he see kids with autoimmune issues that affect the central nervous system). He will be working at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital, which is the children's hospital associated with the University of Minnesota. I'll be working as a Research Scientist in the Department of Neurology, within the Neuromodulation Research Center the https://nmrc.umn.edu/. This center includes multiple investigators and I'll be directly working for Josh Aman https://nmrc.umn.edu/people. In Spring 2024, I will also teach a Cognitive Psychology course at St. Olaf College, which is a liberal arts college in Northfield, MN. It's about an hour south of Minneapolis. I'm so excited to get back into the classroom (I taught some courses at Knox College (my alma mater) when I was in graduate school, but I haven't taught at all during my postdoc because I was on a research grant). 

It was a very interesting fall for us as we applied for jobs and tried to solve the puzzle of finding jobs for both of us. Michael has been completing a fellowship in Neuroimmunology this year, which meant he was only looking at large hospitals (rather than smaller, community hospitals). And then I applied to about 25 different jobs, ranging from more research-focused positions at large universities to more teaching-focused positions at liberal arts colleges. Ultimately, Minneapolis had great jobs for both of us, and we have family and friends there! Abby and her family live in Eagan (a southeast suburb) and Hannah (my cousin) and Brian moved from California this past summer. So we are thrilled to be moving closer to all of them!! 

This past weekend we officially sold our Iowa City home, which we will move out of at the beginning of July. So we have a few more months to soak up all the Iowa City goodness and see friends before we leave. It is, admittedly, really hard to leave Iowa City. I have lived here since 2012, when I moved right after college to start grad school. I have lived in 4 different places around the city (in my apartment on Woodside Drive with Katie and Lauren, in my cool downtown apartment on Jefferson St, with Michael in our Calvin Court townhouse, and in our 1940 S Ridge Drive home). I have biked, walked, run, and driven all over town and I feel like I know it so well. I love the restaurants (RIP Devotay and Dumpling Darling, and sad to leave other faves Nodo, Basta, 30Hop, and BigGrove), the fitness center (CRWC!), the parks, the ped mall, the libraries, the coffeeshops (been loving Tru coffee lately). It's really hard to leave the amazing friends we've made here. When I moved in 2012, I certainly didn't anticipate staying beyond grad school, but it was so awesome that Michael matched into residency here and that we've gotten to start our careers and our family here. I'm grateful for the communities of friends I made. 

While it's very hard to leave, we're also excited for this new adventure. We're excited to see what a slightly different climate is like (yes, we have warms coats and boots!) and to enjoy some of the big city amenities (like going to see P!nk in concert and attending a Trevor Noah show). We're excited to get to know new coworkers and see what medicine and science are like in a different environment. I'm excited to be close to many excellent small liberal arts colleges. I am working toward a tenure-track position at a liberal arts college, hopefully in the not too distant future. 

We're currently hunting for a rental in the Twin Cities so that we don't have to buy a house right away. We want to get a feel for the different areas and neighborhoods before we commit to a house. Plus we are not super decisive people, so trying to buy a house while out of state and in this intense market just feels impossible. 

I want to write more soon about memories of Iowa City, mostly so that I can process this big move and all the feelings I have about it. And also because I don't want to forget! I don't want to forget this amazing place. So hopefully there will be more posts soon, but that's it for now!