A lot of good things happened this month: I defended my PhD, sold/given away a lot of my possessions, got a German national visa, got my  US driver's license (!). Alexey and I went to IL and MI for a very short weekend and saw a few friends and family. I finally took him to Flint, MI and showed him my undergraduate school. 

Alexey's sister Tanya is coming to visit on Tuesday and we are going on a road trip trying to fit as much of US sightseeing as possible in one week. 

On Sept. 2, I will leave the US and head to Russia, where I will pick up my mom and together we will go to Germany. We will travel around Bavaria and Austria, see the mountains and the castles, and she will get to see (and I will get to meet) her college friends, that she hasn't seen in over 25 years! 

Alexey will defend his PhD in September and we will start our new jobs, as postdocs, at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen on Sept. 15, where he will be doing quantum optics, and I will learn biophysics. 

I still can't really believe I'm leaving America and New Haven, which has become my home❤️, but I am excited to see more of the world, explore Europe, learn German and eat all the bread. If you come to Bavaria, send us a message. We will be happy to see you 😊