As readers have noticed, I haven’t been very active blogging the past few months. This is because I’ve been preparing for a major change which has involved a great deal of work, planning and preparation. What is this secret you may ask? Why, it’s a masters degree in Defense and Strategic Studies.

In order to give you some quick background, although I originally intended to attend school here in Germany, the difference between the US and German systems was ultimately too much for me. Whereas in the US a master’s would have taken two years to complete, here in Germany, the system does not allow you to have different undergraduate and graduate majors meaning I wasn’t allowed to change or I had to start from the very beginning as a freshman! Needless to say, I ultimately gave up on that option and decided to work and travel a bit longer before going to back to America with Mrs. Chirol which brings us to now.

After nearly four and a half years in Germany and having visited over a dozen countries in that time, I’ll be moving back to the U.S. tomorrow, specifically to Washington D.C. I’m excited both to live in my home country again and to move forward into a field which will soon provide me with rewarding and endlessly fascinating work. I’ll be busy finding an apartment, getting ready for school and so forth but I invite anyone in the greater D.C. to leave a comment or shoot me an email and we can meet up for a beer and geopolitics.

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