Happy (belated) holidays! It’s been a busy, exciting year, full of new travels and experiences and lots of time with family and friends. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into what our lives have been like since we last wrote.
Not much new has happened this year compared to last. I continue to teach IB art and Theory of Knowledge at Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, which consumes most of my energy. I am working on finishing my official New York teaching certification, which is more work than it should be! I also keep playing my violin in the New York Session Symphony, a community orchestra in Manhattan, and played in the pit orchestra for a small production of Silent Spring. I’m so happy to travel around and out of the city when we can, and find the most joy in the time we spend exploring new places and experiences.
Like Teresa, work has kept me pretty busy this year. It also gave me a surprise: in November the company I worked for, Schoology, was acquired by PowerSchool. Beyond work, it's been another wonderful year of travel and experiences together. I'm excited to share it with you. Read on!
Our first major trip of the year was to Ireland (Northern and the Republic of). We traveled there with my sister, Carole, and her husband, Tim. The last time I was there was ten years ago with Carole, shortly after the death of our mom. We made this trip in her memory
It was also a time for us to share this place that is so meaningful to us with our husbands. Having traveled there twice with our mom when we were younger, we had many places to revisit, and some new places we wanted to explore together. (And roads to drive together on the left side!)
We stayed near where Teresa’s ancestors lived in Northern Ireland and went to favorite places from previous trips, like the Giants Causeway, ...
... and the small little church next to Dunluce Castle where Teresa’s ancestors are rumored to be buried.
Does this look familiar at all? We’ll give you a hint: Arya Stark walked this road when she fled Kings Landing.
Turns out a lot of Game of Thrones was filmed in Northern Ireland. The Iron Islands are actually (a heavily CGI-modified version of) Dunluce Castle too.
And speaking of castles, we got to spend a couple nights in one again! This is Lough Eske in County Donegal.
Unlike Northern Ireland, I’d never been to Donegal before, and it was fun to see and explore.
We finished the trip in Dublin, where we took the Guinness brewery tour. Though you don’t actually get to see the actual brewing facility – it’s more like a museum or even amusement park – it’s a lot of fun.
This is my first perfectly-poured pint of Guinness. I’m now an officially certified Guinness pourer. :)
I visited the city of Florianopolis in Brazil this March. About half of the people I manage work remotely from there, so going there gave me some face-to-face time with them. It’s such a beautiful place.
In April, on our way to Buffalo, we spent a few days exploring Rochester.
It was fun to see Tom’s old haunts from his college days, including RIT campus. The art building really made me wish I were finishing high school again. I would 100% apply to go there!
Teresa finally had a chance to enjoy this delicacy, the Garbage Plate, at its original home, Nick Tahou’s Hots.
We visited Kayleigh in Buffalo to meet our new nephew, Clement (aka Clem), in person for the first time. He’s a big addition to the Small/Berkley families.
In July we went to Croatia for the wedding of one of my former coworkers, Emma. She and her (now) husband, John, live in Dubai, have friends and family all around the world, and love to travel. They wanted to have a wedding that brought people somewhere new to enjoy traveling with them. So travel we did!
In Dubrovnik we wandered through labyrinthine alleyways of Kings Landing. (Note: the Game of Thrones theme to our travel was entirely unintentional, but it was pretty fun.)
We made a lunch stop in Mostar, Bosnia, which is known for this bridge. (Mostar actually means “bridge”.) Locals jump off it for tips, and draw a big crowd.
They’re nuts. That’s not a deep river.
Tom had his first Bosnian coffee (which is the same as Turkish coffee, Greek coffee, Arabic coffee, and probably others).
It's delicious!
We met back up with MJ and her boyfriend, Drew, in Kotor, Montenegro. The drive down from the top of the mountains to the lake was stunning.
To wrap up our Game of Thrones tour, we visited the palace gardens in Kings Landing. In reality, it’s the Trsteno Arboretum, the oldest arboretum in this part of the world.
We visited Boston.
It was my first (and second) time there. I first went to Harvard for a management course. Then I went back with Teresa since I didn’t get a chance to really see any of Boston itself on my first trip.
We took a magical cocktail class (clearly inspired by but explicitly not associated with Harry Potter).
My cousin, Breanna (center), interned at a college across the river in Hoboken, and we hung out whenever we could. We even found some time to see our second-cousin, Elizabeth (right), between all of her NYC actress engagements. (You can’t tell we’re related at all, can you?)
Summer also kicked off my participation in the MetPLC, a year-long program for NYC public school (and public charter school) teachers to learn how to develop and push their curriculum using works of art from The Met’s collection with a focus on equity and social justice. Between the guest speakers, access to art, field trips, and building community with this cohort of passionate, mission-driven teachers, this has been the most rewarding part of my year.
We finally took the tramway to Roosevelt Island. Teresa and I both had meant to do this since we moved to NYC.
The island itself is beautiful, a surprisingly calm little oasis right in the middle of New York City.
We visited DIA:Beacon, a museum primarily devoted to modern and post-modern art. These sculptures by Richard Serra — giant concrete cylinders you can walk inside of — were some of our favorites.
We closed out the year with a wonderful Christmas in Santa Fe, New Mexico amongst the farolitos and luminarias. We saw Carole and Tim again, as well as family friends Carole and Ross; my college friends Laura, RJ, and Tennille; and elementary school friend Tricia and her boyfriend, Mike.
A new Santa Fe experience for us was the weirdness and wonder that is Meow Wolf. It’s everything everyone tells you, and more. We look forward to seeing all of its iterations when the new locations open up! (Will they continue the same story? Will they all take place in the same multiverses?)
We also spent a few days in Durango, Colorado, where Teresa went to college. We went skiing, which was the first time in over a decade for both of us.
It came right back to us though. Neither of us fell even once!
They say time speeds up as you grow older. Nobody knows why, though there are a lot of theories. All we know is that the holidays came and went faster than ever before. It felt as though they had only just begun when they were over, and back to work we went. 2020 promises to be a year of challenges and changes, as all years are, but also of love and happiness, family and friends. We hope to see or hear from you all soon. May your year be filled with community, surrounded by those you love.
Peace and joy,
Tom and Teresa
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