A note on names

I decided not to use our real names on this blog. That decision made, I was then stuck with a quandary: what to call ourselves? For those of you who know us and wonder about our chosen names, mine is a combination of my name and what I do, and Keating's name comes from the teacher in his favorite movie, Dead Poet's Society. Apologies to friends and family who may be driven slightly mad by the pseudonyms; we just didn't want the blog to come up with a Google search of our names.

Once upon a time, a couple of newlyweds left upstate New York and moved to Mexico City. Rather, this happened in mid-December, 2009. Our two heroes, Shazta and Keating (names changed for the sake of internet anonymity), left behind the familiar and the snowy to move to Mexico for Shazta's postdoctoral work. She spoke some Spanish; Keating could order a beer and ask for the bathroom. This blog is their story, as told by Shazta, and intended to entertain and update friends and family in the States.