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London Calling

Tonight is my last night hosting Boston Skeptics in the Pub . . . at least for a little while. The reason, as some of you may know or guess, is that I’m going to be leaving Boston at the end of this month in search of adventure.

sidandrebeccaLast week I mentioned that I had quit my schmob, which of course was just one piece of my master plan. Yesterday, I received word that I had been granted a visa to live in the UK, meaning that I can finally reside on the same continent as my dear husband (shown at right wearing Surlyramics). I leave in less than two weeks!

Over the next several months, I plan to visit a lot of new places (adventure!). Here’s my itinerary . . . if you live near any of these places and want to hang out, please let me know! Also, if you know of any nearby skeptic meet-ups that want a speaker or just another warm body, give me the info and I’ll try to make it.

Tuesday, September 15 (That’s Tonight!)
Boston Skeptics in the Pub with Dr. Rachael Dunlop! Be there. (SitP will continue with my good friend Liz Gaston hosting, and with the help of our fellow Boston Skeptics.)

Saturday, September 26
This is my last full day in Boston, so I’m considering having a party in my newly-emptied apartment. More details on that will come as soon as I’m confident I’ll be able to empty my apartment in time.

Monday, September 28
At 7am, I’ll arrive in Iceland. I have a 9-hour layover, and will be meeting up with at least one Twitter-friend. I’d like to check out Reykjavik before relaxing at the Blue Lagoon, before hopping back over to the airport for my flight to London that evening.

Wednesday, September 30—Monday, October 5
It’s TAM London! I’m going to be at as many fringe events as possible, plus of course at the main event. I hope to be able to blog about it as I go, so you can follow along here at Skepchick or in person.

Tuesday, October 13
Singapore! I’ll be spending a few days in and around Singapore, after which I’ll be traveling around Southeast Asia with friends until October 27.

Maybe Sometime in November?
Norway! Some very cool skeptics have invited me out to Norway to speak at a meet-up or two. We’re working out the dates now—they’ve been very patient with me as I solidify my schedule.

Saturday, November 20
The week before Thanksgiving, I’ll be back in the States for Skepticon II at Missouri State University! I’m mega-excited about this, since I’ll be hanging with D.J. Grothe, P.Z. Myers, and other people without initials for first names like Joe Nickell, Dan Barker, Victor Stenger, Robert Price, and Richard Carrier. This is going to be a wonderful (and FREE) event, and I encourage you all to attend. If you can’t attend, you can still help them out by donating to help cover the costs of flying out so many awesome people (plus me).

So that’s what’s going on! There may be other places and dates added in the near future, so stay tuned.

Adventure!

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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57 Comments

  1. @Sam Ogden: That is soooooo very tempting. The only thing that makes me hesitate is that I’m already planning to be in Australia in the fall of 2010 for their big skeptics’ conference. No chance you can reschedule, is there?

  2. What’s she going to do next! i’m waiting to find out that you’re actually in astronaut training and will be bringing us SKEPTICS IN SPAAAACCCCEEEEE from the ISS or something!
    Congrats, what a fun and exciting time, i can’t wait to read all about your adventures.

  3. Cool news Rebecca – an official win for this side of the puddle I’d say! Liverpool is a few hours up the country, but we’d all love to have you up here as a speaker or skeptic-drinker some time, if you’re happy to experience the efficient and in no way useless rail transport system…

  4. Wow, that is so awesome!! May you enjoy your life in London very much! My bf is moving to be with me this week as well so i know just how exciting it is. Yay for getting to be with our sweeties!

  5. Awesome! Congrats Rebecca.

    Funnily enough I’m also moving to the UK (to start a phd); I leave in just under three weeks, though I’m still waiting for my visa.

    Just my luck that I leave Australia just before the SGU are planning on visiting. But hopefully I can make it to a few skeptical events in the UK!

  6. As Marsh said, definitely a win for this side of the pond.

    Hope you enjoy life here in the UK, with being able to have Charles Darwin on the money instead of “In God We Trust”. There’s still skeptical related battles to be fought over here though!

    And don’t forget to enjoy some of our evil socialised medicine while you’re here.

  7. Congratulations!

    Top tip, having done the trans-Atlantic visa thing in both directions:

    When you guys move in together, get at least one utility in each of your names. Save at least one bill per person per quarter, and file them somewhere safe.

    Also save physical evidence of mutual social activities – plane ticket stubs when you fly together, mutual party invites, photos of you both at social gatherings, etc.

    That way, if in two years you decide to go the permanent residency route, you will already have many of the supporting docs you will need, and you won’t have to do a mad scramble for evidence.

  8. “OK, hands up everyone who’s imagining Rebecca with an English accent.”

    Oh, I do that all the time.

    Grats Rebecca!

  9. My wife came this way over the pond so it’s good to hear that it goes the other way sometime. Enjoy the adventure and best wishes for smooth sailing! (And why is it I’m anticipating you and Tracey getting into lots of trouble?)

  10. The Boston Skeptics have resisted the urge to create a rumor that we didn’t know about this and were outraged and upset. hehe It took a lot of effort… cuz we love nothing as much as bustin’ your chops, Glorious Leader. ;)

    This is awesome and I’m going to miss you and I’m goign to stop typing now cuz I think I’m finally gonna cry! Damnyou!

    Love and hugs. See you tonight where I may cry some more. DAMNYOU!
    Your pal,
    Maggie

  11. Does that mean that the rest of the skepchicks will have to slog on without you? But, as the President of the United Servers of Awesomeness, will your First in Command be able to keep up all the geewillikerness of Skepticism? What if the combined coolness of the remaining Skepchicks, at maximum power can’t keep up the same stamina of She Who is THE SKEPCHICK? Who will be able to smack Jennie McCarthy around? Who will kick Kevin Trudeau in the ballsack? Who will vanquish conspiracy theories with a single muttering of truth?

    Oh, man, this is just too much….I need to lay down and try to get over my cold.

  12. If you move to London, then the stalkers will have won.

    And do not get a bike until you get used to driving on the wrong side of the road.

  13. Welcome to the UK, then! I guess we will see each other at some of the Fringe events, and certainly TAM London. And I am not a bit jealous about all your travelling, drool… should quit my job for a while as well… But who would feed our cats then? BTW, what about your furball?!

  14. Have fun, Rebecca.
    I lived in Iceland for a couple years–it’s a beautiful place. Unfortunately you won’t be there long enough to see some great natural sights outside Reyjavik, but the city’s nice & maybe you’ll return there some day.
    I trust we’ll see you & Sid at TAM 8 next summer.

  15. Congrats on the visa Rebecca! So happy for you and Sid. Johnny and I are getting our passports so we can plan a Surly adventure at the new Skepchick headquarters someday soon! Cheers!

  16. Congrats! I’ll see you in November! I’m certain there will be plenty of plans made between now and then.

  17. @Rebecca:

    . . . I’m already planning to be in Australia in the fall of 2010 for their big skeptics’ conference.

    Well, that’ll be fun, too. I just thought you were looking for adventure.

  18. Caithness in Scotland is a nice place, could do with some sceptical knowledge. Just sayin’, thought you’d like to visit for a day or two.

  19. So glad I got to meet you at NECSS before you set off on this adventure. Looks like a great, fun, crazy time you have coming up and I’m jealous.

  20. I guess I should stop bugging my husband to move to Boston now. :(

    I’m happy for you, R… even if my heart is breaking that you’ll be so much farther away now.

  21. @Elyse: I moved down to London on the 7th June this year and it’s not so great. After the first month of doing tourist stuff, I realised the whole place is covered in a layer of grime.

    I’d never seen people steal food until I moved to London.

    And don’t get me started on Hoxton/Shoreditch…

  22. Yay! Soon I can step the stalking up a notch, and cut out all the constant jetlag!

    Or just turn up to a London SitP someday. Either way, the plans for international adventure sound awesome, and rocking hard will not be in short supply. Good luck with the alternating travel/party schedule for the next few months.

  23. So, speaking of Boston Skeptic’s in the Pub (which was at least mentioned), I happen to be here in Boston tonight. I’m just popping into town for a couple days for some totally not-ninja-related hedge-type business. Since I was going to be here, I thought I’d check to see what’s going on locally. “Hey”, I said, “there’s Boston Skeptic’s in the Pub tonight. Maybe I can go.” So I head to the Boston Skeptic’s web site and see it’s at a place called Tommy Doyle’s in Cambridge. I googled it and it’s walking distance from where I’m staying. This is great, I can walk over and pop in and maybe meet some cool skeptic type folks and hear Dr. Dunlop and maybe meet Rebecca. So I stroll on over and I finally find the place (I’m not used to walking around the big city, and everything kind of looks the same, so it took me a while to find it.) I found it, and I wandered in. I looked around. And I went to a different part of the place and looked around there. And then I went back to the first place. Then I smiled at some nice Bostony people, who were smiling at me (they aren’t all mean). Then I went back outside and looked at the place again and double and triple checked the name. Then I looked at the time to make sure it was between 7:00 and 9:00. No skeptical activities were in eveidence anywhere.

    Then I just slowly made my way back to my room, figuring maybe it’s just the craziness again. I pulled up the Boston Skeptics site and verified that I had the time and the location right.

    It turns out that there are TWO places called Tommy Doyle’s in Cambridge, MA.

    I hope ya’ll had fun.

    I am a Hedge

  24. Congrats on the upcoming adventure! And the Visa!

    That picture is so gosh-darn-golly adorable that it’s been making my day, all day.

  25. I’m in Norway, but you already knew that. Maybe this’ll get me off my arse and to a meetup or two, or maybe I’ll just have to whisk you off between public appearances to show you something particularly Norwegian.

    Bring a warm and water resistant coat.

  26. Look, if you’re going to Norway, you may as well see* the rest of Scandinavia as well. The swedes are good people and we danes are, well, it would appear that just over half of us are pretty sodding horrible but Copenhagen might still be worth a look. True, it’s kind of wet and dark. And dirty. And kinda smelly in places. But there’s a good cocktail bar at the end of Egegade and a wonderful pakistani restaurant in Griffenfeldsgade. And a park named after HC Ørsted – a scientist! (Although that’s likely going to be very drab and gray in november).
    We’ve been getting depressingly xenophobic lately, so if you and Sid do come, try to look as blond and blue-eyed as you can.

    *I don’t mean literally “see”, of course. That would be silly what with Scandinavia being pretty dark in november.

  27. The whole adventure sounds awesome. I wish I was adventurous. Well, more adventurous. In the aftermath of the wedding at TAM, I was wondering how the long-distance thing would work out post-marriage, and now we have an answer. Sweetness.

    I know this is way advance notice (and I’m also aware that my location isn’t particularly adventuresome), but early planning never killed anyone: if you’re roundabouts the Midwest next August, we’d love to have you add your voice to the skeptical program some friends and I are organizing at Gen Con Indianapolis 2010. Having a completely awesome skeptical personage such as yourself would make our program that much cooler and that much closer to Dragon*Con’s SkepTrack (Gen Con is much like Dragon*Con and about as big).

    Whatever it takes to get you out there, we’ll probably do it!

  28. Late to the party, but…

    I know it sounds like you’re going to exotic places like Austrailia and stuff, but don’t neglect to visit the cool stuff in the British Isles.

    There are awesome awesome castles all over the UK, particularly in Scotland. Be sure to visit Doune Castle where much of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed. Visit Stonehenge, if you can (see stonehengetours.com, or something like that).

    Visit the armory museum in the Tower of London. Visit the Castle Museum in York.

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