Hi! We are Sofie Leon and Wylie Ahmed, expats from the US building our new lives in Toulouse, France with our daughter, Mara.
I (Sofie) started the blog “Sabbatical with a Toddler” to document our year of travels during Wylie’s sabbatical from July 2023 – July 2024. I thought that would be it, but I decided to bring it back in Fall 2024 to keep friends and family updated on our new lives in Toulouse – without having to post on social media!
How we got here
Wylie and I met in 2008 in grad school at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 2013 Wylie moved to Paris, France for his post-doc, then I joined a year later. After a few fabulous years in Paris, we decided to move back to the US in 2016. Wylie got a job as an assistant professor of physics at Cal State Fullerton. I was so excited to be going back to my home state of California after being gone for so many years.
We lived and worked in California and we did the California suburb stuff – we bought a house, we worked a lot, we got a rescue dog, we hung out with friends, we found hobbies like home DIY projects, mountain biking, camping, etc. It took us a long time to have Mara, it was a journey, but when she finally arrived, as cliché as it sounds, everything changed. More about this in an upcoming post, but the short version of the change (for me anyway) was that the once bright sparkle of California had dimmed, a lot.
So, we decided that we would jump again to a place more conducive to family life. With an upcoming sabbatical opportunity for Wylie, we decided to make the most of the year and experience family life and work in a few different countries. We chose countries known for their well-balanced family-friendly policies and cultures; the idea being that the year could double as a sort of shopping trip to test out potential places where we could resettle. So we planned to live in New Zealand for 5 months, the Netherlands for 3 months, and Sweden for 5 months. But in another major twist, Wylie ended up securing a job in Toulouse, France before we left for sabbatical. This was a huge leap because I had never been to Toulouse and Wylie had only visited once for a day, but we knew France and trusted what we heard from so many people – Toulouse is a great place for families. So Wylie signed the paperwork to accept the offer on July 4th, 2023 (poetic, huh). He negotiated for a delayed start so we could embark on the sabbatical he had planned for nearly 2 years. We left California the next day.
A bit more about Sofie
I’ve always loved stories of people with winding professional (and life!) paths, and well now clearly I’m one of those stories too. I currently work remotely as an Human Resources and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging consultant but my starting point suggested a very different path. My formal education is all in civil engineering and computer science. After my PhD, I transitioned to working in higher education in student services and higher education administration. I know another turn in my path is on the horizon, I’m excited to see what that brings! I love DIY home projects, organizing just about anything, and baking… maybe my next adventure will involve one of those things.
A bit more about Wylie
Wylie is a CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de Toulouse, read more on his work here. His formal education and degrees are in mechanical engineering, hence where we first met… Solid Mechanics 551. Thanks to many opportunities to travel throughout his studies, Wylie had the idea to move outside of the US for a postdoc. I loved the idea and enthusiastically agreed! So in true Wylie fashion, he did a ton of research, found a lab, an advisor, applied for and won a competitive postdoc grant, and was off to the Curie Institute in Paris to start his transition from an engineer to a physicist. Wylie loves cooking, biking, hiking, exploring nature, photography, furthering the anti-capitalist agenda, and is learning to woodwork.
Wander & Nest 