My project in the next few days is to call the new volunteers in my oblast and region and welcome them to their new sites. It’s a tradition among safety wardens to do this and it was a year ago that I got my call from Dan. A year ago Dan called me and I remember ...

Whether you love it or hate it, it’s not hard to admit that alcohol is big part of both American and Ukrainian cultures. However, each country has different uses for the potent drinks and each country has different stigmas surrounding it. Let’s take a look. I grew up a fortunate man, having a mother who never ...

Take a piece of paper and write down all the times you say goodbye to people and you’re not certain you’ll see them again. Now write a list of the times where you say goodbye to someone and you’re fairly certain you’ll see them again. If you’re thinking like I am, the second list is ...

Do you ever run into someone you know and they tell you they have an amazing story? Then you let them tell the story to you and they go into great detail making sure you know every single thing that happened, regardless of whether it makes the story better (like the expression of the face ...

I may have signed up to teach English in Ukraine, but it’s hardly the sole project that I devote my time to while I’m here. A lot of volunteers seem to get the question, me included, which asks, “What do you do with your free time?” Half of me wants to instantly answer this with, ...

It’s been a little over a year now since I left Wisconsin to travel around the world for my whole “Peace Corps experience”. Over the course of this time, I’ve caught myself day dreaming and sleep dreaming about various things that I left behind. Sometimes I would dream about my friends and family. I worried ...

I can’t avoid it any longer. The time has finally come where I must be back at school every day. When I graduated fifteen months ago, I figured it was the end of the summer cycle for me. I thought I would never again have to worry about tests, homework, lunchrooms and gym class. My days ...

Back at the beginning of June I talked about how I don’t really talk about what I’m going to do because it’s better to focus on what I’ve done. In that email from June, I spent time detailing everything that I wanted to do this summer and I made sure to put a huge disclaimer ...

A little over a year ago I took my first vacation that I planned on my own. I wanted to take a long distance motorcycle ride and decided to visit some family in the east. It ended in less than an ideal situation (my bike broke down and I had to find a new way ...