Missing Flights


Peace Corps

You don’t know this, but I should have a bunch of photos of Berlin to post here for your eye-candy enjoyment. I don’t because I’m a dummy. There would have been photos of the Wall and beer and pretzels and possibly me riding a bicycle. Oh the joy to ride something with two wheels again […]

August 14, 2012

Running Fool, Again


Blog, Peace Corps

In high school, I used to be a decent runner. I wasn’t spectacular. I wasn’t on par with the runners who went on to compete in college but I was still decent. Middle distance was my jam. I ran the 800m and the 4x800m relay. I anchored. We won more often than not and if […]

August 11, 2012

Running Out of Time


Peace Corps

I just opened my last tube of tooth paste. You might remember how particular I am about which brand/flavor I use. Crest Multicare Whitening Freshmint. They don’t sell that here so I’ve had to have it shipped and brought over. I think this last tube will keep my teeth clean until the end. Last week, […]

August 7, 2012

NuShcho Online


Peace Corps

I’ve been a part of the Peace Corps Ukraine quarterly newsletter (NuShcho) for about a year now. I’ve also been in charge of the newsletter for a year of that time. It’s been a bit of both a low-key and demanding editorial job. Today, I submitted the last issue with me at the helm. I’m […]

August 1, 2012

Chapped Lips


Peace Corps

There’s a cultural difference in Ukraine I don’t fully understand and it was only recently I saw it firsthand. This past week at camp, my lips were chapped after standing in a field all day teaching baseball to the kids. It happens. It’s dry. My seemingly natural reaction is to put on some Chapstick. I […]

July 29, 2012

Camp Excite 2012


Peace Corps

As I mentioned yesterday, I was at camp for the better part of this week and it took me some time to recuperate. Part of that had to do with being outside camping in the heat without running water and all that, and part of that had to do with wearing myself out working with […]

July 28, 2012

Restricted Access


Peace Corps

Yesterday, Jeramie and I had a visit from the Peace Corps Security Officer, Sergey. Word on the street is that he’s a former KGB agent turned UN Police officer turned Peace Corps Security Officer. The guy’s kind of bad-ass and if you meet him in person, it’s not uncommon to be a little scared. He wasn’t visiting, […]

July 20, 2012

SO to a Friend of Mine Who…


Peace Corps

I just want to give a shout out to one of my friends, Zoe, from college. She recently accepted an invitation to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in the African country of Lesotho. Welcome to the family of crazies, Zoe. She leaves in October and won’t be home until January 2015 at the earliest.

July 19, 2012

A Nightmare Come True


Peace Corps

The past few days have been kind of depressing. I’m not depressed, not that I’m aware of but I’ve been a little blue. Want to know why? Remember Fat Sandwich Dreaming? This was the sandwich shop in Madison, WI where I would get sandwiches that were close to deadly. I was also having nightmares about […]

July 18, 2012

Camp Bio


Peace Corps

Saturday started off as a small planning meeting for the upcoming Camp Excite and then devolved into a mess at the club but that’s not the important part. The club that is. Clubs are never important. What was important was the Camp Excite part and I needed a more interesting grab than, “We had a […]

July 16, 2012