Starting Off Eventually


Peace Corps

Today I learned that my running route is roughly 6.7 miles. How, you ask? I took out my old analog map and measured street by street. Then I added each street length together–I took the measurements in centimeters because I’ll be damned if I can find a standard ruler here–to get a total of 63.5cm. […]

May 28, 2012

Summer Plans


Peace Corps

This is the last time that I’m aware of that I’ll get to really enjoy this song in it’s fullness. School ended on Friday and it’s finally time to put my summer plans in motion. I’ve already cleared my bathroom sink of the fiberglass insulation-like clog of hair and gunk. Now for the bigger projects. […]

May 27, 2012

My Sister at School


Peace Corps

For the next week, I’ll be wandering around Ukraine with my sister. She booked a trip a couple of months back and this past Wednesday, she arrived in Kiev. We’ve spent the past couple days in Konotop. I showed her around the city and made sure she saw all the major monuments. We even tried […]

May 18, 2012

The 9th of May


Peace Corps

Yesterday was Victory Day here in Ukraine. For a while, I thought it meant it was the day WWII ended (or as they say here, the Great Patriotic War) but a student explained it as something slightly different recently and now I’m confused. The Great Patriotic War was explained as a portion of the war […]

May 10, 2012

American Barbecue


Peace Corps

Kim and I dared to grill again today. She missed out on burgers last week so I promised her that we’d grill before she heads home. We barbecued up some chicken wings and legs, using up some grill rubs she had lying around. Not only was the food a complete success, we also walked away with a […]

May 7, 2012

National Meographic


Blog, Peace Corps

Today, I was working on a Peace Corps side project and I realized that I needed a way to batch resize photographs using the GIMP. I’ve used scripts in both Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro but unfortunately you can’t easily create them with the GIMP. So I set out looking for a way to do […]

April 30, 2012

Football Followed by Tailgating


Peace Corps

Today has already been a great day. We started the day with an American football camp at Jeramie’s school. Pat, a volunteer in our neighboring oblast, has taught his kids flag football and now is partnered with a Ukrainian NGO to travel the region teaching kids to play. We were his third stop, and his […]

April 28, 2012

Tinker Tailor Cobbler Spy


Peace Corps

Earlier this week, I had a run-in with a cobbler. No, I did not have a delicious dessert fiasco, rather I and to get my shoes repaired. How many of you out there knew that the person who repairs shoes is called a cobbler? Most of us know that a tailor mends and alters clothes. What […]

April 25, 2012

Photographic Dreams


Blog, Peace Corps

While I was vacationing in Spain, I realized that I was taking a lot of photos. It happens when I go new places. I have visual overdoses and I feel the need to capture it all. While I’m sure I could go on for ages about how digital photography has taken something away from the […]

April 22, 2012

New Glasses


Peace Corps

Due to an issue with timing, my regional manager was not able to pick up my glasses yesterday and deliver them to me tomorrow. Fortunately, I had a friend who was in Kiev today and her train home stopped in Konotop briefly. She was able to bring the glasses and hand them off to me […]

April 18, 2012