• Two Days in Wroclaw on a Polish Road Trip

    Wroclaw, with its historic atmosphere but very local energy, is one of my favorite cities in Poland. Maybe I’m biased because I spent two months there in the summer of 2018, working on my Delta Module 2,…

  • My Lost Year as a Moscow Expat

    I think a lot about the ‘right way’ to be an expat. If I were to construct the picture of a ‘good expat,’ they would be someone who speaks the language, has relationships with local businesses, gets…

  • Alternative Places to Learn Russian

    After my long rant about why people should stop asking about learning Russian in Kyiv and instead just make their plans to go to the Motherland, you might find it odd that I’m encouraging you to think…

  • Here's how to plan an international family vacation so that your trip will go smoothly and you'll end it with only the best memories!

    How to Plan an International Family Vacation

    After about a year of living in Ukraine I found myself as the tour director for a very small, very specific group of visitors — my family. I’m not even sure how the idea got started, considering…

  • Amy, Эми, Amychka

    I had already crossed an ocean and taken a five day Midwest road trip spending a full forty hours in the car, and here I was trundling down on a slowly overheating bus to spend the last…

  • Is It Safe to Travel Dagestan? Or Stupid?

    Every time I told a new person that I planned to travel Dagestan during our school holidays, I had to digest their expression and ask myself, again, “What’s the difference between being stupid and being brave?” It…

  • The Only Thing I’ve Learned This Year

    It’s my expat anniversary! Three years ago, I boarded a plane headed for Tokyo, where I’d spend a night before going on to Singapore. I don’t remember which airline I flew, though it was definitely not United…