Explore your interests: Nothing makes you feel better than learning a new skill

What a time to be alive, huh!? If you ask me, this is an excellent time to be an explorer. Wait, what? We’re sheltering in place while a pandemic illness sweeps the globe. We’ve been at it for a month and there’s no end in sight. I know. In Poland we aren’t even allowed to […]

on a first name basis with the Gnomes of Wrocław

In December we visited the Polish city of Wrocław. Now, first, lets sound this city out. “Wrocław” a typically awkward Polish city name, for an English speaker, but not as bad as some (Szczecin, I’m lookin’ at you). “Roe-claw” sounded right in my head, but deep down I knew it was so wrong. When a […]

Good Books for Explorers (or anyone stuck in quarantine)

Raise your hand if you watched Reading Rainbow as a kid. If you did, you’ll remember the theme song: Butterfly in the sky I can go twice as high Take a look It’s in a book A Reading Rainbow I can go anywhere Friends to know And ways to grow A Reading Rainbow I can […]

Reporting from Poland while maintaining social distance

I think it was my microbiology professor at Loyola who said something along the lines of, “microbes will be the end of us…take over the world and make us go extinct”. Or something like that. Scary, huh? Do I think that COVID-19 is the end of the road for humanity? No, no, no. I absolutely […]

Your quick guide to facing, overcoming and understanding Culture Shock

Traveling can trigger culture shock. Moving to Poland will definitely give you a jolt too. I still don’t like the phrase “culture shock”. Sure, there’s plenty that is “shocking” about different ways of life. But to me it feels more like a disorienting fog that kind of drifts in slowly after the honeymoon is over […]