Me and The Peace Corps

In June 2011, my husband and I were accepted into the Peace Corps and invited to serve as English teachers in Ukraine. 

A lot of people have asked me, "Why Ukraine? Why not just stay and help out in America?" There are so many reasons for wanting to help out in another country and I know that some of them are selfish, like learning a new language (or two since they speak Russian and Ukrainian in Ukraine) and getting to travel and meet new people and experience another culture. I love learning about other cultures and I think that it's important to do so. We live in a multicultural world and once you embrace that, the possibilities are endless. You stop thinking of the world in terms of boundaries, separations, and differences and start thinking of it in terms of a shared universe. 

Everyone deserves a chance for a positive education and Logan and I did our best to provide that in Ukraine. It was a huge challenge but we made it out alive and now, I have this feeling that I can make it through anything. I truly believe that this experience made me a better teacher for the future, no matter where I end up under the sun.

UPDATE: Logan and I finished our Peace Corps service on 10 December 2013. We are back in New York holding on to our connections to Ukraine, our second homeland.