After leaving Sytske and Paul, I wandered into the main train station in downtown Kyiv. I was about 90 minutes early, so I spent time in...

After spending some time with my friends Volodymyr and Rita, it was time to jump back in my red van and head to Kyiv. I was scheduled to...

I woke up in my Zhytomyr hotel early and got things packed up and ready to go. Rena and I agreed to meet up in the lobby at 7:30 so we...

Never thought I'd have this stamp in my passport! Normally… When you cross a border in a car, you only deal with border guards for the...

“Does this €10 bill belong to you…?” After weeks of preparation leading up to our Ukraine aid convoy, there was nothing left to do but...

And there I was - entering Kyiv from the direction of the eastern front, driving a loaded down big red van with Dutch license plates as a...

So, we’ve been in the Netherlands for eight months.  We’ve learned a lot about European culture, European people, living in a different...

“I really think you should upgrade to the next class of vehicle.” “Na. I’m good with what I reserved.” “Sir, you really should consider...

Last week was Crocus Week in the Netherlands. It's the week the crocus start to emerge from the ground and there is a week off for...

This week I had one of those ‘Only in Europe’ days. I recently joined a volunteer organization, Zeilen Van Vrijheid (“Sails of...

This weekend we went to Bruges for one night. Bruges is a small city in Belgium about a 3 hour drive from our house. We had hoped to go...

The Taj Mahal is unbelievable. There is a reason it's considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It reminded me of the statue of...

After Dehli we went to Khajuraho. This was an amazing small town near a tiger reserve. Unfortunately, we didn't see any tigers. For...

India has been on my list of destinations ever since I first read about the Taj Mahal as a boy. I was mesmerized by the beauty, the...

So...today is the winter solstice. Sunrise was at 8:48am. Sunset is at 4:36pm. It is disconcerting that it is still VERY dark at 8am. ...

So…obviously Thanksgiving is not a holiday in the Netherlands.  Even with attending an international school that has quite a few...

So…we’ve been in the Netherlands for more than five months now.  We’re almost halfway through our planned stay.  It seems like a good...

Alex's last two cross country meets were both in the Netherlands. The first was in The Hague. It was a 3k course through the forest and...

Programming note: we did a separate blog post on the first part of this trip, but we think it didn't get sent out. If you missed that,...

This week is Alex's half-term break (essentially fall break). He has the week off. This is his first day off of school since it...