Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia — mid-January or early February. It’s dark and the temperature is somewhere in the subzero category. Seems late for 4:00 p.m. My eyelashes clump, heavy with frost, and my glasses are permanently iced over. The snow seems to be falling at a rate of several inches per [...]

When it comes to jobs teaching English abroad, South Korea and Taiwan are the headliners. Teaching English jobs are easy to find, and high salaries and free housing are some great incentives to head east, but it’s not enough to lure everyone. There are a lot of motives behind your [...]

Come late spring in Moscow, just after the snow has subsided for the winter, another form of white, powdery substance blankets the capital of Russia, and it’s not what you think. The white stuff in question is called pukh, and it’s actually the pollen of the poplar tree. And when the [...]

It’s not often that I’m dumbfounded by the stupidity of people. Check that. It’s not often I’m this dumbfounded by stupidity. It looks as if a group of entrepreneurs locked themselves and copious amounts of drugs in a room and vowed not to leave until they had the perfect idea [...]

Starting to plan for the next winter Olympics? I have to admit, the closing ceremonies sent the ol’ imagination into the stratosphere with the possibilities of getting to the next Winter Games in Sochi. The thing is, I have absolutely no idea where Sochi is. Yeah, I was that guy seeing [...]