October 2024

If there is anything that my time living in France taught me, it’s that simple stuff takes 10x longer when you don’t know what you’re doing. In comparison, the start of my time in Côte d’Ivoire has been made slightly easier because at least I am fully aware of how much scrappiness it takes to…

Before moving to a new place, it’s a good idea to research the place that you plan to live. Positives vs. negatives, etc. The downside of research is that it can insert fear (or at least mild trepidation) where there previously was none. For this reason (plus my dislike of information overload), I usually operate…

When I went to DC this summer for the State Department training for this position, the main takeaway was that flexibility would be the key to my success. Arrive in the country with no place to live? Be flexible! You think you know what you will teach, but then you arrive and are teaching something…

For the first few nights in Abidjan, the Embassy put us up at the Capitol Hotel, where I completed the bulk of my existential crisis. After that, Tim had booked us at another hotel for a few nights to buy me some time at the start of this adventure. The place was excellent – a…

To pick up where I left off…. While I sobbed at the hotel bar, I tried to get to the root of exactly what was bothering me. All of this was expected. The English Language Fellows program (the program that brought me here) is built for developing countries. That means that of the 170 fellows,…

See that smile? That is the smile of someone who doesn’t yet understand how the following 24 hours will send her into a mental meltdown. That is the face of optimism. However, if you were to jump into the future from that moment, you would see that face sobbing into a too-small, scratchy tissue courtesy…