When Kirsten isn’t writing about travel she sometimes puts on her playwright hat. She went to Philadelphia USA for Memorial Day Weekend to hear her second play, Meet the Teacher Creature, read by the actors at Curio Theatre. This play was first workshopped at Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Canada.

In April, Kirsten was flown to the UK, to be the "entertaining" guest speaker, at the European conference for Round Square and to speak to the English students at Abbotsholme School which is near Uttoxeter not Oo-doe-exiter. It's impressive that someone finally managed to figure out where Kirsten was actually heading before she bought a ticket to nowhere. After the conference Kirsten purchased a hat in Reykjavik, Iceland which says: Lost in Iceland.

Kirsten was a judge for Leap Local's international, responsible tourism, local guide and services, competition. Click here to read about the winners, the judges (Simon Cowell was not invited to play) and to read Kirsten's latest column which is about - Easter Island and the new monoliths! (To read Kirsten's Easter Island article from OUTPOST magazine and to see more photos just scroll down this page)

Postponed -Back to the Former USSR. If you've read Kirsten's book "Lost in Moscow" you'll know that when Kirsten was a 11-years-old, she and ten other Canadian youth, were sent to the Soviet Union, for their summer break. Now, Kirsten is putting the boot on the other foot and will lead a group of Canadian teenagers on a 21-day adventure expedition in Russia (departing last week of July). All she needs now are the participants -- ten teens (13-18 yr olds). Vladimir Tikhonov of http://www.ecotours-russia.com/ has put together an action-packed custom trip just for this group (click for itinerary and prices -- In Canadian Dollars, it works out to about $152 per day, including: all hotel, all meals, interior transportation, overnight trains with sleeping births, experienced Russian tour leader, interpretors, local guides, museum entrances, paddling experts, expedition equipment and more. Flight is not included, but a seat-sale group rate on an AC partner will be found for those who collect points or need to use air-miles) The first and last few days of the tour will be in Moscow and St Petersburg -- where the group will get to enter a cold war top secret military installation, the Soviet command post of Tagansky, 65 meters below ground -- visit the Cosmonaut training centre -- see art from the underground movements -- Rasputin's chambers and much more. It is by overnight train that they'll travel to Karelia in Russia's north for a catamaran (paddling) expedition led by Russia's Adventure Club - which is headed by Russian adventure heroes -- Guinness book of world Record holders -- the father and son team of Dmitry and Matvey Shparo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Shparo . If you are interested in joining this trip, or have questions please email Kirsten (*Note to parents from Kirsten -- Please don't use this trip as a chance to rid yourself of a kid that will result in the rest of us ending up in prison. I'll take laughs-too-much, talks-too-much, physically disabled, too-loud, too-cool, too-silly but NOT rude, nasty, or about-to-end-up-in-juvenile-detention because after all I'm not being paid to do this. I'm paying to do it as well. It's an opportunity for your kids to go on a journey with a travel writer & published author. There is also currently space for 2 parents/care givers, in case someone wants to share this trip of a lifetime with their offspring.)

Kirsten's article on wiring money to the personal bank accounts of overseas tour-guides is on page 4 of Leap Local's February news. Click here to read about the nutty things one has to do to be a socially responsible traveller.

CTV's current events show, What's Your Point, had Kirsten join the debate panel in November.

Kirsten is an official member of the tornado club after driving the intercept vehicle right towards a tornado in Nebraska. She spent the summer hoping for bad weather - and storm chasing with Ron Gravelle www.stormchasing.ca. Ron is an Environment Canada NET controller, storm predictor, forecaster and certified chaser in both Canada and the USA. He is 1, of only 2 Canadians, to own Baron Threat Net and has seen 71 tornadoes. You might have seen Ron's video footage on CNN, or other projects on Discovery channel. On the first week of chasing Ron and Kirsten crossed 17 states Click here to see photos from week-one of the chase and on the 2nd week Click here to see week-two storm chase images  they crossed 14 states - covering 19,900 km's in two weeks! During both weeks, Ron predicted the most powerful storms in North America and Kirsten punched through them. Good bladder control and love of laughter are beneficial traits to the chaser. And yes, it is kind of like "Twister" without the flying cows and there is the odd platter of fried bull testicles at the end of the day.

Checking out the locals! Kirsten writes a column for Leap Local. Leap was recently nominated for the Virgin Responsible Tourism Awards for best in poverty reduction (www.leaplocal.org)

Kirsten goes local in her back yard. Click here to read her tornado-chaser article on page 3.

Kirsten test drives 3 adventure tours -- in Romania, Peru and Guatemala -- to see if they live up to the adventure in their name. Click here to read Kirsten's article which is on page 3 & 4 of Leap Local news for travellers.

Kirsten is home from kayaking where the alligators swim. Biggest gator count was 79 in one day!

Kirsten's highly amusing article, 17 days in Peru with 10 intrepid internet strangers can be read online by clicking here DreamScapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine pages 38-43.

Kirsten found five gal-pal travel partners to go caving, kayaking and volcano-ing, in Guatemala.  Click here to see the Guatemala pics. Luisa Zea, el Gerente General at www.adventureguatemala.com in Guatemala proved herself an excellent guide! Check out the prices and awesome itinerary.

Thanks to Mountain Equipment Co-op's trip partners listing, Kirsten found 9 women who happily left their boyfriends, partners, pets, families, a tuba and one imaginary-tortoise at home, to go mountain biking for 17-days in Peru. Click here for Peru pics. This mercury-mad-adventure started in Lima, then headed down the Pacific coast to Nasca for sand boarding on the highest dunes in the world, a flight over the mysterious Nasca Lines and some accidental handling of 2000-year-old human remains. Then over to Arequipa, up Misti Volcano, down into the Colca Canyon (where they ended up surprise guests inside a bullring with ten bulls and no matador. Oh, he was there but he was boozing it up outside the bullring). Then they gasped and barfed their way up to Puno, Lake Titicaca, Cusco, through the Sacred valley of the Incas, Santa Maria Jungle, Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, through cloud forests and all the while frequently sampling the leaves of coca plantations. Click to see the itinerary that their guide, Saul Ceron, designed for his favourite "chicas" at his Peruvian company Peru Adventures Tours.

Kirsten's new suspenseful comedy Meet the Teacher Creature received a week workshop at Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover. At the end of the process was the first public reading of the play.

The co-host of Daytime TV was laughing when she interviewed Kirsten about "Lost in Moscow". It's something about that Soviet summer camp rectal-thermometer. It may be funny now when looking back on being forgotten in public with a rectal thermometer sticking out of one's bum---but it wasn't funny at the time

Kirsten donned her boxing gloves on the current events debate show, CTV's Final Round.

Radio Canada International, CBC recently reviewed Kirsten’s book “Lost in Moscow”. The host asked the book critic: “Is the book really that funny?”
And the critic (Geeta Nadkarni) replied:“Actually Mark, it IS. I wasn't sure at all when I first picked it up-- I thought, Gosh, how enjoyable a read could a glorified 'what I did last summer' type book be. Boy was I wrong. Kirsten Koza has an unusual gift. She's got this wacky sense of humour that completely caught me off guard. And it's very constant throughout the book- it doesn't just fade in and out.” Click here to read more of the review…

Kirsten survived being tattooed by Mokomae and riding her mountain bike over the volcanoes and past the monolithic stone heads that adorn Easter Island. You can see photos and read right here, right now, about Kirsten's haphazard undertakings in her article Drinking & Riding on Rapa Nui which appeared in OUTPOST magazine.

More Reviews and  Interviews about Lost in Moscow both hilarious and great:

NewCanadian Magazine said, "Some writers are famous for writing love poetry---Pablo Neruda, for instance. Others, like Scott Adams, have managed to pin to the page the preposterousness of corporate America. Rohinton Mistry is known for his poignant portraits of Mumbai; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle changed the face of detective novels by creating Sherlock Holmes. But no one can describe an unfamiliar bathroom quite like Kirsten Koza." They also declared, "Lost in Moscow: A Brat in the USSR is an excellent read. Touted by its publishers as 'a book about children, but certainly not for children', it is light, uproariously funny and will leave you feeling 10 years younger. From Russia with love---and lots of laughter!" Review by Geeta Nadkarni.

CBC’s Sounds Like Canada: Click here to hear Kirsten interviewed on Sounds Like Canada. Kirsten’s parents were not overly delighted that she basically stated on national radio that the reason they sent her to Soviet Summer camp for the whole summer was to benefit their sex-life...you see, their bedroom was next to Kirsten's childhood room.

CHRY’s Bound & Covered: Hear Sandra Polifroni say to Kirsten “You are like Judy Bloom on acid!” To catch this uproarious interview click here. Courtesy Sandra Polifroni, host/contributor CHRY radio and PhD student, York University.

In The Hills, a classy magazine that is delivered to all the people who are lucky enough to live in the hills, just wrote about Kirsten’s sweaty little hands in their winter edition. They said, Lost in Moscow is a funny and fascinating look at the Western World’s bogeyman of the day—communism—through the fresh eyes of a child. Click here to read the article which appears courtesy of the magazine and the reviewer, Tracey Fockler.

Prairie Books Now, interviewed Kirsten about "Lost in Moscow; A Brat in the USSR" in their piece titled "FORGET WEENIE ROASTS , an 11-year-old camps out in Moscow." Kirsten actually said in this interview at one point "You can't spank me now!" The article has been supplied courtesy of Prairie Books Now and Polly Washburn.

The Georgina Advocate used the word “turd” which was a first for this newspaper according to its managing editor. The best quote from this review has to be “Lost In Moscow -- A Brat In The USSR, is a delightful -- if occasionally scatological romp-- begging for a screenplay”. The article is riddled with hilarious tidbits.

Jeffrey Simpson interviewed Kirsten for Nova Scotia’s Chronicle Herald. (Click here to read about Kirsten’s Grandma the “avid Communist” and “whole boiled tongue”!

Tough Drum Magazine did a 3-page piece (see page 1, 2, 3 or text only) on Lost in Moscow. This youthful edgy magazine used the word “ethnographical” in the first sentence of the article and Kirsten had to apparently look in her Oxford Concise to verify she knew the meaning.

Teachers and Librarians (public school, high school & university) allow Kirsten to talk to their students. Kirsten has read and spoken at the following schools:

Sutton Public School, Ontario (grades 5&6)
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia (third-year BA’s)
Westdale Secondary School, Hamilton ON (grade 9)
Beaverton Public School, Ontario (grades 4-8)
Peter Gzowski Library, Ontario
Black River Public School, Ontario
St. Bernadette Catholic School, Ontario
R.L Graham Public School, Ontario (ages 10-11)
Princess Margaret Public School, Ontario (4-8 but only the good grade 8’s)
Credit View Public School, Ontario (grades 4-7)

If you are interested in having Kirsten talk to your students about how a journal she kept when she was 11-years-old allowed her to write a book as an adult (or practically anything else), please email to see when she is going to be in your province.