CURRENT MISSION

To see Russia, the country I have wanted to live in since I was seven, learn to speak Russian well enough to have long conversations about Dostoevsky in smoky cafes with a native Russki chelovek. Oh, and to stay warm while travelling through SIberia.

ABOUT ME

I'm a big history nerd doing a PhD in Russian history right now, which means I spend more time in Eastern Europe than is probably healthy. Despite the nerdiness, and perhaps because of the Eastern European-ness, my favourite pastime after sitting in libraries is heading out for drinks and sitting talking until 4am, and I can always have my arm subtly twisted to stay out later or go dancing. I'm not a particularly organized person and not a good cook, preferring ideas to practicalities, but despite this I've somehow managed to look after myself after years on the road and living out of a suitcase while moving cities and continents in short spaces of time. I like books, wine and bad TV, in that order, but most of all I like sitting around with friends and talking for hours, which is why I love couchsurfing for giving me more people to do that with...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have had brilliant experiences in Russia and Germany, everyone I couchsurfed with was helpful and kind, and often directed me around otherwise strange and wonderful places!

Interests

Food (anything sweet, I could eat brown sugar from the jar...), music (almost everything, though usually sultry songstresses, old-school jazz, classical Russian music, Georgian folk, and nouveau brit rock like the decembrists when I am in the right mood) russian movies, novels and modernist art,

• arts
• culture
• books
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• drinking
• flying
• movies
• tv
• traveling
• music
• jazz
• teaching
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: The Decembrists, Regina Spector, The Audreys, The Gathering, Neko Case, Zulya and the Children of the Underground, Scriabin, Shostakovich, Ravel, Messian, Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky. Books: too many, but especially anything by Jonothan Safran Foer, Virginia Woolf, Dostoevsky, Belyi, Iris Murdoch, Daniel Kharms, Katherine Mansfield, Zadie Smith, Vladimir Nabokov. At the moment I am trying to finish Proust, but not quite getting there... Movies: Orlando (notice a theme?) a bout de souffle, actually anything nouvelle vague or anything with Emanuelle Beart in it.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Visiting Lake Baikal in Siberia, the deepest lake in the world; flying into Sydney, my hometown, over the harbour; the first time I visited London, as a 12 year old colonial girl, and couldn't believe the houses in Kensington actually looked like the ones Dick van Dyke had danced on in Mary Poppins

Teach, Learn, Share

I want to learn heaps, specifically: how to speak more grammatical French, how to begin speaking German, Armenian, or Czech.
I can teach: English, of course (actually, Im a qualified ESL teacher). I also know a lot about Russian modernist writers, if you are interested. And Australian culture, but not how to surf, malheureusement.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States

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