CURRENT MISSION

Be a good daddy

ABOUT ME

I'm an American living in Slovakia. My wife is Slovak, and we have a little girl. My job is to travel around Slovakia, teaching one-week English conversation courses in schools. I was once accused of living life in circles rather than a straight line, but it's really quite a bit more squiggly than either.

PHILOSOPHY

The way to fly is to throw yourself at the ground and miss. (Paraphrasing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Surfing, hosting, and telling everyone about what a great time I have every time I meet a new couchsurfer.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've made so many great friends doing this, and I just want to do it more.

Interests

Anything outdoorsy - hiking, climbing, skiing, mountain biking, kayaking, etc. Also movies, books, art, theater, politics, bad puns, flights of fancy, rants, ramblings, and whimsy.

• arts
• books
• theater
• flying
• politics
• movies
• traveling
• cycling
• hiking
• kayaking
• surfing
• skiing
• rock climbing
• teaching
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Buffalo '66, Dr. Strangelove, Un Homme et Une Femme, any Monty Python, any Woody Allen, Some Like it Hot, Garden State, Go!, The Royal Tennenbaums (and other Wes Anderson), Amelie, There's Something About Mary, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Roger and Me, American Beauty, When We Were Kings, Knocked Up, the Blues Brothers, My Life as a Dog, Harold and Maude, Young Frankenstein, Metropolis, High Fidelity, The Usual Suspects, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I spent a year with no home, just teaching, traveling, and couchsurfing.

Teach, Learn, Share

Traveling wisdom: The more uncomfortable you are, the more of a cultural experience you're having.

"You have to believe in your power." Dima, on hitch-hiking (and life in general).

"Da, passport... Don't worry!" Russian train conductor lady, after the Ukrainian border guards disappeared with my passport an hour and a half earlier.

"I believe everything will be zayabeese." Me to Oleh, and then Oleh back to me.

What I Can Share with Hosts

The first year I lived in Slovakia, I didn't have a home . I had a job where I was sent to a school in a different part of Slovakia every week; my company arranged accommodation while I was teaching, but on the weekends I had to figure something out for myself. So, I couchsurfed almost every weekend. Not only did I meet a lot of great people and have a lot of memorable experiences, but I really found out about my own strengths and limitations. Traveling can sometimes be a miserable experience, which is as it should be, I think. That's when you learn the most.

Now I've got a wife and child, which presents its own joys and challenges. What do I have to offer? Maybe some wisdom from all this, but I think still a curiosity about how others deal with life. Plus, cooking, stories, fun times, etc.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Poland, Slovakia, United States

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