CURRENT MISSION

My mission is top secret! You'll have to pry it out of me.

ABOUT ME

Let's see...I'm pretty laid back, except when technology fails. I'm very non-religious, and I like to be active, except when I'm sleeping...then I like to sleep! I love good, simple food, talking with friends, and live music.

PHILOSOPHY

Some people don't care if they live or they die. Some people want to know what it feels like to fly. They gather their courage and they give it a try...
PG
And to those that I love, like a ghost through the fog, like a charmed hour and a haunted song and the angel of my dreams...SN

We couldn't all be cowboys, so some of us are clowns. Some of us are dancers on the Midway, we roam from town to town. AD

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING
I mostly like to host, though I also surfed in Brazil. I enjoy hosting people who use couch surfing as a way to meet new people and experience the culture and not as a cheap alternative to AirBnB. I like to host people who 1) send a request that is at least somewhat personalized 2) have filled out all of their profile 3) who show that they want to participate in CSing by going to meetings, hosting, or doing other CS related things. Alternatively, I'm less likely to host people who 1) send mass requests (and yes, it's obvious when it's a mass request) 2) haven't filled out their profile completely and 3) appear to just be requesting so that they can find a cheap place to stay in an expensive city.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Mostly hosting and mostly good to fantastic, with a few bad experiences thrown in too.

Interests

Reading, languages, music, tennis, traveling, gardening, slow food (no caps! the idea, not the official movement), teaching ESL, linguistics, evolutionary biology, cooking, and Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin is my hero. When I grow up, I want to be just like him!

• birds
• culture
• dining
• cooking
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• music
• live music
• hiking
• surfing
• tennis
• biology
• languages
• tourism
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I'm a huge music fan, though my tastes are pretty limited:( But first and foremost, there is Patty. Patty Griffin. She is music. Others: Jill Sobule, Indigo Girls, Counting Crows, Teddy Thompson, Fleetwood Mac, Amos Lee, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and numerous others.

I love to read. Like Patty is to music, so Cloud Atlas is to fiction. It's the most amazing book. My favorite authors in English are: David Mitchell, Nick Hornsby, Ursula K Le Guin, Yann Martell, TC Boyle, Ian McDonald, Ray Bradburry, Phillip Pullman, and David Leavitt. Non fiction writers I love are David Quamman and Micheal Pollan.An Italian writers that I love is Stefano Benni. A Spanish language writer that I adore is Eduardo Galeano.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Well, one amazing thing I did recently was see Kapadokya in Turkey. That is truly an amazing place. It was the only time in my life that I took a tour, and it was totally worth it. Everyone should go to Kapadokya! The vistas are just amazing, and going down two stories into ancient houses built into mountains is just incredible.
Another amazing thing I saw was on a jungle hike in Costa Rica. The guide showed us a hummingbird nest with chicks in it. And you though adult hummingbirds were small :)
I also spent 3 magnificent days on the island of Fernando de Noronha in Brazil. The beach Praia do Sancho was by far the most beautiful place I have ever seen, and I was there by myself. Imagine being on a tropical island, with no other person around, white sand, warm water, waves for playing in, and gorgeous sea birds diving next to you for fish. I will never forget that place.
I also saw Gianna Nannini for free at the Festa dell'Unitá in Rome many years ago. I still remember that she opened with Un Giorno Disumano :)
Let's see, I got invited to a suruba at a couchsurfer's place in Recife. (If you don't speak Portuguese, you'll have to google it. If you do...he he he ) I saw badgers and hedgehogs in Italy. I picked cherries for free in Germany. I walked around Montreal on a warm end-of-summer night and took in its amazing beauty. I've been lucky :)

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm always trying to improve my language skills, so Turkish, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese speakers are always welcome, as is anyone else:) I have a big vegetable garden but no background in gardening, so anyone who does and wants to give me some pointers would be most appreciated! Also, I love cooking, so if you know how to cook a veggie meal from your country and want to show me, that would be awesome!

Also, I'm a tennis nut! So if you're a good tennis player, and you want to play while you are here, that would be great! (I"m a 4.5 player according to the USTA ranking system, if you know what that is :) )

What I Can Share with Hosts

I teach English to non native speakers, so I"m always happy to help you with English. I can also show you some good veggie dishes.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Colombia, Italy, United States

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