*I wrote most of this 10 years ago! Haha but let’s start talking and I’m working on updating this*

ME IN A NUTSHELL

Born in Chicago, raised in Cincinnati, college in Boston, studied abroad in France, volunteered building trails in Iowa and living out of a tent, volunteered doing disaster relief around the US (mostly south), taught English in Korea, work and holiday visa in Australia, back to US for a while, 7 months in Qatar, and now back in the US.

CURRENT MISSION

Working on my private pilot's license.

ABOUT ME

I don't take things too seriously. I am incredibly jealous of people who are bilingual and aspire to become one. I am the definition of procrastinator and frequently start projects and fail to see them completely through. I can solve one side of a standard Rubik's cube in less than a minute. I love when athletes are humble after doing something spectacular.

PHILOSOPHY

"It's no use crying over spilt milk."

Basically, there is no need to be unhappy or fret about the past because it cannot be undone.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfed with-
Brandon (1 night, Burlington, VT, USA)
Anne (3 nights, Berlin, Germany)
Wouter (2 nights, Maastricht, Netherlands)
Elisa (2 nights, Bourglinster, Luxembourg)
Ebru (1 night, Trier, Germany)
Anne-Catherine (2 nights, Geneva, Switzerland)
Alessandro (1 night, Milan, Italy)
Dimi (3 nights, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Melody (3 nights, Lyon, France)
Jenee (2 nights, Columbus, OH, USA)
Libby and Ron (1 night, Hocking Hills, OH, USA)
Christy (4 nights, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Jeff (1 night, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Shakela (1 night, Champaign, IL, USA)
Jason (1 night, Louisville, KY, USA)
Brandi and Justin (1 night, Hot Springs, AR, USA)
Rick and Janet (1 night, Springfield, IL, USA)
Lauren and Shawn (2 nights, Louisville, KY, USA)
Deveri (3 nights, Cedar Rapids, IA, USA)
Zander (2 nights, Des Moines, IA, USA)
Christy (again!) and Kristin (3 nights, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Dan (3 nights, Madison, WI, USA)
Kat (2 nights, Savannah, GA, USA)
Walter (2 nights, New Orleans, LA, USA)
Pat (2 nights, Kansas City, KS, USA)
Chris (1 night, Omaha, NE, USA)
Pam (1 night, Lake Andes, SD, USA)
Nik and Naomi (1 night, Rapid City, SD, USA)
Dan (1 night, Laramie, WY, USA)
Roger (1 night, Boulder, CO, USA)
Marc (3 nights, Denver, CO, USA)
Kenton (1 night, Grand Junction, CO, USA)
Jim and Sharrie (1 night, Fairview, UT, USA)
Alexi (1 night, San Francisco, CA, USA)
CRIC house (2 nights, Sebastopol, CA, USA)
Jesse (2 nights, Arcata, CA, USA)
Casey (3 nights, Bend, OR, USA)
Jake (4 nights, Portland, OR, USA)
Jess and Steve (3 nights, Portland, OR, USA)
Matt (2 nights, Seattle, WA, USA)
Jennie and family (2 nights, Chilliwack, BC, Canada)
Alyssa (3 nights, Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Bela (2 nights, Victoria, BC, Canada)
Sandra (3 nights, Macau, China)
Stewart (1 night, Alice Springs, NT, Australia)
Paul (4 nights, Fremantle, WA, Australia)
Joel (2 nights, Jabiru, NT, Australia)
Leo (2 nights, Katherine, NT, Australia)
Julian (1 night, Townsville, QLD, Australia)
Angelique (1 night, Hervey Bay, QLD, Australia)
Advaita (3 nights, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia)
Anton (2 nights, Tweed Heads, NSW, Australia)
Vivien (2 nights, Lismore, NSW, Australia)
Nick (4 nights, Lawrence, NSW, Australia)
Antoine (3 nights, Auckland, NZ)
Shawn (3 nights, Cleveland, OH, USA)
Nathan (1 night, Detroit, MI, USA)
Hannah (1 night, St. Louis, MO, USA)
Medo (1 night, Nicosia, Cyprus)
Alvinos (1 night, Kyperounta, Cyprus)

Hosted-
(in Boston)
David (1 night, from Singapore)
Melody (3 nights, from France)
(in Cincinnati)
Shawn (2 nights, from Cleveland)

Boston Invasion of Burlington
Maastricht SummeRMeetinG
Festival of Lights 2010 in Lyon
Columbus Couch Crash 2011
Twin Cities CouchFest 2011
Kentucky Derby 2012
Twin Cities CouchFest 2012
Madison Couch Crash 2012
Boulder Couch Crash 2013
Cleveland Couch Crash 2016
Meet-ups in Boston/ Brookline, Cincinnati, Amsterdam, Grenoble, New Orleans, Victoria, Macau, and Sydney.

Interests

Film and television, psychology/ the brain, languages, meeting people from different cultures, stargazing, walking barefoot on grass, people watching, daydreaming, cryptograms, word searches, Scrabble, climbing trees, square trees, Silver Clouds, trivia, biking, playing softball, bowling, archery, recycling, Sheboygan Wisconsin, walking large distances for leisure or for no purpose whatsoever, hitchhiking, trainhopping (I've never done it before), coin collecting, jigsaw puzzles, England, Egypt, koshari, small countries, IKEA, Pozzetto's, Nutella, Ethiopian food, British accents.

Exploring in general.

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies- Pride and Prejudice (2005, but I like the BBC one too), Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain, Chicago, Edward Scissorhands, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Wall-E, 101 Dalmations, Babe, Miss Congeniality, Volver, Broken Embraces, Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I Heart Huckabees, and recently impressed by The Hurt Locker.

Music- The Beatles, Queen, Mumford & Sons, AWOLNATION, Beirut, Ratatat, Beach House, Grizzly Bear, Florence and the Machine, Amy Winehouse, Hall & Oates, Simon & Garfunkel, Lily Allen, Regina Spektor, Michael Buble, Grover Washington Jr., Billy Joel, Talking Heads, Blondie, ABBA, Lady Gaga, Chester French, Carla Bruni, Charles Aznavour, Yann Tiersen, Edith Piaf, Bach, Debussy, Chopin, Reggaeton.

Books- Harry Potters, His Dark Materials series, Series of Unfortunate Events, The Hearing Trumpet, Pride and Prejudice, Redwall books, Stardust, Hedda Gabler, Silk, The Kite Runner, The DaVinci Code, Wise Eating in Wartime, All My Friends Are Dead, mysteries.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Made mini cannolis for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama when he came to Cincinnati for his campaign.

Saw Obama's inauguration from the lawn of the Capitol with a ticket that a lady from the inauguration committee gave to me the night before in a restaurant in DC. Then for his next inauguration, got tickets from my former physical therapist doctor who became a congressman.

Saw the US premiere of "Broken Embraces" at the New York Film Festival where Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz made an appearance.

Getting into Cannes Film Festival screenings.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 world premiere red carpet.

I went to 4 continents in 1 day- Christmas Eve 2010

Chatted with Secretary Janet Napolitano over a slice of Little Caesar's pizza while responding to Hurricane Sandy.

2014 Incheon Asian Games- watched compound archery finals, cricket, boxing, women's sepaktakraw finals, men's kabaddi, and table tennis.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach- I can juggle and spin a basketball on my finger, so I might be able to teach you either (or both) of those things. Also, I can teach English or phrases in the other languages I've dabbled in. I played piano/ saxophone (but haven't in a while) so if you have one and are a beginner I could help you out. Or the first 27 digits of pi.

Learn- I always want to learn more languages and about other cultures. I would also love to learn to play the guitar.

Share- Conversation, laughs, knowledge, a good time.

Countries I’ve Visited

Aruba, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, San Marino, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Virgin Islands, U.S., Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, France, Qatar, South Korea, United States

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