CURRENT MISSION

To learn as much about living life well and being happy as possible.

ABOUT ME

I am a positive person. I wasn't always. I've spent a lot of my life as a grown up learning how to be a happy, centered person, and I think I've pretty much gotten the hang of it. Life is pretty great. And even when it's not, I truly believe in the power of the universe and all things ending up OK. I've been through a lot in my life and I have a lot of compassion. I'm a very kind person who is very understanding. I love to be silly, though I'm not extravagantly outgoing. That being said, I will strike up conversation with strangers. I can surprise people with my brazenness. I generally tend to trust people. I love good communication and honesty above all things. I'm a very home-centered person who loves to travel. When I do travel, which is becoming a big part of my life, I can sometimes get overwhelmed, and then I like to sit in a nice cafe with some coffee or tea and a journal. I love finding people who are kin. I believe in feminism. I'm a most-of-the-time vegetarian (pescatarian really). I love yoga--practice and philosophy. I tend to like being productive and doing things over sitting around. I'm a maker of all kinds of things--I really like to work with my hands. I'm an aesthetic who loves the things around me to be beautiful or well designed. I like when people are drastically different than me and yet have enough common ground that we can still get along. I'm open to my ideas and world views being challenged. Change is the only constant.

PHILOSOPHY

Honesty, compassion, good judgement, social responsibility, paths to spiritual enlightenment, and lots of love.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Have hosted surfers/made friends with surfers/am about to start out on some travels in Europe and be a surfer.

I met one of my best friends and one-time roommate when he couch surfed with another mutual friend in Minneapolis.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Met Surfers in 2010, found out about Couchsurfing

Surfed in Nantes, France in 2011--my host saved me from being asphyxiated by cats!

Hosted several people over the summer of 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota--the twins from Fargo who baked me a delicious cherry pie!

Surfed in Reykjavik, Paris, and Brussels in the summer of 2012--saw many sights, some whales in Iceland, some incredible beauty in Paris, some great beers and the flea market in Brussels!

Also Surfed informally with a family in Banjar, Himachal Pradesh, India, who showed me and my best friend the most amazing mountain viewI will probably ever see in my life. (Until I climb Everest! Hahah)

Interests

In chronological order:
Waking Up. Coffee. Books. Fresh Baked Bread. Music-listening/playing. Poetry. Long walks. Making art. Local honey. Wool/knit things. Farm animals. Frames. The Plains. Trees. Silver. Banjos. Backpacks. Oatmeal cookies. Feathers. Sailing. Water. Fires. Singing. Motorcycles. Mountains. Dance Parties. Accents. Vegans. Freegans. Feminism. Road Trips. Being Blissed-Out. Yoga. Co-ops. Up North. The Saltless Sea. The Ocean. Going to sleep. Dreams about Empty Houses.

• animals
• cats
• farm animals
• arts
• books
• poetry
• singing
• beauty
• dancing
• womens rights
• cooking
• beer
• coffee
• vegetarian
• yoga
• partying
• crafts
• motorcycles
• traveling
• crochet
• knitting
• painting
• music
• camping
• sailing
• biology
• road trips
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Some books that have meant a lot to me:

The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran. My mother read this to me as a child and it's been an inspiration since.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig

Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

The Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Lived in New York City for a year when I was 18, in Greenwich Village. (Thanks for the memories NYU but I would lose the debt if I could...) No city will ever compare to the bustle and brilliance of New York.

Lived in Paris for a summer on my own and got delightfully chubby on pain au chocolat and baguette (you don't have the metabolism of a 20 year old forever so it's good to indulge while you're still young??).

Hiked and traveled in the Himalayas, staying with friends of friends, accepting rides from travel angels, discovering my true inner traveler, and the peace you can only find in absolute Indian chaos. Hoping to revisit India as soon the opportunity presents itself.

Went on a whale watching tour in Iceland for free thanks to a couchsurfing host/marine biologist, and got to see a rare pod of hundreds of whales!

Lived in a sailboat a friend built, on Lake Superior for a weekend.

Worked on an organic CSA farm in Prairie Farm, Wisconsin for a summer, getting my hands dirty and learning about the earth.

Escaped a Tornado that was only miles away from us, in Kansas on a road trip with my sister--that wicked witch of the west won't get us yet!

Been in love many times, gotten my heart broken and fixed again.

Teach, Learn, Share

We're all teaching, learning, sharing all the time with one another. As a community, I think couchsurfers are better at that than most other communities. I love to learn and get good at new things. I'm all about developing skill sets at this phase of my life. I love to explain things I understand well to others. Most of my intelligence is centered around mechanical arts--tinkering, making things, creating objects/crafts, building things, fixing things, figuring out how things work. I can knit, crochet, sew, do printmaking, paint, bind books, do simple construction and handy-person type stuff, cook, bake, camp.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Netherlands, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, United States

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