CURRENT MISSION

to BE the Rainbow

ABOUT ME

I love learning new things and teaching others. I'd like to share my passions and learn about your passions. I cut off my gringo afro in 2009 and feel that I'm also shedding my skin internally as I become a new me. In 2010, I took some time off after finishing graduate school to explore the southwest and west coast by hiking, camping, and sightseeing at national parks and forests. At the end of the summer, I moved to San Francisco, my new favorite city in the world, where I now live and work.

PHILOSOPHY

Learn from others by watching their mistakes, but you must learn most things in life by making the mistakes yourself.

Tinkering with things is how we learn how they work. If you cannot take something apart and put it back together again, then you don't fully understand how it works.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I started couchsurfing in 2010, and in a short time I have met some great people and travel companions. I'd like to meet more surfers who share my interests, but most importantly, meet new people from whom I can learn new interests.

Now that I have an apartment, I have opened up my couch to surfers passing through the San Francisco Bay Area whenever I'm not traveling myself.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfing:
I met a fellow couch-surfer, Zhuozhi, through Craig's List and he accompanied me on a ten-day road trip through the southwest US. He's very fun and really flexible, and I'm glad he joined my road trip. We built some really huge campfires together!

I met Simson when he let me and my two friends stay at his place in Seattle. We watched movies, ate sushi, told ridiculous jokes, and had a blast hanging out with him. He really loves to laugh and smile!

I met Breanne and Cory when I was looking for a place to live in San Francisco with my girlfriend Lissette. They were generous hosts, and we loved cooking waffles, playing board games, and talking with them.

I met Leo when Lissette and I were traveling in New York City. He was a very generous host (he gave us his bed!), and we enjoyed sharing meals, exploring the city, and talking until we were too tired to keep our eyes open.

Hosting:
Our friend Stephen surfed our couch for about two weeks before he left for Colombia to travel in South America with our friends. He's a helpful and generous surfer, and we enjoyed all his cooking!

Gustavo spent all day exploring San Francisco, then came back at night to hang out, talk, and watch movies with me and Lissette. We walked through North Beach and he introduced us to his friends from Brazil and Guatemala.

Grant and Evelyn stopped in San Francisco during their road trip tour of the lower 48 states. We had a blast exploring Chinatown, feasting on Chinese food, and talking until the late hours of the night.

Nir stayed with us for only one night, but we had lots of fun walking around the city and feasting on Thai food. He's a very helpful and kind guest, and I look forward to visiting him in Israel some day!

Garrett was attending a conference in SF over the weekend, so he kept busy during the day and hung out with us and Nir at night. He cooked us a killer stir-fry, and he knows everything you always wanted to know about our food culture but were afraid to ask.

Christian is a mellow guy, but he's not afraid to have an opinion. We had a debate about eastern and western languages while feasting on Chinese food, discussed neuroscience, watched a movie, played card games, and shared puzzles and board games with each other.

Wayne stayed with us after his trip to Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. We feasted on Chinese, Thai, and American food, and we drank lots of tea. His girlfriend Chie also stayed with us, and they didn't mind us watching movies as they drifted off into dreamland.

Mathieu and Gaëlle spent two months on a road trip across the U.S. and made their final stop in San Francisco before continuing to New Zealand. From the moment they arrived, we talked about music and language all night long. We went out for sushi in Japantown on their second night, and I'm glad Mathieu finally got to try it.

Nir referred his friend Michel from Israel, who surfed at my place with her friend Michelle from Chile. We talked about culture and music until late into the night. A few months later, Michelle returned with her friend Andrea, also from Chile. We chatted nonstop and ate the most delicious deep-dish pizza ever.

Traveling:
I really want to live in Japan someday (to improve my Japanese) and travel to Chile, New Zealand, Iceland, Ireland, and Italy.

Most of my travels have been in North America, including a few parts of Canada (Montreal and Vancouver) and Mexico (Tampico, Veracruz, and Monterrey).

I've traveled in 23 of the 50 United States, mostly along the east and west coasts as well as in the southwest. I want to visit Key West, Florida and Chicago, Illinois.

During my 2-month road trip in the summer of 2010, I drove, hiked, and camped in 10 states: Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

In October 2010, I went to Boston to present at a research conference and I took the opportunity to explore the MIT and Harvard areas of Cambridge, plus some of Boston and Brookline (where I was born). Then Lissette and I went to New York City for five days and explored various parts of Manhattan Island.

In 2011, I took short trips to San Diego, California and Portland, Oregon. I also visited family and friends in Austin, Dallas, and upstate New York.

In May 2012, I traveled to Tarragona and Barcelona, Spain on my first trip to Europe. I'll probably go to Carcassonne and Lectoure, France but we shall see where life takes me next...

Here's a graphical way to view where I've traveled:

Create your own maps of where you have visited.

Interests

I love learning, teaching, juggling, puzzles, fractals, mathematics, languages, music, biking, hiking, camping, traveling, cooking, climbing trees, watching sunsets, ...

Ask me about something, and I'll be glad to share any of my interests with you. I often bring juggling balls with me, and I'd be happy to teach you how to juggle.

• culture
• dining
• cooking
• chinese food
• walking
• movies
• board games
• traveling
• puzzles
• juggling
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• surfing
• rock climbing
• cartography
• history
• languages
• mathematics
• neuroscience
• sightseeing
• beaches
• parks

Music, Movies, and Books

“Music is a means of rapid transportation.” –John Cage

I have a broad and eclectic taste in music, and I like anything that creates an acoustic environment that immerses the listener. However, I understand Brian Eno's view that ambient music “must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”

Genres: post-rock, textured and/or ambient electronica, progressive rock, conscious hip-hop, blues, folk, jazz, reggae, ...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

While I was camping with my friends John and Zhuozhi, we ran into a rattlesnake, scorpion, and black widow spider -- all in the same day. That was quite a crazy night... The moon was very full.

Ask me about it, or any other adventure. I love telling stories.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love teaching people that they really don't hate math. Math doesn't have to be painful, as most people remember it. It can be easy, fun, engaging, and sometimes very beautiful. I have a history of changing people's minds about hating math. Math isn't about numbers, it's about patterns. Who doesn't love discovering patterns in chaos?

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Mexico, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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