CURRENT MISSION

Connect with people

ABOUT ME

For the past 2+ years I have been traveling in the States and Canada volunteering on small organic farms as well as Waldorf schools where I could. Did commercial salmon fishing with a family at a remote island in Alaska, milked goats in Montana, helped in a classroom at a Waldorf-inspired charter school in Hawaii, and so on. Right now my main interests are education and psychology. I'd like to become either educator for early teens or child psychologist.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe the way agriculture has changed since its industrialization started -- the way our food is grown and harvested, including both flora and fauna -- deeply influences the way we live, the way we feel, and it changes the psyche of our society drastically. I also believe education, or children, holds the key to a brighter future for us all.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

To spread the word. To communicate with others. To establish relationships that are not money-based.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

As I have been mostly living and working in quite remote areas, I've not been utilizing couchsurfing much in the last two years. I did have a wonderful host for two days when I started on my journey. However, as my interests in psychology, education, and farming deepen (I see all three as connected) I'd like to, when i pass by cities again, use the opportunities to talk with people who enjoy good conversations, people who are passionate about what they believe in, or people with genuine feelings about the world we all live in today.

Interests

farming/FOOD!/art: painting,especially German Expressionism; printmaking, especially lithography/books: mostly literature & classics/sports(love frisbee and ultimate, tennis, basketball, tae kwon do, snowboarding, iceskating, badminton, biking; wants to try hang-gliding or paragliding; wish to fly a small airplane) /talking to people with various background

• arts
• humanities
• books
• literature
• education
• dining
• cooking
• meditation
• clubbing
• flying
• traveling
• painting
• cycling
• fishing
• snowboarding
• sports
• basketball
• tennis
• paragliding
• badminton
• agriculture
• teaching
• mathematics
• physics
• psychology
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Bach, Chopin, The Beatles, The Eagles, Belle and Sebastian, Sting, AC/DC, and a lot more. Recently I've been getting into Sharon Van Etten.

Movies: Pretty much all French New Wave, especially Breathless, The 400 Blows, A bout de souffle; all Bergman, especially Winter Light, Wild Strawberries, and Autumn Sonata; all Kurosawa, especially Rashomon; some Audrey Hepburn, especially Breakfast at Tiffany's; some Robert Redford, especially The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Three Days of the Condor; most Meryl Streep, especially Kramer vs Kramer, Out of Africa, The Hours. Some Dustin Hoffman, especially Rain Man and The Graduate; Forest Gump, Ghost of the Shell (both I and II), T2, Waking Life, Burat, Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber; indie and foreign films in general.

Books: Dickens, especially Great Expectations; Thomas Hardy; Nabokov (Lolita); almost all early-to-mid Faulkner, especially Absolum! Absolum!, Light in August, If I Forget Thee, Jerusalum, As I Lay Dying, and of course, The Sound and the Fury; J.D.Salinger, especially Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and The Catcher in the Rye; The Great Gatsby; Lewis Carrol; any poem by Donald Justice; Keats, Blake, and Coleridge; Frank Bidart, especially the Hour(s) of the Night series; Emily Dickinson; Thoreau; Wendell Berry's essays; Michael Pollen and new foodie books in general, especially the ones on manure, compost, and soil.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Ate an orange last summer bought with a quarter at a farmer's market in Davis, CA; it was the most delicious thing I've ever had. It literally changed my life.

Went salmon fishing in Alaska as an fishing intern. It was totally surreal.

Went around a good number of countries in Europe on cheap long-distance bus rides.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach math, physics, computer stuff, Chinese language, Chinese cooking, ice skating (I'm a pretty good power skater), serious badminton skills (used to play competition), meditation (Qi Gong; taught at Brown's meditation club). Curious to learn anything and hear about your experiences.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, North Korea, Norway, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Netherlands, United States

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