WHO I AM

a lay cultural anthropologist, global wanderlust, pseudo linguist, self-observed economist and financier

Personal value linchpin

To begin with, I have to quote two definitions:
VALUE is, by definition, belief that a certain way of acting or a certain state of existence is preferable to other ways.

Culture, by definition, is the LEARNED, SHARED understandings among a group of people about how to behave and what everything MEANS.

Therefore, be respectful, forgiving, open up the mind, try to have empathy in other people's value and way of life, be happy and suspend your judgement, is a true anthropoligist's pursuit.

ABOUT ME

I am a pseudo-scholar on Indology (the study of India - "Indo-logia"), and a big fan of Indian culture. Besides this, I am also...

(1) enjoying language learning. Other than my fully-functioning English and Chinese, I can speak intermediate Spanish, French and Sanskrit.

(2) I am a somewhat scholarly type, especially in regard to cultural anthropology, philosophy and religious study (n.b. I am not religious but simply an agnostic simultaneously a little spiritual) as well as on finance and investment stuff. I don't give a high opinion on ethnocentrism and I try to understand a cultural confrontation in a holistic way, i.e. to find out the whole picture and linkage, then try to understand and adapt, finally to appreciate other people's way of life.

(3) I live a peripatetic life and have been to more than 60 nations in every continent save Antarctica. To paraphrase, I have encountered so many different cultures and I enjoyed a lot, simultaneously I have to know what culture is by definition and try to internalize and digest. I meet local people and always wanna get involved, keep learning their culture, enriching my precious cultural experience, and making sincere and genuine friends.

(4) Outdoor: Scuba Diving, hiking and less technically oriented mountaineering (say Kilimanjaro sort) are my things.

(5) Books: I enjoy reading and collecting Books on humanity under following categories:

Hinduism, Islam of the Indian subcontinent, and Buddhism; Cultural Anthropology, Western Philosophy, Comparative Mythology, Greek Mythology, world religions, Learning Languages (Spanish and Sanskrit), Finance and Investment, Economics, mathematics and maybe a little bit literature but not quite into it.

Having graduated from a tertiary institution, supposedly I am on my way to be come an 'Indologist', namely a scholar who studies India. In this regard, somehow I may seem a little bit quirky and werid (and that's exactly why I learn Sanskrit and Hindi XD). I enjoy collecting and reading books (many of which are about India ). I pay a lot of efforts to maintain the quality of my mental faculty by getting new ideas and inspirations from all potential sources that is available to me.

That said, it is also why I highly appreciate couchsurfing, coz you always have the chance to meet new people and pick their brains (in a good and reciprocal way), and possibly make new BFFs....

PHILOSOPHY

Carpe diem, memento mori.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

One of my American friend from the Uni of QLD told me about CS, then I found this place is absolutely fascinating. I have soberly realized that this is a fantastic platform for anyone who like to experience authentic regional culture as well as making international friends.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Before I signed myself up here, I do have bumped into an unexpected and extremely hospitable host during my visit in Indonesia, that's a very fresh memory and very delightful.
Since now, I have accumulated some very excellent surfing experiences in the US, Mexico, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. These hosties offered me so many local knowledge and more imporatantly, friendship. Thank you all my hosts. My travel episodes would not be that beautiful if you were not around!

Interests

Learning languages, esp. Sanskrit, Hindi and Spanish (and English of course).

Comparative mythology; myths from different cultural systems such as Greek, Egyptian, Zoroastrian and Hindu can really turn my motor running.
Photography, actually you can also say foto shooting..
scuba diving
mountaineering
trekking.
swimming, cooking exotic foods and savor all sorts of restaurants.
Reading books, esp on Hinduism, WOrld religions, anthropology, history, mythology.

and Travel, of course.

• culture
• books
• literature
• photography
• acting
• coloring
• cooking
• running
• reading
• traveling
• billiards
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• hunting
• mountaineering
• surfing
• scuba diving
• muslim
• buddhist
• hinduism
• swimming
• anthropology
• economics
• history
• languages
• mathematics
• religion
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

MOVIES:

Hitchcock movie such as Rear Window and Psycho; David Lynch's psycological movie such as Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr.;
Persian movie such as Turtles can fly; The taste of cherry; The Color of paradise; Children of heaven;
Some Spanish movie such as Talk to her; All about my mother;
Mexican movie such as And your mother too; Amores Perros;
French movie such as Amelie; The grand blue; Love her if you dare; Three colors trilogy directed by the Polish director Kieslowski (and his "Decalogue" series)
Fellini's movie such as 8 and half;

Indian movie such as My name is Khan; Dev D, Delhi Belly; Rang de Basante (I render the best one ever), Lagaan.
Some cult movie by Roderigruz and Quentin.
Some old movie such as Casablanca, Roman Holiday ,Singing in the rain, Le trou.
Some cartoon such as South Park, Americn Dad and Hayao Miyazaki's animation, Fantastic Mr Fox, Persepolis... some Jap horror and cult movie such as BR, machine gun girl.
some touchy movie such as little miss sunshine; Once; some youth movie such as Juno..
African themed movie which has beautiful OST such as Out of Africa, English patient, etc..
and so many movie I cannot write all of them down here

Music, hard to summarize as well. I basically savor all genres of music... my 160GB ipod is almost full with mp3 format music.....here is the much much incomplete list of the names that I enjoyed a lot:
ABBA, Deep Purple, Beatles, Blue, Blur, Radiohead (too good to be true), Kings of Convenience, City and Color, Lykkie Li, Cafe Del Mar, Chinmaya Dunster's new age music, The Clash, Radiohead, Los Van Van, Nightwish, Built to Spill, ACDC, Bob Marley Bob Dylan, Benny More, Dean Martin, Eric Claption, Elvis, the Eagles, James Blunt, Jason Mraz, Jem, Joe Hisaishi, Keren Ann, KMFDM, Lacrimosa, Lenka, Libera, Linkin Park, Lisa Ono, Lionel Riche, Marc Anthony, Maximilian Hecker, Neil Young, Nirvana, Norah Jones, Once OST, Placebo, Rammstein, Scott Joplin, Sophie Zelmani, Stoa, Music by Stockholm Cathedral Choir, Sum 41, Tamas Wells, Taylor Swift, U2, The Weepies, Xandria.
Chinese: è”¡å¥é›…ï¼Œæ¢æ™“é›ªï¼Œé™ˆå¥•è¿…ï¼Œæ–¹å¤§åŒï¼Œèƒ¡å½¦æ–Œï¼Œå¡å¥‡ç¤¾ï¼Œæ¢é™èŒ¹ï¼Œæœ´æ ‘ï¼Œå­™ç‡•å§¿ï¼Œé™¶å–†ï¼Œç—›è‹¦çš„ä¿¡ä»°ï¼ŒçŽ‹è²ï¼Œç¾½æžœï¼Œå¼ é“é¢–ï¼Œå¼ ä¿¡å“²ï¼Œå¼ éœ‡å²³ï¼Œå‘¨ä¼ é›„ï¼Œå‘¨æ°ä¼¦ï¼Œè‡ªç„¶å·,陈绮贞

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

* Drive across the trans-canadian hwy from Vancouver to Halifax for more than 11000km (including various diverges)
0, Standing on the summit of Kilimanjaro, beholding the majestic sunrise.
1,Squeeze into the dark prisoner's cell in a sunk Japanese war ship under the Philippino sea;
2, Sampling the color of the mosiacs from the President Coolidge's stern pool 65m underwater in Vanuatu. Another night dive within cargo II is the most extraordinary scene I've ever seen: I got surrounded by many many flashlight fishes!
3, chasing a sea turtle and swimming with sharks in the region of Great Barrier Reef, Maldives and PNG.
3,Trekking in the Himalaya mountains!
4,Bathing in the Ganges in Varanasi! That's really something especially when you see a floating corpse not far away from you..
5,set out at 00:00 with some unexpected hostpitable local when I was in Java to visit a smoky active volcano called "Gunung Bromo". The trip on the 4WD is really uncanny :)
6, Glowing worms in Waitomo Caves of New Zealand is absolutely amazing!!!!!!
7, Watching sunrise at Mt Sinai, Egypt.
8, Plunge into the Red Pyramid with a fresh basil on my nose to avoid those smelly odors in the pyramid.
9, WHite water rafting at the source of the mighty River Nile in Jinja, Uganda.
10, Mountain gorilla tracking at Bwindi Impenetrable NP, Uganda.

Teach, Learn, Share

I learn Sanskrit, and if you are interested I can let you know some interesting tidbits about this language.
I love photography and I've got bunches of picture and some tips to share.
I love south Asian philosophy, history and religion. Many things on Hinduism, Buddhism are not unheard to me. I also like Greek and Egyptian mythology.
I was grown up in communist China, so I know a lot of things about that fast-changing country.
I have been to Tibet several times, I know there a lot about there as well.
I have been living in Australia for two years, therefore, I know something about that terra australis too.
I love cooking , i've invented some weird cuisine by myself which enjoyed by myself only......
I've been to more than 60 nations, I definitely know something about them too, especially field knowledge!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

China

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