CURRENT MISSION

1. Get enough sleep. 2. Save the world. 3. Eat lots of mangos.

ABOUT ME

Hello! I'm kinda nerdy, kinda goofy, mostly good-natured, and a strange combination of really sociable and really shy. I like people a lot, but sometimes I get embarrassed by how much I like them, and clam right up. Terribly difficult. And yet, somehow, life goes on.

I'm joining CS because I love Philly more than anywhere else I've ever lived, and am passionate about sharing its fabulousness with others. I currently can't host because I'm in the process of moving house! I don't even have a bed of my own to sleep in just yet. :D
I can't think of anything else to say about myself that I haven't talked about in the specific sections further down. Maybe I will go look at other profiles and see what people usually put here...

PHILOSOPHY

Oh, I guess I sort-of covered that a little in Interests. Sigh. I'm not good at separating things-- my categories always bleed over into each other. Which sucks, 'cuz I'm a Virgo, and love to organize things.
My purpose in life is to seek out and share joy, to love fearlessly, to work hard for worthy non-profits, and to teach as many people to knit as are willing to learn.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Since I joined CS I haven't had much time for traveling (I know, I know, it sucks!), so I've actually just been using it to meet couchsurfers here in Philly. I've met a couple of people visiting here, but for the most part it's actually been locals who are also couchsurfers.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I don't yet have any official CS host/surf experience. BUT, without even knowing it, I've all along been living my life in a very CouchSurfing-y way. I have an okcupid account that I use primarily for making spur-of-the-moment coffee-and-knitting-and-show-me-around-your-city not-quite-dates with people in London, or Portland, or wherever I happen to be traveling. I have stayed with friends in Japan, the UK, France, and all over the States. I have friends who have stayed at my place for months at a time, either while I was away traveling myself, or back when I actually had the luxury of a spare bedroom. I think I like CouchSurfing for two reasons-- one, I believe that resources should be more communally-shared than they currently are, and that includes living/sleeping space. Two, for me, traveling is not about being a tourist, it's about making somewhere your new home, even if it's just for a week. So I love having access to the little tidbits of local knowledge-- even seemingly tiny things like, "Oh, this is my favorite grocery store" or "This is the park I like to walk through on my way to work".

Interests

I read way more than is probably healthy, I love to garden, I am an unabashed knitting addict, and whenever I can find someone to go dancing with me, I will happily boogie down to just about any kind of music (though I have a particular fondness for brassy Balkan music, mash-ups, and Lady Gaga). I love farmer's markets and yard sales. I have a tendency to have love affairs with cities-- my current love is my new hometown, Philly, but Tokyo, Paris, PDX, and San Francisco all make my heart beat fast. My parents met while traveling abroad in Germany; went to Africa, the USSR, and China for their honeymoon; and then instilled in my brother and I a love of travel from a very young age.
I do a lot of reading and thinking about feminism and queer identity/politics, but I don't know if any of those things really describe me. Maybe I'm a humanist? Lately I have been trying out the word philanthropist. I wish it didn't have such snooty connotations, because I feel like the roots of the word really apply. Phila means love, and I believe in treating my fellow creatures with love. Except mosquitoes. I'm pretty merciless when it comes to mosquitoes.
I love, love, LOVE Scrabble.

• fish
• dancing
• womens rights
• cooking
• coffee
• gardening
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• knitting
• music
• fishing
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

A recent tally of my bookshelf showed a predominance of sci-fi/fantasy, east asian lit, classic women authors, foreign-language dictionaries, erotica, and teen lit. Musically, my tastes run the gamut from Metric and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs to Manu Chao and Zap Mama, with stops at Outkast, The Cars, and Bran Van 3000 along the way. I have a fondness for movies based on Jane Austen novels, and Studio Ghibli animes. I don't like crappy horror movies, but I love 28 Days Later and Silence of the Lambs. The most enjoyable movies I've seen recently are Smilla's Sense of Snow; Ironman III; and (Tarsem's) The Fall.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I once watched a chicken lay an egg when I was about 6. It was kinda magical, but also kinda horrifying. It's stuck with me every since.

Teach, Learn, Share

I am an experienced knitting teacher! I'm not terribly adept at fancy cooking, but I'm a good baker, and I make a mean pie crust. I don't own a car, so I am very knowledgeable about the public transportation options for getting to, from, and around much of the East Coast (north of Washington, DC, anyways-- I'm hopeless when it comes to anywhere south of there).
Things I would like to learn include how to cook fish, and how to fix the brakes on my bicycle. I would be thrilled to learn how to speak some Czech, because I want to go to Prague someday.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Denmark, France, Iceland, Japan, Morocco, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan, United States