IMPORTANT NOTE: Couchsurfing seems to be getting more and more clogged with packs of Erasmus students with no references that send out mass messages looking for a free place to crash with zero interest in the people actually opening their homes to them. Frankly, this is an abuse of the couchsurfing community and makes actual couchsurfers jaded. I am not running a free hostel.

If you don't give me indication that you've looked at my profile, I will reject your request without flinching. I'm only interested in hosting or staying with people that I might have some sort of human connection with because...isn't that the whole point? To those of you who bother - you know who you are - welcome! :D

CURRENT MISSION

Wandering the world, looking for new ideas and a new home.

ABOUT ME

Lessee. It's always kinda difficult to distill yourself into something that will fit into a little white box, but...

I'm an extroverted guy (that likes introverts!) I like people and their warmth. When I go to a place, I try to get a feel for the soul of the place and its people rather than just taking pictures of buildings or whatever. (Buildings are pretty similar everywhere in the scheme of things, I've learned...) I can be talkative, but I also really appreciate silence just as much as good conversation.

I'm originally from Texas and have lived in the American South, the Middle East, Canada and Spain. After failing to convince myself that I could live in Texas and be happy with it, I'm wandering around the world looking to meet people, experience places and exchange ideas and maybe get some inspiration. Yep.

PHILOSOPHY

The point of life is to live it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I host when I'm at home and surf when I'm away from home. Even outside Couchsurfing proper, I hitchhike and talk to strangers. I like helping people and being helped. It increases overall levels of trust in the world.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've hosted around 50ish people and been hosted by about as many. I started off in Oman back in 2007 and have been couchsurfing whenever possible since. I've made a number of friends through CS that I still keep in contact with...for which I'm very grateful.

I expected it to be great and it ended up even better than I expected. Because of couchsurfing, I was able to really get a taste of the soul of the place rather than stare at tourist sites and float around like a ghost. I think I'd hate travel if it wasn't for couchsurfing.

Interests

abandoned buildings, appalachia, arabic, autumn, biology, blurry photographs, car-raving, cinnamon and ginger, climbing trees, cobwebs, coffee, cold winds, constructing my own reality, cuddling with friends, desolation, draining, dumpster diving, eastern europe, eerieness, epiphanies, escapism, freeganism, genderfucks, geography, getting over myself, hebrew, hiking, human geography, israel, krav maga, languages, making up words, off-the-grid living, palestine, peanut butter, people-watching, polyamory, popping zits, population problems, queer rights, random social activities, rats, road trips, runner's highs, sapir-whorf hypothesis, scatalogical humor, short hair, sideburns, sneaking out, sociology, swearing, sweden, taiga and tundra, the aurora borealis, the soviet union, trainhopping, transgender issues, trees and leaves, trespassing, ululating, urban exploration, wandering around old cemeteries, warm conversations with strangers, west texas.

• dancing
• coffee
• running
• partying
• traveling
• socializing
• crochet
• dumpster diving
• hiking
• camping
• scuba diving
• boxing
• rock climbing
• biology
• geography
• languages
• sociology
• study abroad
• road trips
• mountains
• urban exploration

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC: Shoegaze, post-rock, ambient, electronica, folky stuff, industrial, funk, disco, rai, etc.

The Chromatics, Glass Candy, Javiera Mena, Explosions in the Sky, Interpol, Cut Copy, Boards of Canada, Cocteau Twins, Solvent, Neutral Milk Hotel, M83, Landing, Cat Power, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Sigur Ros, Low, Slowdive, Cheb Mami, Fairuz, Rasputina, Labradford, U2, Moby, the pillows, Deftones, The Cure, Love Spirals Downwards, Pink Floyd, Mazzy Star, VNV Nation, Johnny Cash...

BOOKS: The Pigman, The Goats, Speak, 1984, The Bell Jar, Natasha's Dance, sociology textbooks

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Blasting through Cairo traffic at 130 km/h along the Nile, buildings rising and sinking while the speakers blasted out the appropriate techno mix (DJed by my CS host, no less.)

Going on an archeology field trip in Timna National Park with the students from the Arava Institute, where every night I was there ended in dancing.

Camping with 800 hippies in the mountains of Bosnia.

Hosting a very multicultural cuddle party in a tipi in freezing temperatures.

Asking random Turks on the street for directions to the train station and instead getting invited to stay with their family for the night, despite no one speaking English.

Sleeping on an abandoned ship in Tel Aviv's ship graveyard.

Being homeless in Stuttgart.

All sorts of things.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to make yogurt or Middle Eastern food, crochet, how to read Cyrillic, Hebrew or Arabic, how to wish plague upon someone in Arabic, ululate...

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Spain, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, United States

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