CURRENT MISSION

To rid the world of ignorant people
Teach people that CS is not about freeloading or hooking up. It's not.

ABOUT ME

Mindless chit chat, all music genres, chronic nite owl, backpacking, drinking good wine on the pier, adventure, taking 'detours', reading page-turner novels, watching foreign/independent movies with subtitles, laying on the beach after midnight, hanging out with friends, steak enthusiast, being miserly, starting each day anew

PHILOSOPHY

Don't make someone a priority who makes you an option

Ignore what people say, pay attention to what they do

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING
I enjoy hosting people traveling to my town and meeting folks when traveling. It helps getting a better feel of the local culture through food, conversation, visiting local sights, and making new friends. You can only 'learn' so much about a country staying at a hostel.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Quebec City; Costa Rica; Argentina; Oklahoma; New Mexico; Peru; Colorado; California; Egypt; Arizona; Minnesota; Texas; Missouri; Nevada; Louisiana; Coachella; Montana; North Carolina; Singapore; Indonesia; Malaysia, Utah, Arkansas, Wyoming,
Turkey, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway

Future hopes - Croatia, Nepal, Mongolia, Iceland, Morocco, South Africa, Burma, Ethiopia, Thailand, Iran, Serbia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Laos, Cambodia, Ecuador, Bolivia, India, Sweden, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia

Interests

Scuba diving
Hashing (running)
Salsa dancing
Putting curry in almost everything I cook
Burning cinnamon and vanilla scented candles
Shopping at thrift stores
Attempting to whitewater kayak and rock climb
Potlucks with old and new friends
Reading on the beach
Learning other types of skiing (AT, XC, backcountry, etc)
Eating chocolate ice cream when it's subzero outside
Making up and trying new recipes
Enjoying Indian, Mediterranean, and Thai cuisine
Planning new adventures everyday

• culture
• dancing
• salsa dancing
• running
• thrifting
• reading
• music
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• backpacking
• kayaking
• scuba diving
• skiing
• rock climbing
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
Independent, foreign, documentary, comedy, animation

Gone Baby Gone, 28 Weeks Later, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Descent, The Namesake, Generation Kill, Monsoon Wedding, Coming to America, Saved!, Latter Days, Bang Bang Your Dead, Jab We Met, Keeping Mum, Hard Candy, A Dog's Breakfast, Kandahar, The Rabbit-Proof Fence, Killing Pablo, After Sex, My Sassy Girl, Table for Three, The God's Must Be Crazy, The Visitor, Le Veuve de St. Pierre, The Cuckoo, Sometimes in April, Frozen River, Lars and the Real Girl, Easy A, A Walk to Remember, Usual Suspects, Wall Street, Kissing Jessica Stein, Fargo, The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas, Cruel Intentions, Atonement, Fried Green Tomatoes, Eden Lake, Big Fish, Sleeping Dogs Lie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Something Different, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Fido, American Beauty, 9 Songs, The Big Bad Swim, Before Sunset, Garden State, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Windstruck, Persepolis, Coffee Date, Death at a Funeral, Silence of the Lambs, Big Eden, Cherry Crush, Bella, Big Nothing, Something the Lord Made, She Hate Me, Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Wedding, Shrek, Shawshank Redemption, Hot Fuzz, Finding Nemo, Thank You for Smoking, Human Stain, Skin, I Think I Love My Wife, The First Grader, Say Uncle, Mary & Max, Loving Annabelle, Circumstance

Music:
Anything and everything except too much techno

Yukimi Nagano, Gaelle, MC Solaar, Angelique Kidjo, Hird, Little Dragon, Buena Vista Social Club, Sade, Esthero, G. Love, Sting, Boyz II Men, Putumayo, Kem, Sia, Santogold, Papa Wemba, Fiona Apple, Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Timbaland, Greenskeepers, Ali Farka Toure, Chris Combette, Brooks & Dunn, Metallica, James Brown, Eric Satie, Missy Elliot, Louis Armstrong, Massive Attack, Telepopmusik, Robin Thicke, Habib Koite, Wisin & Yandel, Jay Z, Ceu, EnVogue

Books:
The House on Sugar Beach, Child of the Jungle, Courage Under Fire, The Jungle, Our Kind of People, Dreams of My Father, The Pelican Brief, Gotham Diaries, Doomsday Conspiracy, A Season in Purgatory, How to Rent a Negro, One Bullet Away, Lipstick Jihad, In the Time of Madness, The Five Love Languages

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiking up Misti Volcano and down solo Colca Canyon in Peru. Ran a marathon by mistake. Steered a nuclear powered submarine . . . seriously. Saw presents fall down my parent's chimney one Christmas back in the 80s when I was a kid . . . still have no idea how they did it. Saw the sunset while driving across the desert mountains of southeastern New Mexico . . . just beautiful. Annual inflatable pool parties on mountain peaks of 11,000+ ft

Teach, Learn, Share

Try not to be a tourist but rather a student of the language, culture, and customs

I'd like to learn Farsi, improve my French and Russian, and get more into outdoor activities like rock climbing, whitewater kayaking, and mountain biking

I can teach you how to make Chapati, which is an Indian bread similar to naan and roti

I can whistle with my hands . . . no great feat, but cool to share

What I Can Share with Hosts

Great conversation. Awesome laughter. Cooking chapati.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Singapore, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States

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