CURRENT MISSION

Figure out how I manage to stain all my white shirts when I do a load of laundry that is only white.

ABOUT ME

I am all about Toronto and do a bunch of things to encourage people to love it, own it, and enjoy it, and bicycle advocacy is probably my biggest passion of all. But I love all cities — my academic background is in urban studies and I would really, truly, honestly, absolutely love to learn all about you and your city. Tell me about it!

I am pretty cheerful, love sharing my love of Toronto, and am normally sporting red lipstick and white boots.

PHILOSOPHY

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

I travel, internationally and within Toronto, to get firsthand experience and know the world as it is, not secondhand.

Please write personalized CS messages. Good things will come of them.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've met up with a number of people in Toronto, have surfed in Miami, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Morocco, France, Israel, Iceland, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New York City, Venezuela, and have hosted a lot of people. Only great experiences.

Interests

Bicycling, public transportation, ice skating, Earl Grey, Dadaism, the 1960s, mid-century everything, hula hooping, geography, maps, the environment, nice eye glasses, zaatar, street musicians, urbanism, cities, Jane Jacobs, roller derby, espresso, craft beer, supporting local businesses, eating my way through the city.

• environment
• beer
• traveling
• cartography
• geography

Music, Movies, and Books

Wes Anderson, Woody Allen, Almodovar. Almost Famous, Wet Hot American Summer, Amelie. Arrested Development, Freaks & Geeks, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, My So Called Life, Mad Men, The X-Files.

Belle & Sebastian, Elliott Smith, the Smiths, the Magnetic Fields, White Shoes and the Couples Company, Architecture in Helsinki, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Tennis, the Go! Team, Little Joy, the Strokes, Motown, yé-yé, bossa nova, jazz.

Bukowski, Eggers, Safran Foer, Etgar Keret. The Little Prince, The Phantom Tollbooth. I read the New York Times and Atlantic Cities voraciously.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Catching the Catatumbo lightning in Venezuela was probably the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Red lightning!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to ice skate forwards and backwards and maybe even on one foot and some hula hoop tricks but not at the same time.

I can also tell you a lot about urban planning/community issues in (downtown) Toronto. Or in other words, I can translate headlines from the local newspapers.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Virgin Islands, British, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Canada, Israel, Netherlands, United States

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