CURRENT MISSION

to document

ABOUT ME

i'm a rambler. i'm (not) a gambler (but my mother is)
i'm a long way from my home.

i occasionally travel with anna so we shared this profile... our next adventure is kiwi-land perhaps so we will keep it this way.

some quotes that i <3

Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow — whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don’t show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.
--kurt v.

we know that science and art can be allies. we need far more women in politics. we need a religious view that embraces nature and does not fear science; business leaders who know and accept ecological and spiritual limits; political leaders who have spent time working in schools, factories, o"r farms and who still write poems. we need intellectual and academic leaders who have studied both history and ecology, and like to dance and cook. we need poets and novelists who pay no attention to literary critics. but what we ultimately need most is human beings who love the world.
-gary snyder

"Your task is not to seek love, but to merely seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."- Rumi

art survives within modern civilization rather like little islands of wilderness saved to show us where we came from
- claude levi-strauss

The Real Work
It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work.
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
-Wendell Berry (collected poems)

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
-Aristophanes
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we met at ceramics camp. anna was the prodigy and i couldn't even center on the wheel. we have only met up with each other twice since that summer two years ago, but have kept correspondence through letters and emails and im's. anna is about to study abroad in copenhagen to pursue ceramics. she invited me to join her on her pre-copenhagen adventure.

some of ali's

PHILOSOPHY

ali:i live life to experience it. to partake in it fully. i live life to learn.

anna:laugh it up!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

i definitely have surfed with so many gracious couchsurfers from all over! made life-long friends.

i will be in rodez, france. come grab a glass of wine with me and we'll take a walk into the mountains.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

london. paris. gent. amsterdam. haarlem. austin. portland. bordeaux. aix-en-provence. lyon. limerick.

Interests

ali:
bikes. letterwriting. trader joe's workers. backpacking. a prairie home companion. mail. travel. salvation army. the library. the guttural sounds of french. oolong tea. rain. banana bread batter. pie crust. adventures. jungles. and a canoe. john steinbeck. brian krakow. savage love.
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anna:
these boots are made for ceramicing, sculpturing, loving, adventuring, laughing, walking, running, biking, hiking, eating, observing, reading, writing, smiling...and thats just what they will do....

Music, Movies, and Books

ali:
MUSICA! dylan. joni mitchell. cat stevens. steve goodman. joan baez. tom waits. neil young. rod stewart. the beatles. the stones. carole king. rilo kiley. jeff tweedy. van morrison. sufjan stevens. phil ochs. donovan. johnny cash. wilco. swell season. the frames. regina. mirah. fiona apple. beck. devendra. devil makes 3. laura marling.
FLIX! harold and maude. forrest gump. midnight cowboy. the shining. being there. don't look back. amelie. pulp fiction. annie hall. mitt liv son hund. once. before sunrise. before sunset. night on earth.
READS! east of eden. to kill a mockingbird. lonesome dove. comanche moon. david copperfield. evolution man: or how i ate my father. lust for life. in cold blood. huck finn. into the wild. richard brautigan. bukowski. the wump world. the mixed up files of mrs. basil e. frankenweiler. miss rumphius. travels with charley. rebecca solnit. roald dahl short stories.

currently reading. the woman lit by fireflies. jim harrison.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

atop Kearsarge Pass in the Sierras. 14,000 + feet and it was snowing. in the summer. I felt so accomplished afterwards. generous souls shared their bagel+cream cheese. it was delish.

Teach, Learn, Share

i can teach you a little bit of French, how to play the flute, how to make a zine, how to paint (oils, especially), how to make a mean papaya salad... anna will teach you how to make amazing pots and how to be zen (she teaches yoga).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States