CURRENT MISSION: to laugh, to learn, to live, to love.

If curiosity killed the cat, then I should be dead already. I find myself constantly thinking I was born in the wrong decade. I was born in Chicago, but I currently live in Austin,Tx . I have a thing for collecting postcards from everywhere possible. My dream is to be able to work for The Travel Channel. I am in love with the world and the people I make connections with. I believe that it's really important to be involved with your community and I enjoy volunteer work. I am a much better writer than speaker. I wish to live a simple and minimalistic life. I want to live where my heart takes me.

On a typical Friday night I am: the girl sitting next to you at the bar ordering shots for my friends, the girl in the front row at the show, or the girl in the booth at a coffee shop reading a good book. I'm pretty well-rounded.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I've spent a good amount of time living in England, Brasil, and of course here in the States.  I've been to Belgium, France, and Scotland as well. I love planning and organizing meetings within my local community back home in Lafayette, Louisiana and also in Austin, Tx. I also love attending meetings/meet-ups in the various cities that I visit. I am all about meeting or hosting lovely, new people and showing what the city of Lafayette or Austin and surrounding areas have to offer!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I was homeless for a few months in the autumn of 2006. My friends and random people I met took me in when needed. I have hosted a few "randoms" from this site, as well. My first official surfer was from France (Boris) in the summer of 2007, and I've had several other people stay with me since. It's been a lovely experience to share with others... quite an addiction.

Interests

meeting new and exciting people, sharing stories, Brazilian Portuguese, Brazil and the people of the beautiful country, live music, simplicity, "the finer things in life", science and learning, yahtzee & jenga, French horns, cellos, violins, painting, spontaneous road trips, antique shops, laying in the grass, peaceful coexistence, history & history in the making, European cities, European culture, big city lights, being barefoot, the concept of being a free spirit, tall buildings, rooftops, all-nighters, jazz music, exploring and exploration, hammocks, big beds & fluffy pillows, misunderstandings, literature, never making sense, cult classics, being comfortable, good food, cooking, traveling, thumb wars, red wine, big trees, autumn, picture books, music that makes your skin crawl, rhythm, creativity and creative people, stretching, perspectives, freckles, painting, matchbooks, sweater weather, coffee, not knowing what the night has to offer, country roads, excitement, heart-to-heart, acoustic music, expanding, reading, playing & learning the drums, the expected & the unexpected, actions & consequences, dreamers, vintage & thrift stores, downtown, purity, film, freedom, culture, design, creative movement, pilates, yoga, aimlessly walking, all things unseen... me in a nutshell.

• cats
• culture
• humanities
• writing
• books
• literature
• design
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• red wine
• coffee
• yoga
• pilates
• walking
• drinking
• flying
• shopping
• thrifting
• reading
• traveling
• volunteer work
• painting
• music
• live music
• jazz
• drums
• history
• science
• volunteering
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

[ ART ] = Francis Bacon, Alphonse Mucha, Banksy, Egon Schiele, Marc Chagall, Mark Rothko, Henry Darger, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gustav Klimt, Annie Leibowitz, Jenny Saville, Edward Hopper, Maurits Cornelis Escher, Sally Mann, Audrey Kawasaki, Odilon Redon, Wassily Kandinsky, Man Ray/Emmanuel Radnitzky, H. R. Giger, Jock Sturges, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Diebenkorn, Gustav Vigeland, Mark Ryden, Stanley Donwood, Paul Harvey, Salvador Dali, Dave McKean, Skot Olsen, C215, Pablo Picasso, Cleve Gray, Blek le Rat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Mez, Paul Signac, Jackson Pollock, Jef Aérosol, Alexandre Farto/Vhils... and more.

[ LIT ] = Charles Bukowski, Douglas Coupland, Oscar Wilde, Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Safran Foer, Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, Tennessee Williams, e. e. cummings, Ezra Pound, Jack Kerouac, Haruki Murakami, Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman Flannery O'Connor... and on and on. I love all things poetry or free-write, and I thoroughly enjoy reading books on psychology and anthropology.

[ FILM ] = Anything dark, depressive, gritty, dirty, emotional, fucked up, thought provoking, whatever. I like the occasional mood lifter and escapist film. I am also a huge documentary dork. I have a huge list of a variety of films/documentaries that I'm working on getting through at the moment, but a few of my highlights: American Psycho, Das Leben der Anderen, Rear Window, Almost Famous, Fern Gully, Star Wars, Brave Little Toaster, Scaphandre et le papillon, All The Real Girls, Cashback, Love Me If You Dare, La Vie En Rose, Persepolis, Lars and the Real Girl, American Beauty, Amélie, Secretary, y tu mamá también, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Closer, Match Point, Motorcycle Diaries, It's a Wonderful Life, Survive Style 5+, The Kite Runner and many, many more.

[ MELODY ] = It all depends on my mood. I can be a music snob when I feel like it. I like dirty, gritty, soulful, sultry tunes. I dig songs with banjos or really good beats. I really like a lot of minimalistic, lo-fi, ambient, bluegrass, folk, trip-hop, shoegaze, atmospheric, noise, twee, Brit-rock, indie pop, post-rock, classic rock. I have a fantastic collection of hip-hop, as well.

In Heavy Rotation: 65daysofstatic, A Silver Mt. Zion, Always the Runner, Amiina, Aphex Twins, Asobi Seksu, Audrey, Azure Ray, Beach House, Beirut, Bell Orchestre, Belle & Sebastian, Björk, Blindfold, Blonde Redhead, Boards of Canada, Bon Iver, Boris, Broken Social Scene, Caribou, Caspian, Cat Power, Cocteau Twins, Death Cab for Cutie, Deerhunter, Deftones, Depeche Mode, Do Make Say Think, Ef, Efterklang, Erlend Øye, Errors, Explosions in the Sky, Fly Pan Am, Fol Chen, Four Tet, Frakkur, Gillian Welch, Givers, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Gregor Samsa, Hammock, Holy Fuck, Hood, Hum, Immanu El, Interpol, Iron & Wine, Isis, Jeniferever, Joanna Newsom, Joy Division, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Justin Timberlake, Khonnor, Kings of Convenience, Kjartan Sveinsson, Laura, Library Tapes, Logh, Low, M. Ward, M83, Massive Attack, Matt & Kim, Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia..., Mew, Mice Parade, MOGWAI (and I highly recommend you see them live if you can), Mono, Mouth of the Architect, My Bloody Valentine, Múm, Neko Case, Ostinato, Pavement, Pelican, Pornopop, Questions in Dialect, Rachel's, Rafter, Red Sparowes, Rilo Kiley, Royksopp, Russian Circles, Ryan Adams, Scraps of Tape, Seabear, She & Him, Sigur Rós, Slaraffenland, Slint, Sloan, Slowblow, Sonic Youth, Stafrænn Hákon, Stereolab, Telefon Tel Aviv, The Album Leaf, The Appleseed Cast, The Lonely Island, The Mercury Program, The One AM Radio, The Prodigy, The Sea and Cake, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Whitest Boy Alive, This Will Destroy You, Tortoise, Tristeza, Under Byen, Unwed Sailor, Yndi Halda, Why?, Wilco, Ólafur Arnalds, and many many more. For a better understanding, visit: http://www.last.fm/user/_laurennicole

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

flying alone to England for my first out-of-the-county experience to meet someone that I had been talking to online with for two years. That was fantastic.

Teach, Learn, Share

I cannot cook. However, I love to clean.

I want to learn how to cook all sorts of new cuisines. I want to learn about different types of meals, foods, drinks, etc. I want to learn about cultures from all over the world. I just want to learn... period.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Brazil, England, France, United Kingdom, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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