CURRENT MISSION

1. I really, really don't want to get COVID-19, Please be fully vaccinated or don’t even ask to stay.

2. Once upon a time, a couple years ago, i said: I am determined to become a competent glass blower, able to blow incalmo bowls. Since then, I haven’t blown glass once. Depressing.

ABOUT ME

I am a Returned Peace Corps English Education volunteer from the Republic of Georgia, where I tried to have fun and inspire kids to like learning English. (2016)

Historically, I have not gotten to a location by a straight route, or by single-minded persistence. I've traveled extensively, but I am currently enjoying the University of Oregon’s offer of free tuition for residents over 65 to further improve my French, and the Craft Center’s hot shop to support my glass addiction.

PHILOSOPHY

Live life with no regrets. Don't put off forever something you'd really like to do, burn bridges, or hurt people and forget to tell them you care about them.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Since moving to Eugene, I've been hosting a lot, which I really enjoy. I hosted a few people coming through the Tri-Cities, WA where I lived before I moved here. I couchsurf sometimes when I'm traveling.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

All of my contacts with people from CS have been really positive.

Interests

Before COVID: Glassblowing. I am obsessed, addicted, and consumed by glassblowing. I blow glass as much as possible. I read books about it. I watch videos about how to do it. I bore my friends by talking about it, given the slightest opening. I dream about it. Consider yourself warned, and if you have hot shop experience, warmly welcomed.

On the other hand, I also like foreign and independent films, languages, software design, hiking in the mountains, puzzles, code, art/sculpture especially clay, fiber arts (knitting, spinning, weaving, dyeing). I've recently been hand quilting a queen-size Kawandi-style quilt, which should only take me a few months more to complete. :-/ An insane project, entered into rather blindly.

• arts
• design
• festivals
• movies
• traveling
• puzzles
• knitting
• coding
• hiking
• software
• mountains
• glassblowing
• glass
• glass art
• glass blowing

Music, Movies, and Books

My favorite film of the moment used to be "Quartet," Dustin Hoffman's first directorial effort, which I think was pretty near perfect. I have also liked "Memento" and many, many others.

I've been borrowing books from the library to read on my Kindle. I just finished "Those Angry Years", about the run-up to America's entry into WWII, but probably didn't read it fast enough. Everyone was angry for a very long time. Weeks. It felt like the present day. I also like audiobooks, because then I can work at other things while I listen.

I then set out to re-read "Lawrence In Arabia" about T. E. Lawrence and how the Middle East got parceled up the way it did, but got side-tracked by "Sans un Adieu" (the English title is "Tell No One"), a murder mystery by Harlan Coban translated to French. All the characteristics of his writing that I have little patience with in English serve me well in French: Mostly action, little description, short sentences. I think I am enjoying the book because it's easy to understand.

And let us not forget The Art of Fire by James McKelvey and Ed Schmid’s Glass Worker’s Bathroom Reader, the latter an excellent source of stories about nasty glass blowing accidents.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Two.
1) I dove in Palau and saw a forest of 6 ft. tall orange sea fans all oriented in the same direction. I walked to the edge of a reef and snorkled along Ngmelis Wall. The small bright-colored reef fish, groupers, sharks, sea turtles, were all arrayed below me along the wall, which dropped off precipitously to a deep, deep blue. The wall itself was covered with tiny creatures, fish and corals. It was magic, on both micro and macro scales.

2) I finally blew a glass ornament, without assistance, and it was light, and the hanger was good. At the time, it was like a miracle.

Teach, Learn, Share

I know a lot about film, was president of the local film club, and went to the Seattle International Film Festival for many years. For 10 years I was a user interface designer and usability engineer for a software development group, retiring in 2010.

If you want to learn with me about spinning, dyeing with natural dyes, or knitting, I know something about them.

I've traveled alone by motorcycle through Europe, gone overland by bus from Turkey to Nepal and lived abroad for extended periods of time. In 2010, I walked some 400 km or so (mostly up or down, rarely on the flat) through the French Alps. For 2.5 weeks in 2011, I worked on a French archaeology project studying petroglyphs in the French Alps, and an archaeology survey project in Mongolia in May 2015.

RPCVs are particularly welcome.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Travel stories; what it's like for a single woman to travel alone for extended periods. Babble about glass. Creative brain-storming.

Countries I’ve Visited

Afghanistan, American Samoa, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guam, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Federated States of, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

American Samoa, England, Georgia, Greece, Micronesia, Federated States of, United States

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