CURRENT MISSION

have lots of fantastic adventures that result in lots of fun stories

ABOUT ME

I love meeting people. (I'm the type who strikes up a random conversation in line for coffee or waiting for a bus and, more often than not, get very confused looks in return.)  My friends make fun of me for talking too much/too loudly (I just say my voice carries exceptionally well :p)  I suffer from verbosity.  

I would say I've found a happy medium between spontaneity and planning - big things I like planned(ish) but most of my life is a "sure, why not?" sorta deal.   

I smile a lot, am rarely serious, and excessively overuse :) and :p and lol and haha in texts/emails/messages since eye twinkles/real smiles obviously don't transfer via text so people can't actually tell I'm just kidding.  Now it's become habit (as is probably evident).

I love living near the water probably because I love all sorts of water activities - kayaking, skiing, boating, swimming, beaching.  The sun makes me happy.

I'm moving to the arctic to start grad school in Sept 2010 at the Univ of Michigan in Ann Arbor (okay, it's not reallllly the arctic, but I am doing a complete 180 on climates...), and I can't wait :D

PHILOSOPHY

Be nice to people.

i think that if you can look back on something and it makes you smile even if you're shaking your head over how silly/naive/dumb you were, it's worth it to have done.

I want to leave a mark on this world, whether that be impacting only the lives of the friends i have made or becoming a household name by inventing something that will change the world (or hopefully both). i want to do great things.

Perché sono iscritto su Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I want to become more cultured and share my culture with others. I'm looking forward to grad school to have the opportunity to travel to conferences across the globe and meet people from all over the world with similar research interests. As mentioned just previously, I'm hoping that since I'm leaving Gainesville (it's not really at the top of ANYONE's want-to-visit list...) I'll be able to host some people in Ann Arbor :) (they do have the biggest art festival in the whole country, and tons of other cool exciting things it sounds like). But for now, I will just have to rely on my being able to bring a little bit of my culture/personality to whatever place I happen to be crashing at :) And I will definitely do my best at that.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Awesome!! I've unfortunately only had the experience to couchsurf once, in Nice two summers ago. I was studying abroad and a friend I met turned me on to CS, and unfortunately that was the second to last weekend I was still abroad. It was pretty awesome though :) I hope to have many more adventures like that. (It was so long ago, my CS account got deactivated!)

Interessi

meeting people, eating good food, travelling, drinking new beer, calculus, outdoor frolicking, wandering, science/energy, whatever is going on in my friends' lives, anything I can do on/in/near water. 

• arts
• culture
• festivals
• dining
• beer
• coffee
• drinking
• boating
• traveling
• socializing
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• kayaking
• skiing
• swimming
• engineering
• science

Una cosa incredibile che ho fatto

hiking the cinque terre in the italian riviera (even though I'd just been in the hospital two days prior!)

Insegna, impara, condividi

I know an awful lot about what stuff is made out of - all the random stuff about why plastic behaves the way it does, why stainless steel is actually stainless (It's all about the chromium!), all sorts of random seemingly useless tidbits about materials (whoo engineering!). I've been told I'm a fairly good bartender (I attribute that to having grown up playing with smoothie flavors then as I got older, just started adding alcohol in :p) so I can teach you how to surprise your friends with how drunk they can get - strong drinks that don't taste strong. I can teach you how to water-ski in florida should you come here or, if you can provide a boat and skis, I can teach you how to ski wherever you are :) I can make a mean friendship bracelet should that tickle your fancy.

I'd love to learn a language better - I picked up some Italian when I was studying in Torino, but nowhere near enough to be able to hold a legitimate conversation. I just want to learn more about everyone else's cultures - I studied abroad in a non-touristy city because I wanted to become immersed in a culture, and I think CS does that - immerse you in a new culture.

Paesi che ho visitato

Australia, Costa Rica, France, Italy, Monaco, United States

Paesi in cui ho vissuto

United States