I'm a student at UCSC (at Santa Cruz, California) studying Computer Science. When not studying, I love reading books and learning new things on my own. One of my favorite hobbies is studying languages, and using them to make connections with new people!

I also drink tea. A lot. And coffee. As a Russian, I can drink tea, eat cake, and converse for several hours at a time!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I want to travel, but I don't want to be like any other tourist, stuck in the tourist traps and not seeing anything about what life is actually like at my destination. I want to meet interesting people who live where I'm only visiting, and gain a better understanding of the places I visit while also having fun with a cool new person.

Interests

I enjoy reading books, studying computer science-y things, and learning languages. Learning new things and exploring fascinating stories are the two things that I love most.

I also regularly go to the gym, and am a pretty active person in general.

Sightseeing/exploring, too - I absolutely love visiting new places and learning a place's secrets and hidden wonders.

• culture
• books
• chocolate
• coffee
• drinking
• reading
• traveling
• drawing
• computer science
• languages
• science
• sightseeing

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I mostly listen to mellow house-like things (Flume, Bonobo), and I usually always have some peaceful background music on. Lately, I've been branching out on my music interests, and have started to listen to experimental house (Nicolas Jaar, Darkside), some rap (Kendrick, Kanye, Logic), and electro swing (Parov Stelar, Caravan Palace). Occasionally, I'll listen to some good-old-fashioned rock, too.

My Spotify is baldeagle76, check out directly what I'm listening on there.

Movies: I usually enjoy either awesome action movies (Matrix, Avengers), and funnier stuff like Jackie Chan movies. I also enjoy animated Pixar/Disney movies like Kung Fu Panda, or more recently Zootopia.

Books: High fantasy books captivate me the most. Anything from Brandon Sanderson, I'm guaranteed to love. The King-Killer chronicles are also a favorite, and the Inheritance series is something of a classic for me. I also enjoy some sci-fi occasionally; things like Dune, for example. Neal Stephenson, particularly Anathem is also a favorite. Oh, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a favorite.

TV Series: I'm currently watching Breaking Bad and Lost, enjoying them both quite a bit. Also Game of Thrones is mind-blowingly awesome, and Doctor Who and Sherlock are some favorites too.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I learned French to fluency in less than half a year. My junior year of high school (11th grade), I met a couple awesome French people in my class, and I figured I'd learn French, since I had such a convenient opportunity for practice. By winter break, I was speaking it fluently (and annoying everyone about my newfound language abilities, not gonna lie).

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: I can teach anything about the languages that I speak, but more importantly, I can teach *how* to learn a language - there are quite a few tips that I've found help me out immensely.

I'm also happy to have a philosophical discussion over some tea. Really, anything with tea would be great. I can pretty much live off of tea, as long as there are some biscuits or maybe chocolate with it.

Chores, too - I'll do your dishes and vacuum! I'll also make coffee for you if you have any sort of coffee-making device (I used to work in a café).

Lastly, I've traveled a fair amount, so I'd be happy to talk about those experiences (and learn about yours!)

Learn: Anything about you, your language, your culture, or your city would be awesome to learn. Also, any tips on how to make a good espresso would be appreciated, I can never get the crema just right...

I also want to learn how to draw.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm easy to talk to, and am happy to exchange any experiences or knowledge.

Also, I will show you my legendary array of socks. Seriously, I have blue ones, red ones, striped ones, toe-socks, fuzzy socks, and even single socks with no pair!

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States