CURRENT MISSION

To see as much of Europe as possible

ABOUT ME

Hello, fellow Couch Surfers.! My name is Ali Martin, and I'm a third year student originally from Crown Point, Indiana, where I was born and raised. I've been reading and writing all of my life, and I'm currently working on a degree in English and American literature with a concentration on creative writing and certificate in journalism. I enjoy discussing books as well as politics. From September to June, I'm studying abroad at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. When I'm not studying, I plan to be traveling.

PHILOSOPHY

No wrong, just write. My goal is to be remembered as a genuinely good person in life. I'm happy to hold the door for people. I stay in the right lane and let people pass if they want to. I've had good conversations with close friends and great conversations with strangers.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm dying to meet new people and learn about new cultures! Since I'm staying in a flat with other people, I don't really have a couch to offer up, but if you're kind enough to let me crash on your couch, I'm more than happy to help you clean the house or make pancakes for breakfast in the morning.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I'm brand new to Couch Surfing so I hope to start surfing very soon! In terms of traveling experiences, my friends and I took a road trip to Washington D.C. to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. We drove twelve hours from Bloomington, IN to Laural, MD where we stayed on my friend's aunt's couch. The first night, her aunt introduced us to the Laurel Dog, a special way of cooking hot dogs. We wrapped a hot dog and bun in tinfoil and then put it in a milk carton and lit it on fire. By the time the milk carton disintegrated, the hot dog was cooked, and it tasted smokey and delicious.

Interests

I love to learn. In addition to reading and writing, I love to visit museums, art galleries, and monuments. History fascinates me. While I don't pretend to know everything, I also really enjoy politics. I relate mostly to the democrats, but I try to stay mostly neutral. No matter which political party you belong to, nothing can be achieved if we don't listen to each other. I'm also a bit of a nerd and pop culture junkie. I grew up playing NES, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64, but I'm terrible at Xbox or Playstation. To relax, I run, and I do yoga. I like to think of running as my Ten Second Hate time. While I'm running, I think about anything and everything that was bugging me that day, be it school, work, or whatever. I put all of my frustration into my running, and before I know it, fifty minutes have passed, and I feel much better.

• dogs
• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• literature
• cooking
• breakfast
• yoga
• running
• partying
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• camping
• surfing
• history
• journalism
• medicine
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Books:
1. Rebecca
2. The Things They Carried
3. Blonde
Movies:
1. Clue
2. Dead Poets Society
3. Some Like It Hot
Music:
Rock n' Roll, pop, hip-hop, rap, classical, jazz, anything that's not country

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In the summer of 2010, I packed my car and headed out east. I had gotten a summer job as a camp councilor at a sleep-away camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The drive took twelve hours, and when I got there, I was terrified. Here I was, trapped on a mountain with limited cell phone reception and no one I knew. It was going to be a long three months. During the day, I taught video editing, but all day every day, I was a councilor to at least twelve girls. For the first half, I had the same eleven year old girls, but then I got bumped up to the fourteen year olds. I didn't know if I could handle them because I felt like we were too close in age. I felt like I was fourteen again, trying to in with the popular kids. Turns out, the last batch of girls that I took care of were my favorite. They were hilarious. One evening as we sat playing cards, one of the girls asked if we could build a fort. The other girls jumped at the idea, and we pulled out all the mattresses and sheets to make a fort. The girls all slept in it that night. They weren't perfect; they snuck out in the middle of the night. I told them when they arrived that if they were caught, it would be their necks not mine and that they needed to be responsible for themselves. When they left, one girl left me a note, thanking me for treating them like adults. I think I made a difference to them. They certainly impacted me.

Teach, Learn, Share

It's be said, quoted, re-quoted, and said again that life moves pretty fast, and if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it. Sometimes, that's how I feel. I tend to look towards the future more than focusing on the present moment. I spend the present being excited for the future, and when tomorrow becomes today, I'm already looking forward. I want to learn to enjoy the moment, to stop and appreciate where I am. I worry so much about life after Canterbury, after college, and I forget to enjoy where I'm sitting.

Countries I’ve Visited

Spain, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom, United States