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Overview

  • 0 references
  • Fluent in English; learning Dutch, French
  • 38, Female
  • Member since 2009
  • English teacher
  • graduated in 2008 from Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania)
  • From Lake Katonah, NY, USA
  • Profile 65% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

meet people, exchange ideas, live life to the fullest...

ABOUT ME

I'm taking a year to teach English in Belgium but my true calling is music. I play the cello (classical, rock/pop, other...) and sing. In September I'm moving to Los Angeles to start a PhD in ethnomusicology at UCLA.

I think a lot. I love learning things. I'm relatively introverted, but I still really love good conversations with good people. As corny as it sounds: I want to show the world that America is freedom and adventures and hope and goodness, not just fast food, stupid reality TV shows and even stupider foreign policies (although we have plenty of all of those!).

I don't actually like doing the usual tourism thing-- I don't really care about looking at buildings. But I *love* travelling in a way that really lets me get to know people from different countries. When I lived in France and Cote d'Ivoire I had the great pleasure of living with host families. When I first moved to Ghent I was living in a little studio all by myself, but I wanted to meet some Real Live Europeans so I decided to live in a house with a guy from Antwerp, a West Fleming, and an Italian. I have never made a better decision. Life is so much more fun when you can share it!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm just starting out with the site. I heard about it after hosting two of my friends who were visiting Europe and had recently couch surfed. My scholarship this year is meant to foster cultural exchange, so the site is perfectly in line with my goals for the year (and for life!).

Interests

Music, languages, public transportation!, hearing people's stories, crossing things off lists, sleeping and eating, backpacking, biking, kayaking, protecting the environment, flexitarianism, mindfulness and meditation

  • singing
  • environment
  • dining
  • fast food
  • meditation
  • tv
  • traveling
  • socializing
  • music
  • a cappella
  • cycling
  • backpacking
  • kayaking
  • languages
  • tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:Le Battement d'ailes du papillon, The Red Violin, What Dreams May Come, I Heart Huckabees, Immortal Beloved, Little Miss Sunshine

Music: Counting Crows, Rilo Kiley, Mira, The Postal Service, Regina Spektor, A Million Billion Trillion Stars, Andrew Bird, Tori Amos, Kyo, Matchbox Twenty, Lifehouse, Shostakovich, Mahler, Beethoven, Janacek, Kodaly

Books: anything by David Mitchell, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I rode my bike (the yellow one I rented from the university) from Ghent to Bruges and back. We got seriously lost on the way there and it took us over 7 hours to reach our destination, but we did see some really beautiful things. And it was pretty funny, too, since it takes effort to get that lost in a little country like Belgium. So I guess I'm not as afraid of getting lost anymore.

Teach, Learn, Share

can teach: English, cello playing, a cappella singing/arranging

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Netherlands, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, United States

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