I was born in Independence, Missouri (USA) and spent most of my childhood in Kansas City, Kansas in the Piper suburb. At 14, I traveled and lived in Australia and then New Zealand over the course of the Summer as part of a student ambassador's program (that gave college credit). At 17, I moved from Kansas to Arizona and finished high school and college there. At 19, I was in a car accident. A drunk driver hit me while I was going home from work and I suffered a brain injury. It's been harder to learn since then and my disabilities from before (I have epilepsy and a spinal condition) were exacerbated. So my stamina is much lower than previously although I DO try to get up and do things. At 23, the person who is now my best friend (despite having never met in person) challenged me to learn about his (now our) religion after a debate since I had never read it for myself. 9 months later, I became a Muslim. Almost a year after, I got engaged to my husband. We struggled with the visa processes for a long time until in late 2012, we got fed up and applied to go to England to get married there. He was already finishing his second Master's there (His MBA. He already had a Master of Environmental Science degree from Bangladesh). After everything was settled, in January 2013, I flew to get married. Unfortunately, I filled out the paper wrong and they caught it at the border. It was unintentional, but they arrested and deported me. For checking a single wrong box on a paper! After I sent a visa request AGAIN and showed copies of everything that happened, they approved me as well as sent a letter of apology for how I had been treated. But it still took a long time. It took so long, in fact, that my husband and I actually dressed up on 25 March that year and had our marriage ceremony through Skype with witnesses on both sides. Then, once in England, we saw each other for the first time on Independence Day (the 4th of July!) and were legally married on the 31st that same month. We lived in England together for a few months before I had to go back to the USA. It was heartbreaking trying to scrap together the funds to see each other again. We didn't know the next time it would happen. Because of the stability of living in England, he was trying to change his visa to a work visa and to bring me over to stay with him. But then his father got sick and I needed my 10th surgery for endometriosis. We decided that I'd have the surgery immediately and we'd fly to live in Bangladesh together to help his parents as well as to have somewhere to be together for as long as possible. Then, 4 days after the surgery, his father passed. We barely missed him. It was devastating. He was a wonderful man and an amazing father and father-in-law. We came to BD anyway and have been living and working here ever since. We don't know what country or countries our Lord will station us in next (if any), but we are doing our absolute best to make sure that we stay TOGETHER through all of it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

As mentioned- I lived a short while in both Australia and New Zealand. In NZ, I lived with a family and went to school with their daughter and also spent some time staying with a group of the Maori tribe where we learned to cook by burying the food with super-heated river rocks. It was an amazing experience to do cultural exchange that way. In Australia, a few of us stayed on a farm and learned to help out on the farm. It was SO AMAZING. I loved it. More than any of the vacations to Hawaii, Jamaica, and other locations where people go to get pampered. There, I got to live WITH the people and live AS they do. It was an amazing chance to fuse together. And I helped cook with them, so we BOTH learned what the other ate normally. The best part was fusing the two together to create a whole new dish. I just LOVE being around new people and mixing things up. I've always loved the fields of anthropology (general and cultural), archaeology, linguistics, and international relations. Couchsurfing seems like a great way to keep doing that on the small scale. Like having new friends we can make all the time.

Interests

I love learning about my religion. I LITERALLY have over 1,200 books on Islam and cultures surrounding the Muslim world. I also love to learn about other people. If you talk about the different cultural things, I'll listen. I also love watching documentaries and learning about basically everything. My husband and I are pretty nerdy.

• books
• documentaries
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• flying
• traveling
• socializing
• muslim
• boxing
• anthropology
• teaching
• international relations
• law
• religion
• science
• working visa

Music, Movies, and Books

We don't really listen to music, but we love a few tv shows and movies. I have several on our laptop. A few documentaries, a couple of tv series, etc. Pretty much anything someone is interested in, I'm sure we can find. And I love so may books it's hard for me to pick a favourite. I love poetry from John Skelton, non-fiction works about ancient cultures, stuff by Patricia Cornwell, and short stories by random people that seem interesting. I'm a big fan of the FictionPress website.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'm not really sure that I've done anything amazing. People tell my husband and I that our love story and how we had to fight to be together, both of us willing to sacrifice every material possession we had to do so is amazing, but true love does that to a person. :-)

Teach, Learn, Share

As in what can I teach, learn, or share?

I AM a teacher by trade, but I also studied pharmacology. So if you need someone to help you with your English (the subject I teach) then I can absolutely do that. Although my students are usually between the ages of 3 and 7, I can adjust for my pupils of any age. My husband has taught religion and science classes. We're BOTH great with helping kids with stuff. I'm also good at cooking. I'm slow working because I cook as much for leisure as for necessity, but I can certainly teach you how to make a couple of American or Bangladeshi dishes if you'd like. There are even a couple of recipes that are from my German relatives that we blend with Bangladeshi cuisine. It's quite fun to work with.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Stories, books, knowledge... I can cook, clean to an extent (I have spinal defects that make some movements really difficult). My husband and I both tend to stick together, so whatever he can offer gets tacked onto my list. We're both hard workers and we love to socialise. If I'm traveling for medical reasons, however, we become fairly private and it's likely we'd help out with basic chores and cooking and/or help pay part of the rent/utilities. If you want to know about anything else, just ask us if we can/would do something. Usually we can make it work. we're pretty flexible and open.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Cayman Islands, England, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, United States