Hello, friend! I'm Anagha (pronounced like Hanukkah, the holiday), and I am a second-year biomedical engineering/ computer science student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States (I'm originally from Dallas, Texas). I want to live in a world with universal healthcare, cancer-curing drugs, and an infinite number of cute flying squirrels; of course, I want to explore every square inch of this world!

I am a kayaking instructor, and I also love cascading, caving, and backpacking. In my free time, you can find me singing classical Indian Carnatic music, practicing my Sanskrit, or training for the marathon I am running this October. I also love taking naps in the rain, brewing my own coffee, and watching new TED-Ed videos.

Meeting people is perhaps my favorite thing to do, and I hope I have the chance to get to know you better as well. :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

This past winter, I had the opportunity to return to India and stay with my extended family. This was the first time I had spent in India without my parents, and it was an experience like no other! This was because I was truly 100% immersed in the culture and traditions of India; living with my family meant I lived in the home of a local, ate meals with locals, haggled in the market like locals, and played cricket in the street like locals. To any passerby, I was just one of the many people who lived in this city in India.

I realized that this experience was far more valuable than visiting the Taj Mahal or India Gate or any other tourist destination, and ever since I have vowed to replicate that experience in every country I visit. I believe that people are at the center of any culture, and I hope that through Couchsurf I will be able to meet people who will make my experience as real as my experience in India. :)

Interests

• singing
• running
• traveling
• music
• live music
• backpacking
• kayaking
• trail running
• solo travel
• adventure travel
• caving
• whitewater kayaking
• sea kayaking
• unicycling
• barefoot running
• long distance running
• singing in the shower
• cascading

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, James Arthur, Tom Odell, Ed Sheeran, Hozier, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Arijit Singh. I LOVE music and am always looking for new recommendations

Currently Listening To: Moscow by Autoheart

Movies: A Beautiful Mind, Three Idiots, La La Land, Twelve Angry Men, The Danish Girl

Currently Watching: Moonlight

Books: Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, anything by Richard Feynman, The Bet by Paul Sabin, and the Alex Rider series

Currently Reading: The Next Hundred Years by George Friedman

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've crowdsurfed on a bus in Rome!

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: I know a lot about anything relating to cancer, Hinduism, and unicycling.

Learn: Anything, but particularly I'd love to learn about other religions, healthcare policy, and computer science theory. Also, if you know how to juggle that's be pretty cool.

Share: Anything haha :) what's mine is yours.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Here are five facts about me that I can elaborate on if we ever talk:

1. I have two birthdays.

2. I once drank two gallons of orange juice in under fifteen minutes.

3. I worked on an MRI device that relied only on the Earth's magnetic field.

4. I have come face to face with a bear.

5. I once accidentally burned a bowl of cereal.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, United States