CURRENT MISSION

Learning to let go and live in the Now

ABOUT ME

I like dangly earrings and shiny things, nerding it up and geeking out, costume parties and doing things I've never done before.

I belly dance for fun and I really love to dance and will pretty much go anywhere with anyone if I'm guaranteed some music and a dance floor (people love taking me to weddings!).

I'm a vegetarian but I love meat, I just love animals more and don't want them to suffer. I'm not all uptight about it though.

I love to read, not just fiction but histories and academic articles about the nature of our universe or humanity, to be real general. I also love to write and wish I could do it for a living.

I am what you would call a "first generation American" and my whole family is scattered all over in places like Germany, the USA and Sweden but we all hail from Poland originally.

I love to be creative and I love to learn and traveling is a passion of mine that will never die.

My latest adventure has been my very recent move to New York City in January 2011. My next step will be convincing my roommates to make our futon available for CSers world-wide.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe in "not getting into the habit" of things. Like not getting into the habit of hanging out with the same people or doing the same things or going the same places...there is so much in this world that just doing the same old thing is totally not an option. Oh and of course, DIY or Die!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am trying to participate by meeting people in the area. My current living situation unfortunatly prevents me from hosting at this time but I'm looking forward to the day when I will have a couch of my own to share.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Well, I haven't CouchSurfed yet but I hope to spend a good deal of the next few years of my life trying it out.

Interests

sillyness, art nouveau, tattoos, dance, vegetarian cooking, music, meeting new and interesting people, travel, urban exploring, getting to know NYC, writing, anarchy (as in the political philisophy of), social change activism, learning new things, having random adventures, self-reflection, costume parties

• animals
• arts
• writing
• tattoos
• diy
• dancing
• cooking
• vegetarian
• running
• partying
• traveling
• socializing
• music

Music, Movies, and Books

Well the list could just be never ending...

In no particular order my favorite writers/ novelists/ poets/ essayists/ anthropologists are Ursula LeGuin, Chuck Palahniuk, David Graeber, Barbara Kingsolver, David Sedaris, Tim O'Brian, Robert Frost, Neil Gaiman, Tim Ingold, Zora Neale Hurston, Kurt Vonnegut, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and many many more.

I love to read - all kinds of books and graphic novels. Favorite genres include science fiction and fantasy, historical fiction, folklore, philosophical, politcal and anything anthopologically related. I loved the Dune series although each book seemed to be less impressive than the one previous; Fall On Your Knees was a stunning book; Grandmother's Secrets was just up my alley as a meditation on life, belly dance and women's history; The Dharma Bums is the only Jack Kerouac novel I've read but I loved it from start to finish; Guns, Germs and Steel was another great anthro nonfiction work; This Book Will Save Your Life was fantastic but didnt actually save my life and finally the last book I've read was An Utterly Unbiased History of Great Britain or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge which I whole-heartedly recommend especially if you are British or have spent some time in Great Britain (otherwise you probably won't get some of the jokes but still worth reading).

I should keep a list of books I want to read but there are just too many to remember.

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As for music, my tastes are pretty much all-encompassing. I love music that is social and political in nature and that draws me to a lot of punk, hardcore and hip hop. I still listen to some defunct bands like Minor Threat, Operation Ivy, Rage Against the Machine, At the Drive In and the Dead Kennedys. Zack de la Rocha is a constant inspiration. I like quirky, weird stuff too like Japanese experimental electronic musician Cornelius, Bjork is always a favorite, Atom and His Package, Noah and the Whale and Reggie and the Full Effect. I collect music on travels too so I've got Che Fu, Savage, Fat Freddy's Drop, the Black Seeds, the Bleeders and Katchafire from good 'ole Aotearoa (NZ) and Glasvegas from Glasgow and my personal favorite Polish song of summer 2008: Bende Bral Cie w Aucie, Sokół's tribute to 1980s Poland feat. Pono and Franek Kimono (watch it on Youtube!). From my time in Madagascar I have an amateur field recording of my friend, Randriamampionona Erika's amazing acoustic guitar and vocals. The "world music" section is a favorite haunt where I find new and exciting belly dance music or capoeira tunes. I love Dispatch live, Johnny Cash and June Carter duets, Les Paul and Mary Ford and all types of rockabilly music. More mainstream stuff I like is (this I call my "guilty pleasures"): Regina Spektor, Gwen Stefani, Amy Winehouse, Weezer, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Pink, Against Me!, some of that classy 1940s Christina Aguilera stuff and all around mainstream rock and alt-rock type of music is just fine with me, although I just absolutely can't stand Nickelback :)

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Ready for the movies? Here are some that stand out in my head for various reasons: The Boondock Saints, Donnie Darko, Secretary, Fight Club, Snatch, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill v.1, The Usual Suspects, The Constant Gardener, Adaptation, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, The Big Lebowski, One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest, I Heart Huckabees, The Machinist, Garden State, Seven, Bad Santa, The Life Aquatic, Rushmore, Death to Smoochy, Trainspotting, Hotel Rwanda, Office Space, Anchorman, Sione's Wedding, Dogma, Borat, 3:10 to Yuma, Nacho Libre...

Okay there, I think I'm done for now.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I lived in a one person tent for three months, sleeping on the ground, with no electricity or running water, eating nothing but rice and beans and doing construction work. In Madagascar.

Teach, Learn, Share

Other than "how to kill things", there is probably not too much out there that I would not be interested in learning. I can teach basic Polish, basic belly dance moves. I can tell you all about beads and why horizontal networks, mutual self-help, consensus decision making and egalitarianism are the pathways to a sustainable future for all humankind. I love sharing.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Madagascar, New Zealand, Poland, United Kingdom, United States