CURRENT MISSION

To eat great food, meet amazing people, and absorb different cultures.

ABOUT ME

We don't travel five star--not because we can't occasionally afford to do so--but because we've never met anyone interesting in a five star resort.

In June 2014, we quit our teaching jobs at Singapore American School. Pele had worked there for 15 years. I was there for 11 years.

For the first time in our lives, we don't really have a home. It feels great! But it gets a bit confusing when filling out those border residency forms.

We're financing our 2 year travel stint (which might extend longer) with freelance articles I'm writing. I write for Canada's national newspaper (The Globe and Mail) and for a financial services company called AssetBuilder. Gotta love the Internet. Just 15 years ago, I probably couldn't have done such a thing.

PHILOSOPHY

We like the idea of interspersing "retirement" with work. Life is way too short to work like dogs for a golden retirement that might never come. You never know. Every day, somebody goes under a bus or gets struck by lightning. If, one day, that happens to be us, we'll never ask those crazy questions: "Should we have 'retired' while we were still relatively young? Could we have traveled the globe?" Grab life by the hair and never let go. That's our philosophy.

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

Conversations with fellow backpackers are fun...but they largely revolve around the same kind of topics. Everybody is trying to figure out the lay of the local land. But locals and expats? They're the best! That's why we're on CouchSurfing. We can learn more in one hour from an expat or local than we can learn in a week from the average vagabonding backpacker.

Interessen

We enjoy keeping fit--taking cycling trips on our tandem, running through the jungle, competing in the odd race. Pele scuba dives (Andrew is certified but prefers to breathe on land). Pele rockclimbs (Andrew has done so, but he's afraid of heights). Pele has bungy jumped and skydived (Andrew wouldn't if you paid him).

• dogs
• writing
• dining
• running
• traveling
• blogging
• jazz
• cycling
• backpacking
• scuba diving
• freelancing

Musik, Filme und Bücher

Pele loves fiction. Andrew loves non-fiction. We're constantly saying, "Listen to this." So we don't really need to read each other's books.

We both love all kinds of music.

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

I once met Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, after writing a postcard to Warren Buffett, asking to sleep in his garage. The story was written in the Wall Street Journal. This was before I learned about CouchSurfing.

Pele used to train dolphins on a small island in Colombia.

Lehren, lernen, teilen

I'm a professional writer. If you have a few blog posts that you want to jazz up, maybe I can help. Readers should get hooked from your very first words. Using a great lead and images keeps eyeballs on your page.

Was ich mit Gastgebern teilen kann

Travel stories, of course! We know that every CouchSurfer loves to see the world. We've been to many places. And we hope to venture further.

Länder, die ich besucht habe

Australia, Austria, Belize, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Seychelles, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Viet Nam

Länder, in denen ich gelebt habe

Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, England, Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States