CURRENT MISSION

To have my breath taken away as often as possible.

ABOUT ME

Well. Nowadays you can mostly find me in Asia, teaching English, taking photos, investigating all aspects of art and spirituality and ALWAYS looking for great new music.
Things I am fascinated with:
- African and Arabic hip-hop and dance music.
- Artist memoirs.
- Vincent Van Gogh.
- Keith Haring.
- Temples, churches, mosques and anywhere that people act spiritually.
- Iceland!!
- Breakdancing.
- Singing.

PHILOSOPHY

Do whatever makes you feel "alive". When I'm wandering around and I see something beautiful and it makes me kind of gasp inside (a boy, a sunset, an ancient statue, a stunning painting), then I feel alive. When I'm singing in front of tons of people I feel alive. When I'm completely out of my element, in situations that I never even heard people talk about, then I feel really alive.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I definitely want to try surfing people's couches. If I can get settled, I would love to have people surf mine as well! I love meeting people!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Honestly, I haven't couchsurfed that much. Mostly in the U.S., just friends' couches, or friends-of-friends.
I can say this though - before I started travelling, when I was just starting college, I stayed on a friend-of-friend's couch, someone I had never met before. She was 29, gorgeous apartment, interior designer, and nothing like anyone I had met so far in my life. I always think of that girl because as soon as I saw her life, I thought "I want to be just like her someday! She's so hip and free and successful and knowledgeable..." Basically, I want to meet more people like that... people who have had life experiences that I have not yet, who can enrich my life and whose lives I can enrich as well.

Interests

Impressionist art, Senegalese hip-hop, spirituality, bobsledding, kayaking, espresso, suspense movies, philosophical theories, karaoke, etc.

• arts
• books
• singing
• design
• interior design
• dancing
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• painting
• music
• dance music
• karaoke
• kayaking
• surfing
• swimming

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
Memento, Drop Dead Gorgeous, The Prestige/The Illusionist, Emperor's New Groove, Aladdin
Music:
African/Arabic hip-hop and dance, as well as more mainstream stuff. Daara J, Nawal al-Zoughbi, Samira Said, Ogopa DJs, Sean Paul, Kanye, Jamiroquai...
Books:
Vincent Van Gogh's Letters to Theo
all Kurt Vonnegut
The Little Prince
The Rubaiyat
Siddhartha
and I've been trying to read a lot of Howard Gardner's stuff on multiple intelligence theory.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Saw the Northern Lights, hiked on a glacier, kayaked within swimming distance of killer whales, climbed the Great Wall until I got heatstroke and started hallucinating... hitchhiked on four continents (looking to make that five...)... and ask me about Istanbul sometime. (I can't top that one.)

Teach, Learn, Share

I think music is SO important when travelling. Almost every song on my iPod takes me somewhere, conjures up some image of where I was, who I was with, what I was doing on any given day in the past.

Also,
Trade books. I love books, but it's hard to have a lot of them living and travelling abroad. Don't be afraid to exchange a book with someone, even if you know you'll never get yours back. Even if it's something you wouldn't have thought to read - just check it out. And please - don't be afraid to write in books either! I looooove reading through a book and reading what someone else was thinking when they read it.