Hi! My name is Anna. I'm an artist, writer and educator from the United States. My background is in photography, film and storytelling. I've done commercial work in the past, but now focus only on my personal work and on teaching. As far as teaching, most of my experience is in the arts in higher education (in Minneapolis, NYC, and Detroit) , but I am recently adding EFL to my teaching repertoire to be able to travel more.

In my free time, I love watching films, reading books, listening to music, dancing, walking, traveling, eating and drinking. I'm a mix of introverted and extroverted. I mostly like to do my thing, but love meeting new people along the way. I also treasure my solo-time to recharge.

I'm a native English speaker, an upper-intermediate (B2+) German speaker, and an elementary (A2) Spanish speaker. I also know a little bit of American Sign Language and am just starting to study Croatian.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love to travel, and also enjoy meeting new people.

On CS for friends, not for dating. 😊

Interests

• writing
• books
• photography
• concerts
• dancing
• coffee
• walking
• music
• teaching
• languages
• travel
• art
• food
• storytelling
• film
• exploring
• museums
• drink

Music, Movies, and Books

I love a wide variety of music, but love 80s and 90s alternative music the most. I love punk, goth, indie, electronic, hip hop, and some rock and pop.

I'm a huge lover of film. One of my favorite things to do is go to the cinema by myself. Paris, Texas is my favorite movie. Some of my favorite directors are: David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Andrei Tarkovsky, Wes Anderson, Yasujirō Ozu, Stanley Kubrick, John Waters and Roy Andersson, (among many many others).

For books I love "Literary Fiction" the most, and my favorite contemporary author is George Saunders. Short stories tend to be my favorite, since I love their economy of language. I also enjoy reading the classics, personal essays, and some humor. Good prose is a must, and a mix of funny and sad is my favorite.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've published my own books of photography and writing, and made my own short films as well.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm a pretty good cook. We could go for a photo-walk if that's something you're interested in. I'm also conversant on a wide variety of topics, so that makes me a pretty good dinner/happy hour guest!

I have a variety of other skills that I'm open to sharing. If there's something you could use, just ask! Maybe I can help. Only thing that I'm *not* is very handy (so you probably don't want me to hang any shelves for you or anything, haha)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States