Grew up among hippie musicians in the mountains of California, now living in Brooklyn playing in bands and working as a computer programmer. I've taken every possible chance I could to go traveling, from going to China for three weeks when I was 16, to living and studying in Prague for about half a year, to sending myself on a three month trip across Europe after graduating college. My mission in life is to basically understand and experience as much as humanly possible, and I've found that travel is one of the best ways to bring me closer to the kinds of people, sights, and mostly, food, that I want to be around.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Meeting people at hostels is kind of a crapshoot - I prefer to see ahead of time if I can hang out with someone I know I'll enjoy.

Interests

As far as music goes, I write for and run a band called Valipala (https://www.facebook.com/ValipalaMusic). My personal songwriting idols are Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, but as a classically trained pianist as well as being active in one of the awesome music scenes in the world, my musical expertise goes a lot further back, and forward, and side to side.

However, as central as music is to my life, it tends to be all about the food when I travel. I have been known to cry tears of joy after eating particularly good pastries. I will likely have researched every restaurant in the city before I arrive, but I will never turn away a good recommendation.

• birds
• music
• languages
• food

Music, Movies, and Books

Dope Books: The Magic Mountain, The Rings of Saturn, Gödel Escher Bach, The New York Trilogy, Love in the Time of Cholera, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-Toured in a reggae band for bit!
-Rode a pirate ship into the sunrise in the middle of the desert!
-Jammed with Cuba's #1 progressive rock band on stage in Habana!

and many more

Teach, Learn, Share

I would love nothing more than to learn how to cook some local food. In exchange, I'll buy the ingredients and also lots of liquor.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Czech Republic, Portugal, United States