CURRENT MISSION

To not be an ugly American.

ABOUT ME

Camino de Santiago veteran. I'm a rural urbanite. Streets and pavement and busy people get me excited, but trees and bugs and uncivilized pragmatics are largely underrated. I'm a bike commuter in a car territory, a wine drinker among beer drinkers, a pseudo-academic among family people.

PHILOSOPHY

That all things are truly equal. Good and bad are conditional judgments: what seems bad in one situation excels in another, making it impossible to judge anything. This makes it perfectly fine not to have an opinion on any given topic, issue, event, or subject. When I travel I look for the mundane. Touristy areas are manufactured and accommodating and familiar, which subverts the whole point of leaving home. I travel to see difference, to see how others deal with life situations and maybe pick up some new tricks to take home. By separating myself from all the people and places that form my identity by relocating to a new environment, I get to see my social mask for what it is, fix it up a bit, and bring it back home closer to what I'd like it to be.

In summary, my personal philosophy: So it goes.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

It's been my experience that cities are much more fun with a townie; they're amazing resources of history, geography, climate, and culture. Once I return to the States my couch will be provided, though not many travelers get down this way. It's a bit rural. Also, grad school offers a lot of opportunities for conference travel, and I'd rather crash on a couch than stay in a hotel. Hotels provide next to no local flair.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

As of yet none, other than interactions with friends who are Couchsurfers.

Interests

Books and writing, bicycles and cycling culture, various forms of alcohol, board games,

• culture
• writing
• books
• environment
• wine
• beer
• board games
• traveling
• cycling
• geography
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Fight Club, American Beauty, Big Labowski, No Country For Old Men, Seven Samurai, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Exit Through the Gift Shop, High Fidelity...

Music: The National, Band of Horses, Tom Petty, Yacht, Passion Pit, LCD Soundsystem, Tapes 'n Tapes, Regina Spektor, The Beatles, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Man Man, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Mike Doughty, Fleet Foxes...

Books: Anything by David Foster Wallace or Jared Diamond, cultural studies articles, and other long, boring, educational materials. I read a lot of graphic novels though, 100 Bullets, Scalped, The Walking Dead, Transmetropolitan.

Countries I’ve Visited

Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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