CURRENT MISSION

find a job & relocate to DC

ABOUT ME

With my university BA degree freshly printed and in my hand, I ran off to Syria to train horses and teach kids how to ride. When that got old, I moved on to teaching English in Damascus. And now its about time to go back to real life in the US...not looking forward to it too much though.

I want to make a difference, even if its in just one person's life. As long as I leave this world better than I found it, I'll die happy. I hope to be able to do that through my travels and leaving everyone I meet with a smile on their face.

PHILOSOPHY

Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've never surfed, but my hosting experience was great! If I didn't live in a dorm, I would host all the time. I'm planning on making my way around the Middle East one couch at a time after I finish my graduate work.

Interests

exploring new cultures, watching MythBusters, studying languages, buying souvenirs from interesting places

• horses
• arts
• architecture
• photography
• cooking
• baking
• running
• shopping
• muslim
• languages
• law

Music, Movies, and Books

books: the reluctant fundamentalist, a long way gone, the giving tree, three cups of tea

music: absolutely EVERYTHING, in particular: roisin murphy, sami yusuf, t.i., the idan raichel project, tamer hosny, brazilian girls

Teach, Learn, Share

Some things that I could probably teach you about: growing up in America, horses, the United Nations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and my family's displacement during the Nakbah, being adopted, Yemen, a bit of Arabic, converting to Islam, Sufism, photography, international internships, sororities, being an American college student, cooking, baking, interior decorating, trip planning, haggling with shop keepers in the suq, new ways of wearing hijab, Boston, the Millennium Development Goals, Amsterdam, Euphonium-playing, backgammon, the International Solidarity Movement, and probably a few other things.

Some things I want to learn about: how to use photoshop better, other people's life stories, new styles of cooking, tajwid (hafs and warsh), Islamic art and architecture, how NGOs are run and how to make them work better, international humanitarian law, and almost everything else in the world around me.

Countries I’ve Visited

Ethiopia, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Israel, United States, Yemen