CURRENT MISSION

Trying to make life a little more interesting

ABOUT ME

After spending three years chasing animals for various biological research projects and road tripping up, down, and around the US in the off seasons, I've just moved to Minnesota for grad school. I get to spend the next 5+ years chasing lions around Tanzania while I'm not crunching numbers and tearing my hair out in the lab. Should be pretty sweet.

PHILOSOPHY

As long as you are laughing, you must doing something right. I have a tendency to trip over my feet, which makes people laugh. I figure that if nothing else, at least I am useful for comic relief.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I couchsurfed my way across central Europe and Asia, so I'm trying to give back any way I can.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

A bear broke into my car while I was road tripping through Montana last summer. Although the only damage besides the shattered window was a couple of muddy pawprints and a chewed up bottle of shampoo, it would be several days before the auto-shop could get a window in. Stranded in a small northern Montana town, with a broken window and a car full of camping gear and canned food, I was taken in by the local auto-shop owner and his wife and their four children until my car was ready to carry me into the wilds of Glacier National park. I had stayed on a lot of sofas in the western half of the US, but I had never been so willingly welcomed into a family before with such trusting abandon. I miss the west...

Interests

chasing furry critters through the woods. Horses (eventing), traveling, reading, beer. biology and ecology and conservation. good coffee. good espresso. good music. hiking and biking, and driving across the country. red wine. meeting cool people from faraway places. having adventures and excitement.

• animals
• horses
• writing
• dining
• wine
• red wine
• beer
• coffee
• shopping
• reading
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• biology
• ecology

Music, Movies, and Books

I would like to think I have discriminating tastes, but then people like to think many things about themselves that arent true. I like what I like.
Books? To Kill a Mockingbird. Anything by Vonnegut, Kerouac, I like Ed Abbey and some things by Steinbeck. Michener's "The Drifters" and Joyce Carol Oates' "We were the Mulvaneys." Life of Pi. Going after Cacciato. Watership Down. The Redwall Series. and this fabulous book my old work used to have called "Everybody Poops."
movies: little miss sunshine, everything is illuminated, and the three burials of melquiades estrada. and supertroopers. and office space. and the princess bride...
music: ISLANDS!!! the beatles, bob dylan, the shins, flaming lips, wilco, modest mouse, broken social scene, radiohead, pink floyd, ben folds, chili peppers, greenday, foo fighters, johnny cash, smashing pumpkins, the doors, superchunk, van morrison...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The only thing wild horses do, really, besides eat, is occasionally fight. When I was chasing wild horses on an island in the southeast, I saw three wild stallions battle it out over a harem of mares. And it was spectacular.

Teach, Learn, Share

"A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke, he is writing his signature on the face of this land."
aldo leopold

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Mongolia, Poland, Russian Federation

Countries I’ve Lived In

Mexico, United States

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