CURRENT MISSION

Hike 1,000 miles in Europe!

ABOUT ME

My love for traveling and learning about other people began when I hiked the Camino de Santiago, a 500 mile pilgrimage from Saint Jean Pied-Du-Port, France, to Santiago de Compastela, Spain. I walked alone, but soon I found was loving getting to know my fellow pilgrims every bit as much as I was loving the sacred walk through ancient paths! The people I bonded with were so diverse, I learned a valuable lesson about the common struggles and needs of all people- not as Americans, Europeans, or Asians, but as human beings. As I walked, my group grew and came to include a German photographer, two Hungarians, a South African travel writer, a Muslim from Saudi Arabia, two Koreans, a Swiss dentist, several Canadians, and even a Finnish girl with whom I later had the opportunity to hike in the Arctic with and see the northern lights. It didn't surprise me that we all came from dramatically different upbringings and therefor had vastly different ideologies and religious convictions, but what amazed me was how those things just didn't matter at all! We became very close friends for a reason: We harbored a deep respect for each other. We shared a common goal; we all had to walk over 500 miles, and it was hard to keep going sometimes! In the evenings while we rested, we drank wine together, and we never once tried to convince any one else that our way of living was superior. Instead, we did two things: 1) Most of the time we just forgot we were different at all and just enjoyed each other like old friends! and 2) We sought to learn about our other friends, not question, but LEARN. One gesture that amazed me was when our Muslim friend cooked dinner for us all one night, and he bought wine because he knew we liked it, but he never so much as took a sip, as his personal religious convictions lead him to abstain from alcohol. He didn't try to keep us from drinking, he respected the fact that we enjoyed wine, and he wanted us to enjoy our dinner so he bought it for us, his friends. The second thing he did that night was even more meaningful. He knew that as Americans and Europeans following the route of an ancient religious pilgrimage we were largely Christian, and so before we ate, he requested that I offer a Christian prayer over the meal he had prepared, and as I prayed, he stepped back and bowed his head out of respect for our spiritual convictions. He then very quietly prayed to his God, sat down with us to eat, and even poured our wine. If more people had the respect and love for fellow man like this young Muslim man, there WOULD be world peace. After the pilgrimage, I flew to Finland where my dear friend introduced me to their culture and she went to great lengths to make me feel welcomed into her culture. I was deeply grateful I was able to return the favor last summer, when I got to introduce my sub-arctic friend to a Texas summer! Complete with a chance encounter with a diamond back rattlesnake in the hill country, and a rather impromptu lesson on "what that rattling noise was" quickly followed by a lesson in how to safely kill a venomous snake with a walking stick and swiss army knife. By this time, I was hooked. I was fascinated with other cultures. In a couple months I will leave to visit my 15th foreign country in the year and a half since I took that first horrifying step off a Boeing 777 at Charles de Gaul airport in Paris. When I travel, I have very little interest in finding a fancy hotel near a beach and never leaving my comfort zone. My friends all know that I will travel for months at a time with only a small carry on bag. I don't want to pretend I'm in America in some far off land, I want to go down to the local pub and make some new friends and learn everything I can about the peoples lives who grew up in this land. Right now thats what I'm doing, I'm lucky enough to have an ER directer who gets life enough that after graduation she immediately gave me 3 months off work and a tuition reimbursement check large enough to pay for a plane ticket to go explore Europe. When I come back home, I hope to repay the favor and open my home up for distant travelers who I can teach about the unique culture of Texas, introduce them to people who will love them just for the fact that they are a human being, a "self", and if they want, I'll take them into the wilds to teach them about the local ecosystem and how to appreciate the sometimes harsh conditions Texas is known for.

PHILOSOPHY

Since I devoted my entire undergraduate career to the study of philosophy, this could get extremely complex. But surprisingly I believe that all the things I've learned in university philosophy studies, overseas travel, and personal religious and spiritual reflection, can be summarized in an incredibly simple way... - Love People.
Not because you have to, or because it's the right thing to do, but because once you realize that every person you encounter is just as much a "self" as you are, then you simply have to love them. Don't concern yourself with any axioms or complex theorems... If you Love people, you will inherently treat them the way a fellow human deserves to be treated: With respect, dignity, and compassion. It doesn't need to be any more complex than that. And differences in race, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, or attractiveness simply doesn't enter into that equation. The only thing I ask is that when you are with me you treat me with dignity and my family with respect. Reciprocity is crucial in this. I would never come into your home and critique the way you live, and I feel it is fair to ask for that same respect in return, even if it takes a little effort at times. After all, I am a Texan, and we're all a little rough around the edges!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now I'm just learning the ropes!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I joined after hearing several friends talk about how much they've enjoyed the opportunities couchsurfing has brought them. I haven't participated yet, but as I get more and more passionate about traveling, I'm beginning to see what a useful tool this could be!

Interests

Hiking, camping, backpacking, mountain biking, exercise, the out doors, philosophy, Christian theology, learning spanish, playing guitar

• culture
• writing
• wine
• exercise
• walking
• drinking
• pub crawls
• traveling
• guitar
• cycling
• hiking
• backpacking
• camping
• divinity
• religion
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

I love a lot of different things! The last few books I read that I loved were Walden, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and of course Harry Potter!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I watched the Northern Lights during a break in a snow storm one night in the Arctic.
I watched the sunset from the rocky cape in Finisterre, the end of the old world.
I watched a volcano erupt from the summit of a nearby mountain in Guatemala.
I shocked a dead man back to life in time to save him, and he walked out of the hospital three days later with nothing more than a sore chest from my chest compressions during CPR.

Teach, Learn, Share

I've had a lot of unique experiences in my life. As an EMT working in Texas I've worked on gun shot wounds, I've done CPR more times than I can count, I get to work around helicopters, and I've even made a few saves myself!
I have a degree in Philosophy, I devoted a lot of my time studying the ancient Greeks and the later Stoics. I have to warn you I've been known to give some pretty lengthy philosophy lectures if asked an interesting question after a drink or two!
I've spent a good bit of time in Spanish speaking countries like Spain, Guatemala, and Honduras, so I picked up a bit of spanish along the way. I had a girlfriend who didn't have english as her first language, but we both spoke spanish, so we would often speak in spanish so that neither of us had the advantage of speaking in our native tongue. I'm afraid my Spanish has become a little rusty, but I would love to stay with or host a spanish speaking person who wouldn't mind tolerating my slow and clumsy spanish!

Countries I’ve Visited

American Samoa, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Samoa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands, British

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States