Born and raised in the Midwest (USA), moved to China after college and lived there for 6 years. I worked as a freelance translator for nearly 10 years (mostly scientific/technical documents), which gave me a lot of freedom to travel. Nowadays I work in Shanghai at a mobile gaming company doing localization.

I love learning new things and talking to people with different outlooks on life!

PHILOSOPHY

It is not possible to make a mistake.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Now that I've got a full-time job I don't have much time to travel, so I'm hoping to meet interesting couchsurfers from around the world visiting Shanghai. I also surfed with a lot of great people during my travels and would like to pay back some of that good karma.

Interests

• running
• technology
• chess
• reading
• languages
• solo travel
• science fiction
• weightlifting

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Classic Rock, Muse, Tchaikovsky
Movies: Indiana Jones, Lawrence of Arabia
Books: Don Quixote, LOTR, anything scifi...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I was the course trainer for the Chinese version of the TV show "American Ninja Warrior".

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: English/Chinese, Chess, Exercise Nutrition

Learn: I'm currently trying to learn Russian, but I'm interested in most everything

Share: Crazy travel stories

What I Can Share with Hosts

I've got a lot of travel stories and stories from living in China. I wrote my masters thesis on Chinese scifi, so if you're interested in that I can talk your ear off.

I'm not a very good cook, but I can make some damn good stovetop popcorn in all kinds of flavors (coffee/chili peppers/ginger).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Russian Federation, United States