CURRENT MISSION

Working smarter, not harder

ABOUT ME

I've spent most of the last 10 years of my life in Chicago, with a couple of long stays in Brazil, Spain, and France. I like traveling and living abroad a lot, and am currently working out how do each for a living while coincidently managing Study Abroad programs for a Professional Psychology graduate school here in Chicago. My other biggest interests are in music and biking both of which I keep pretty active in.

PHILOSOPHY

Looks like an Edward Hopper painting mixed with a bit of transcendentalism, market socialism, and a smither of Eugene Ionesco.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I hosted four couchsurfers while living in Paris. This was a lot of fun. I also couchsurfed with a friend of a friend (not on couchsurfing.com) whom I had yet to meet before arriving at his place in Madrid. We became friends, and I consider him a close friend to this day.

Interests

Most of all music... learning it, playing it, talking about it, going to hear it live. Besides music I enjoy learning about history, art, sustainable development, bicycle touring, playing ping-pong, movies, traveling, and cooking.

• arts
• cooking
• recipes
• working out
• movies
• traveling
• painting
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• hockey
• history
• psychology
• study abroad
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Anything by Wes Anderson, most things by: Pedro Almovodar, Julio Medem, Alex de la Iglesia, Jorge Guerricaecheverria, Jean-Pierre Jeunett, the brothers Cohen, Olivier Assayas, Carlos Diegues, Stanely Kubrick, the list goes on...

Music: I enjoy few things more than discovering new sounds I've never heard before. That said, the last couple of years most of my listening has stayed broadly within the following: Anything African that has guitar in it, American soul+jazz music, Brazilian music, some indie, and since I've been back in Chicago the awesome improvised music scene we have here.

Books: Most anything by Martin Amis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I watched a group of 200 or so beach-goers spontaneously break into applause after watching the sun set into the ocean in Brazil. It was a really nice sunset, but more amazing was witnessing such a large group of strangers come together to applaud a phenomenon of nature.

Teach, Learn, Share

I have experience teaching English to people who are learning it as a second language. I also have a lot of experience teaching guitar to beginners and intermediate students. I'm also a pretty good ice-skater and hockey player, and have interesting curry and tomato cream sauce pasta recipes.

I'd like to learn more French, more about Francophone West Africa, more about how to cook curries, and sauces that involve peanuts, and more about international bicycle touring.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Netherlands, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, France, Spain, United States