CURRENT MISSION

To meet people from all over the world, have a good time and stay the hell away from my home country.

ABOUT ME

I moved to Hoi An in September 2012 with my Mongolian cat and Chihuahua after 6 months in Nha Trang. I manage an animal rights organization/ live in the animal shelter. It's not the easiest place to have guests as a result unless they are volunteers with the animals and really like cleaning and playing with cats, dogs, pigs, chickens and ducks ( I have 44 in total). I tend to be generally very busy with work, and although I have a flexible schedule, it is usually very busy. I manage the animal shelter alone plus I am trying to move the shelter to Hanoi which is time consuming. This means I cannot be a tour guide or driver, but I can give you a lot of advice about tourist activities and restaurants. Sadly, I can't actually go with you very often to these places that I recommend. The animal shelter is vegan as am I, so volunteers and guests may not eat non-vegan food onsite.

To hang out with me, one should be prepared for my inability to filter anything I say for appropriateness, i.e. sexually explicit content and highly charged political statements. I talk about sex often because a) everyone likes it and b) it's hilarious. I am a open book and have no problem expressing my opinions. Also, if you are offended or annoyed by conversations about disgusting medical problems with animals or veganism, I may be pretty tough to hang out with. This is just my daily life. I love debating and fast-paced conversations where we can bounce ideas around and I take no offense when someone disagrees with me. All subjects are open, but if you want to say stupid things about animals, I suggest finding someone else to chat with. I do feel I have a lot to learn from people around me, couchsurfers especially, so I'd love to get some coffee and chat if I am not extremely busy with work as usual.

Having traveled for a long time now and lived in places that may not always be very safe, I can be a super-turbo-bitch on the street if I feel threatened or ripped off and while that often scares people who are perhaps quieter and more polite, it very often saves my ass so I am cool with it. If I ever feel that there is any injustice going on, I will speak up about it. I am loud, opinionated, and not at all afraid to tell people what I really think. That makes me sound insane, but I am just honest and really hate assholes.

I love my life here and am happy to share it with others as long as I feel like I can also get all my work done. I totally suck at telling people "no" and I often end up way over my head in commitments as a result, so I am working to change that. Please don't be offended if I honestly don't have the time to show you around. Managing an NGO is really f-ing hard and keeping up with the animals, the cleaning, the vet work, etc. all at the same time means my free time is pretty limited these days. Sorry.

PHILOSOPHY

Follow your bliss on the lunatic fringe. Consume little, contribute a lot.
"All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."- Edmund Burke

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

My apartment in Mongolia was basically a hotel and I liked it that way. In South America and the US I surfed and in Nha Trang my old house was a couch surfing haven again. I share my space and some silly stories and I hope my surfers share some part of themselves and maybe some recipes and new ideas. This is a learning experience after all, not just a free place to crash. Some of my best friends have been surfers. It's a good community.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Hosting tons, surfing a little, loving every second of it. I've learned more in my nearly 7 years of CSing than I did with 10 years of college. I wish I knew that before I got all those student loans...

Intereses

animal rights, travel in developing countries, food, meeting other travelers, staying away from the US, obsessing over my animals especially my evil cat and giant pig, trail running, marathoning, trying to keep my insane Chihuahua happy, learning to travel as a vegan, sustainable agriculture and building techniques, social movements, the intersection of human and animal rights

• animals
• pets
• cats
• dogs
• chickens
• books
• animal welfare
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• coffee
• vegan
• running
• politics
• traveling
• socializing
• piano
• cycling
• surfing
• trail running
• swimming
• agriculture

Música, películas y libros

Movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Amadeus are at the top of that list, but generally anything colorful that is well edited and steps outside the boundaries of Michael Bay action crap makes me happy. Any Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson.
Music: Yeah yeah yeahs, Mumford and Sons, Muse, Florence and the Machine, The Smiths, Arcade Fire, MGMT, Fiona Apple, NIN, etc. I am so freaking generic like that. I survive off of the Songza app on my iphone which basically keeps me updated with new music that I never remember the names of. I hate downloading music so I just take it off cool people's hard drives.
Books: Somerset Maugham, Dostoyevsky, John Irving,Douglas Adams, David Sedaris, Hemingway as a standard. I read less fiction as I get older and I feel like crap when I am not reading for work, but am always open to a good recommendation for a nice story. My books have always made better friends than the fleshy kind.

Algo increíble que he hecho

The most amazing thing I have done as a long time traveler and generally annoyingly energetic and somewhat fucked up girl is to finally find a place to "settle" for a while and to start an animal rights organization. I am truly blessed to be living my passion every single day. I never forget that, even when I am elbow-deep in cat shit, we have a negative balance in the bank account because no one wants to donate, and my dog just peed in my bed again. Of all the things I have seen in the world, many of which have blown me away, I wake up to a busy, insane and ultimately really challenging life and it amazes me that for once in my life, my home is exactly where I want to be, though I often am DESPERATE for a break.

Enseña, aprende, comparte

I love learning from people with lifestyles, jobs and cultures totally unlike my own. I can teach you how to move your pets overseas and avoid adulthood and I'd be happy tell you how fun it is to be financially irresponsible because I think I might be a master of that. I can teach you about the best cat litter, how to hug a chicken, and why ducks clean themselves constantly.

Qué puedo ofrecer a los anfitriones

I can teach them how to swear in Vietnamese and share stupid stories from my stupid life that I am in love with. I can cook some good Vietnamese food, talk international politics all day long , and talk about the general depth of trauma people in the animal rescue world encounter.

Países que he visitado

Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Netherlands, Peru, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Países en los que he vivido

Kosovo, Mongolia, Netherlands, Poland, United States, Viet Nam

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