CURRENT MISSION

To meet new people outside my bubble in Baltimore!

ABOUT ME

Describing yourself is always a bit awkward, no? But I'll give it a go...creative, outgoing, adventurous, dorky, feminist, advocate, slightly a glutton!

Originally born in the USSR, grew up in Seattle, finished college in Boston, lived in Kazakhstan for two years, Baltimore for one year, Geneva for a summer, now Baltimore again. Will be moving to Moldova in January for 9 months!

PHILOSOPHY

Surround yourself with positive and inspirational people! Haters are always going to hate.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Unfortunately I cannot really host right now, but want to try meeting people. :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My former roommate from Hungary has hosted several couch surfers at our place in the past, and now she's biking all over China/couch surfing. We had some really cool people come and visit, so I've always wanted to try it out on my own as well.

When I went to England, I didn't couch surf, but I met up with several fun couch surfers, and we had a great time talking over drinks.

Interests

Drawing, blogging, taking photos, writing, swimming, running, exploring new places, learning languages, going to music concerts/theater/ballet

• writing
• theater
• concerts
• ballet dancing
• running
• drinking
• socializing
• blogging
• drawing
• music
• cycling
• surfing
• swimming
• languages
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: Currently reading "Pride and Prejudice"! Recently read "Perfume" in Russian, and I have to say that the ending was pretty unexpected, to put it lightly. Trying to read one of Gogol's novels in Russian, which is proving to be a bit of a challenge.

Music: Rock and electronica--The Offspring, Coldplay, Beyonce, Deadmau5, Rage Against the Machine, Ellie Goulding

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I like to tell people that I once streaked across the Canadian border, which is technically true. My friends and I backpacked up to the Canadian border from Washington state in the mountains, and just couldn't resist the opportunity!

Teach, Learn, Share

Nabokov, who wrote "Lolita", founded the Russian department at Wellesley College in the early 1940s. It is said that one day he walked into his classroom full of students, and put down a colored vase on the table.

"Describe this to me," he asked his students.

"It's a vase!" one student said.

"It's blue! It's yellow!" another said.

"You mean to say," Nabokov asked, "it's a yellow-blue vase?"

"Yes, it's a yellow-blue vase!" they echoed.

"You have just learned the most important phrase in Russian," Nabokov shared. "Yellow-blue vase, or, rather--'Я люблю Вас' ("Ya lyublyu vas")--which means 'I love you' in Russian."

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Denmark, France, Georgia, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan

Countries I’ve Lived In

Kazakhstan, Switzerland, United States