CURRENT MISSION

Build Basecamp.

When I was in college, there were all these neighborhood houses in Southeast Portland that passed through generations of students: The Refrigerator,The Regular House, Oz, Dreamland, Halfway Home. Stories poured out of these places like guests crowding down the porch steps at a house show, leaving free couches and instruments and frankenstein bicycles littered across the front yard. The best homes I've known had lives of their own. Houses need names.

I bought a place of my own this year, and have been elbow deep in sawdust reclaiming it from the weeds and graffiti of four years of foreclosure. Most people don't look twice at Medford and especially this neighborhood, but I'm in love. It has that same combination of scrappy and unpretentious and spacious that made Portland explode with art ten years ago. Ten minutes from my door on a bike and you are in the open country. Five minutes you are downtown.

How do you take what you learned traveling and use it? How do you take on the persistent cycles of poverty, thoughtless consumerism, environmental destruction and silent class warfare? How do you truly explore and still have something to come home to?

I don't know. I've been trying to make art and build community and live close to nature. I cook a mean breakfast and my house is named Basecamp.

ABOUT ME

I'm in love with books and learning. I play three instruments because I couldn't pick just one. These days I work on an orthopedic surgery and intensive care stepdown units part time, and use my flexible hospital schedule to lead expeditions, travel abroad, and spend as much time outdoors as I can manage. I will talk your ear off about neurofeedback, burning man projects, and environmental toxicology if you want to hear it!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I want the travelers to come to me for a while!

When I lived in Mexico, I had a big empty apartment that left me lonely until I wound up collecting more and more traveling artisans and interesting people to come stay with me. It was a wonderful time and some of them are still friends. I haven't done huge amounts of couchsurfing through the website but I have done it for years with friends and people I meet. I'd love to host more now! And it's the best way to meet people when you travel.

Interests

So many!

I love music and art. I'm a scientist by training and I work in medicine. I know a lot about ecology and I like to think about systems.

I have been most interested in brains recently, as the interface between our physical world and perception. How do they really work? Can we learn to perceive differently or learn faster? Why do we work the way we do?

• arts
• books
• dancing
• cooking
• breakfast
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• guitar
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• kayaking
• rock climbing
• ecology
• medicine
• science
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

Yes.

I have been reading a lot of Rumi and Neil Stephenson recently. Surprisingly good combination.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I led kayak tours in Maxatlán, Mexico for a winter.

Teach, Learn, Share

Ecology, medicine, and rock climbing.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I play guitar and banjo. I do poi fire dancing. And I like to cook.

Countries I’ve Visited

Brazil, Canada, China, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Taiwan, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Costa Rica, Mexico, United States

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