CURRENT MISSION

I have spent the last five years of my life slaving away at entry-level jobs for minimal pay and minimal recognition in Vancouver, and have gotten nowhere. Now I am going to go on adventures for the next several years of my life while I'm still young!

ABOUT ME

I am a musician by trade, both professional and casual. In Vancouver I played for several bars with different bands, as well as busking on the streets in both Vancouver and Mexico.

I like travelling more than almost anything else and want to go everywhere! I've been all across Canada and Western Europe, and am currently embarking on a journey through Mexico, Central and South America. I really want to go back to Scandinavia, as well as especially Eurasia and India.

When I entertain the notion of going back to school full-time, I lean towards something to do with linguistics and anthropology. I don't think the time is right for school at the moment however; first I want to see the world.

PHILOSOPHY

Everywhere you go you leave a little bit of yourself behind you; everyone you have ever talked to has been influenced by your words and your presence. It's up to you what shape that influence takes. Stand tall and go forward with confidence, and people will be attracted to you! In that way they will influence you as well as you them, and everyone will be richer for it.

Unless you're Stephen Harper, in which case I wish you would just go away forever.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

For now, I'm only surfing and not hosting. I've hosted loads of people before when I was living in a ramshackle old house with a bunch of cool roommates in Vancouver, but not officially through couchsurfing.org so I don't really have any recommendations to put down for them, or be vouched for by them.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I met people of all sorts of stripes in Vancouver, and had them over often. I'm not shy about striking up potential friendships; if I think someone would make a cool friend or even acquaintance I'll just go for it.

To date at my old house (again, not part of this site unfortunately) we've had over a van load of Albertan hippies, a gaggle of French travellers, several instances of random Brazilian students (what's with that?) and numerous random encounters from East Hastings Street. All of them stayed the night (or several) and all of them parted amicably.

As far as my own travels go, I've technically couchsurfed in Voss and Bergen in Norway, and Aguascalientes, Mexico. I've travelled loads more places, but none of them were staying with other people as opposed to hostels or bed and breakfasts, etc.

Interests

I've got a huge interest in culture of every kind. I find learning about both my own ancestral traditions and the traditions of other, completely unrelated to me personally, cultures completely fascinating.

Like many Canadians of European descent, I'm kind of a mutt as far as bloodlines go. I love to study where I came from, especially the Irish and Norwegian parts. In particular, I love the mythology of pre-Christian Europe, the last instance of that being in the Viking Age. I study Norse things for fun, even so far as to learn a bit of Old Norse so I can try and decipher the Icelandic sagas on my own.

Besides that I've been exposed a lot recently to West Coast Native culture (Salish and Okanogan Nations, mostly), and learning about them has been fascinating - and depressing as well because of those @#$&ing residential schools. I sit around the fire with elders of the tribe and canoe the old waterways in northern dancer canoes every year in a different nation's territory. I've learned many songs as well, but don't ask me to sing any of them for you because you're specifically not allowed to share them unless you're given permission by the tribe to do so.

Speaking of music, that is one of my main passions. I play accordion and piano and I sing fairly well. I know tons of folk songs from around the world that I AM allowed to share, and do share constantly.

I also write my own music, as well as stories. I'm an aspiring novelist and I hope to get published within the decade at LEAST. I actually find that while travelling I write a lot more, and while sedentary I lose my creativity. Hence why travelling constantly is even more appealing to me!

• culture
• singing
• dancing
• traveling
• music
• piano
• canoeing
• surfing
• anthropology
• emergency services

Music, Movies, and Books

If I listed all of my favourite music we'd be here all day. I have a completely eclectic taste and one hour I'll be listening to Gregorian hymns, the next will be thrash metal, and then forward from that some 80s rap. The only thing I've never really been able to get into is the blues. That might come from being forced to play the blues for my job, and not knowing how to play in the pentatonic blues scale and getting nagged about it for several years might have given me an aversion to it.

I don't really care about movies. I'm sure I could think of a few that I really liked (The Last Unicorn springs to mind immediately), but they're not my medium of choice.

I devour books. I love them. I don't even have a particular genre that I prefer; I've read historical nonfiction (To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild, Barbarians by Terry Jones) and enjoyed it equally as much as far-flung sci-fi yarns (Dune by Frank Herber, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy ) or epic fantasies (The Worm Ouroboros by ER Eddison, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).

I can't even come close to describing how many books I love and have kept close to my heart since reading them. I want to write them all down and tell you, but there are too many. Treasure Island. The Chronicles of Narnia. One Hundred Years of Solitude. The Book of Lost Things. The Fionavar Tapestry. Watership Down(!!!!!). Redwall. The Three Musketeers.

If I keep going on like that I'm going to have an entire book of other books' titles. Suffice to say, I love reading and do it every chance I get. I like it better than eating or sleeping or kissing pretty girls or drinking alcohol or just about anything else.

Is it a surprise that I'm also a writer?

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I suppose it would only be right to mention here the Pulling Together Journey.

It happens every year in BC and is a canoe journey for Native youth; it's hosted by a different tribe every year and hundreds of people go on it. I'm not Native (or police, which is the other group involved), but I go on it every year anyway with a group from Vancouver, the Collingwood C.R.E.W.

On that journey I've seen and heard some amazing things. I mentioned it earlier on this profile, but it bears repeating. I hear oral traditions that survived the residential schools from elders, listen to the myths, paddle the same waters as were paddled for millenia by their ancestors, make friends of chiefs and future chiefs and share experiences with other "youths" (technically a youth is counted as someone 25 and under on this trip) that builds into lifelong friendships and learning experiences.

It is by far the best use of my time I've ever done. It lasts for 8 or 9 days every year, and I've gone for four years - approaching veteran status.

Teach, Learn, Share

Well I speak English of course, so that's useful for some people. I also speak passable French and bits of pidgin Spanish and German - and if you know any Viking time-travellers that need translations in our modern world I can read and write in the Elder Futhark runic alphabet and I also know how to say some swear words in Old Norse ("ergi kvitetroll!").

I know lots of music theory in addition to being able to play and sing, so that helps when people want to jam or learn things from me in that regard.

Besides that, I'm told I'm good company :)

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada