CURRENT MISSION

To enjoy life, to travel, and to learn. :)

ABOUT ME

Quick Note: Our Internet Service Provider seems to indicate that we are currently logged in in places other than Brantford (such as Toronto, or Montreal). So sorry, but we probably aren't there, in case anyone is looking to do local events.

Just to give a little idea about us, we both have Engineering backgrounds, though my wife is currently a teacher. We enjoy Medieval music and dancing, Japanese Animation (i.e. Anime), and board games. My wife also plays Flute in a concert band back home in her spare time.

We love to travel, meet new people, and learn about new cultures / societies (I expect most people on CS do!).

PHILOSOPHY

To learn, and to help people. I definitely like the whole "Pay it forward" concept.

Conversely, I definitely can get depressed / disappointed if someone is actively putting in efforts to Stop someone else from doing good things for people / society. (especially if they are just volunteering their time). I know that it can be difficult to decide or define what is perhaps the "greater good" in situations, i.e. what would be helping people the most, but I do think there are definitely cases where some people just want to bring others down, or to feel like they wield some sort of "power" over others. (or they don't want someone else to have the "glory" of succeeding, perhaps just out of spite)

Anyway, this is just me being honest. I'm really not too critical a person, and this doesn't come from any particular place or anything, such as a religious viewpoint. I just like to see everyone succeeding and being happy where possible, and don't like it when people put others down. (I tend to like to Optimize life. It may be a carryover from my Engineering background, and my love of Math. But definitely am interested in what will make the most people happy, or will help the most people, without harming anyone else, of course.)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Well, so far we've just formally started, though we've hosted people back home before, but not through this website.

While in Europe, we stayed with some wonderful people in Switzerland and Germany

I'm looking forward to hosting people back home once we are finished our honeymoon trip. I'm also telling some of my medieval friends about CS, as I expect they will be interested in joining.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We've generally had some really great CS experiences. As it turns out, I guess I've been doing this for years (mainly in North America so far, and a bit in Australia), before I found out about this site. We also tried out CS with a friend back in 2008, but then was too busy planning our wedding afterwards to get back into it immediately.

Most of the experiences I've had have been through my main hobby, which is this medieval group called the SCA. Everyone we've met there have been wonderful. We even got toured around Tasmania, and once upon a time I met a man in Indiana who raises medieval breeds of Chickens!

But yes, other than a cultural difference or two, so far CS has been great. We had a lot of fun in Switzerland playing games and Juggling with our hosts.

Interests

- All things Medieval / Renaissance.

- Dancing! (interested in basically all styles, though not versed in all of them)

- Board games (ones with more strategy than pure luck), as well as Chess, though I haven't had much chance to play in years

- Anime (Japanese Animation): Not so much the Mecha ones, but definitely some of the Comedies, as well as some of the darker ones (they tend to do vampires and such well), and some of the historical type ones. We're pretty open to new ones though. Oh, and definitely some of the "weird" ones (i.e. ones that tend to leave you with more questions at the end than answers) :)

- definitely culture, museums, art, history, architecture, live performances (opera, concerts, etc)

We're really interested in a lot of things. Anything new we can learn is great. I'm sure I could go on, but this is a good start anyway. :)

• arts
• architecture
• concerts
• dancing
• anime
• board games
• traveling
• juggling
• teaching
• engineering
• history
• mathematics
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

I most like non-typical stories. (i.e. not just the predictable "happy ending")

As for genres, Sci-fi and Fantasy are good, as well as historical pieces. In audiobooks more recently we've been listening to a lot of non-fiction, such as biographies, and interesting viewpoints on today's societies.

Oh, and my wife's favourite author is Kurt Vonnegut. (nice and weird, though for some it may be an acquired taste) She also loves Isabella Allende, Bill Bryson and Issac Asimov.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Swam on the Great Barrier Reef

Teach, Learn, Share

- Dancing from the Renaissance
- some basic Juggling
- Calculus :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada

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