CURRENT MISSION

Travel all through Europe while spending as little money as humanly possible!

ABOUT ME

I'm 20 years old, and this year I am studying Biochemical Sciences at the University of Salford. My home university is The University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio, United States. In June, I'll be returning to the US to finish my studies, and then pursue my MD. I eventually would like to go into Pediatrics and work for Medicins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders or the Peace Corps.

I've always dreamed of seeing the world and meeting a variety of people, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity.

PHILOSOPHY

A cliched philosophy would be to say that life is too short. It is, but I can't say that's my personal philosophy at this point in my life. What I've realized in these past couple weeks while preparing to leave for England, is that this whole experience is bittersweet; as excited as I am to see the world, I'm going to be leaving a lot of people I love and care about behind for 9 months. I'm ok with it, but it doesn't take away the innate sadness that shadows how happy I am with my life. Therefore, the closest thing to my personal philosophy is to make life as bittersweet as possible; make people, meet friends, part, stay in contact, and meet again. Live, love, and laugh, savor every moment as they come, and don't take for granted the special moments because they are what make life so awesome. Also, don't comprimise yourself, because you're all you've got (a quote by Janis Joplin).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I haven't couch surfed yet, but my friend traveled through Europe for 7 weeks this past summer and had an amazing time couch surfing.

Interests

I love to read; fiction, historical, philosophical, and science-related literature. I love learning and listening to music. Foreign languages have been a passion in the past. This year, I plan to rekindle that passion. I'm interested in politics and political activism, environmental conservation, history, traveling, cooking, and drinking.

• literature
• cooking
• partying
• drinking
• politics
• traveling
• music
• surfing
• history
• languages
• medicine
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

I loved Pan's Labyrinth, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, Babel, and Traffic. I love watching comedies; Superbad and Mean Girls top that list.

My musical taste is fairly ecclectic, as most people's are; I love alternative, jazz, funk, and blues the most. Rock, classical, some rap, and techno are also pretty sweet. I love listening to folk and cultural music, and soundtracks from Motion Pictures (like from Pan's Labyrinth or A Beautiful Mind)

My favorite books include the Harry Potter series, Lolita, Fortress of Solitude, Frankenstein, and a manga series, xxxHolic.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

This experience happened purly by accident. I was 18 and I had spent a few days around Christmas time in California with my dad. That year, there was a big snow storm that hit Denver, Colorado which delayed this flight from Denver to San Francisco by 50 minutes. That plane was supposed to take my to Las Vegas, where I would board my flight home. Unfortunately, my layover in Las Vegas was only 40 min, and I missed my flight home by 10 minutes. There were 5 of us in the same situation, and as the airline company wouldn't put us up in a hotel overnight, we ended up taking a cab to the Las Vegas strip, dropped our luggage off at the Venetian Hotel, and spent the night partying and gambling on the strip; 5 strangers stuck together in LV for a night. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life this far, and was a dream come true in certain ways; I always had dreamed of being stuck in a city for a day and just exploring without limitation/

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