CURRENT MISSION

learning, unlearning, and relearning. Remembering that the mycelium is listening and trying to listen back.

ABOUT ME

Hi, I'm one member in a family of three. My name is Drea and I've been on couch surfing a long time. I am surprised and happy it's still here! I couch surfed before this site existed and I hope we will be hosting after it's gone. We are a creative and curious folk, we love languages, dinosaurs, walks and hikes, bicycles, swimming holes, mycorrhizal and arboreal connections and we try to look at the world from a multi-species lens.

PHILOSOPHY

I think in 2023, my philosophy is What would Pando and the Humongous Fungus do?

Shouldn't this be a book?

One day I might write it, or else my husband will write it and I will edit it. Or else our child will write it and Noah will edit it and I will illustrate. Or some other combination. Who will read it? That's the question.

We really like books.

Want to see my "legacy profile?" Yeah, that's a thing: https://www.couchsurfing.com/users/482567/profile/legacy

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm on Couchsurfing because the concept of hosting people in our home and being guests in other's homes is dear to me. I think people are (neuro)plastic and fantastic and we have so much to learn from each other. Couchsurfing is a digital answer to a basic human need of gathering around the fire.

Interests

life, love, and the living (and the nonliving)

I tend to seek the roots of things and the roots of beings. I also tend to leave the light on in the bathroom closet and not pay attention to light fixtures.

Noah tends to notice the light fixture in the foyer, but not the light on in the bathroom closet.

Oisin is all the emotions, all the suprises, all the time. Spirited and big hearted, he recently confirmed that he "really finds animals fascinating". He will see the light switch in foyer and the bathroom closet, and find a stepping stool.

Otherwise...

Let's meet!

• arts
• books
• breakfast
• meditation
• walking
• trivia
• history
• law
• mathematics
• nature
• permaculture
• traditional ways of knowing

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:

I grew up in a house of musicians and I haven't heard a genre that doesn't feature at least a few talented artists yet. Of course I have preferences, but they wax and wane over time.

My husband could say the same about his musical upbringing.

My son gravitates towards musicals, silly songs like "Potatoes and Molasses", "Cats Sit on You" and "Dance of Doom" and Axel F Harold Faltemeyer He will get very mad if you try and sing his favorite song though. Unless he's sick, in which case he will give you a silent thumbs down.

Movies:

We don't watch enough movies these days. Often they are animated (yes, Disney does happen). The most recent ones we re-watched were Frozen II--way better than Frozen I, imo-- and Citizen Kane. Oisin was impressed. His first theatre screening was Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio. I loved it. He was unimpressed. Noah refuses to watch Crash with me, despite me explaining that it's (apparently, according to an elderly friend) a pretty good snapshot of living in Hollywood. What are you going to do?

Some of my favorite books of all time are, in no particular order: When I Sing Mountains Dance, Of Human Bondage, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Momo. Mostly though, I tend towards nonfiction and/or graphic novels.

Noah used to read but he doesn't anymore.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One thing? Seriously? Everything. Everything. Probably you can say the same. If you want to. Because life is amazing.

But you want something-- right?

I once bussed from Costa Rica back to Austin, and it sounds amazing but in truth was a trip riddled with heartache and strife. The most amazing beings about that trip were the joyful panhandler in Nica who'd lost his leg stepping in a mine and the woman on the bus to Lake Atitlán who spoke to my heart with her own.

I once hitchhiked from the Italian Dolomites to Geneva, Switzerland. Which isn't really that far, but hey I survived it so I decided to do it again. Years later, when I hitchhiked from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

What was most amazing about that trip, besides again surviving it, were the people and trees I met along the way (I'm looking at you, Coastal Redwoods!)

But these aren't things I've done so much as decisions I've made that resulted in amazing experiences coming my way. These kinds of stories are a dime a dozen. The people, whose faces I will never forget and who names I might never remember, the flora, fauna and funga, were not.

I was learning how to read braille when I met Noah and I birthed my son at home. These were amazing decisions I made that again resulted in something amazing happening to me.

I am lucky and privileged and thankful. Not every day, not all the time. Right now, as I'm prompted to think about it.

Maybe the most amazing thing I've done, is realizing what an amazing life I've been given and acknowledging the amazing people who I've shared it with and am sharing it with, and hoping that everybody on earth has the same moment when they make that same realization, and looking forward to more.

Here we are, on this giant planet, that's just a tiny dot somewhere far, far away.

Teach, Learn, Share

needed, wanted and welcome- people who like to do all three.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Our perspectives, our home, our cooking, our books, our records, our musical instruments.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Costa Rica, France, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United States

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