I grew up North of Boston MA and have had a generally very happy childhood. I played American Football and Track (pole vaulting) and acted in many theater productions. I also sang in choir and acapella and was a National Honors Society student. I excelled in High School and was fortunate enough to be admitted to Wesleyan University where I study philosophy.

I am a curious and sociable undergraduate student currently studying at Oxford University for the year.I am adventurous and always seeking novel situations and new people from different cultures. I am addicted to taking in information, whether through conversation, Art, books, films, theater, people watching, and music. I am optimistic and rarely get bored and tend to find most people I talk to interesting.

I am also aware enough to realize when people need their space or some quiet time. I am perfectly content to spend periods of time with others just reading or working alongside one another. I, and others, would consider myself rather humble and cognizant of the moods and emotions of others.

Perché sono iscritto su Couchsurfing

I am Couchsurfing because I feel that it is the best way to have an authentic cultural experience. My favorite experiences traveling have involved extensive conversations with locals and Couchsurfing is the perfect way to achieve this immersion.

I also am on a tight budget and Couchsurfing may help with this.

Interessi

• arts
• singing
• theater
• meditation
• drinking
• movies
• reading
• socializing
• music
• hiking
• sports
• teaching
• history
• philosophy
• religion
• adventure travel
• food
• tea
• reading books
• museums
• smoking

Musica, film e libri

Music: I enjoy a very wide variety of music, from classical to rock to jazz to rap to alternative to techno. My favorite bands/artists include The Beatles, The Smiths, LED Zeppelin, Neutral Milk Hotel, Frank Ocean, Frank Sinatra, Notorious BIG, Patsy Cline, Peggy Lee, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, and many many more.

Movies: I also have a wide variety of movies I enjoy. My favorite movies include: The Godfather (I and II), Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Good Will Hunting, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Shining, Clockwork Orange, Blue Velvet, The Master, Moonlight, Get Out, Us, Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters, March Point
I also really enjoy several foreign films: Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries, Castro, Old Boy, Chungking Express, Cleo 5 to 7, Withnail and I.

I am an avid reader of a wide variety of books. My favorite books are East of Eden, War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Portrait of a Lady, The Picture of Dorian Grey, My Name is Asher Lev, The Sun Also Rises, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, The Stranger, The Trial, Metamorphosis, Catcher in the Rye, The Shining, Clockwork Orange, Lolita.

I also enjoy reading plays. My favorites are: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Three Sisters, No Exit, The Importance of Being Ernest, and August: Osage County.

My favorite philosophers are Nietzsche, Jung, Kant, Plato, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, Rawls, Chomsky, and Emerson.

Una cosa incredibile che ho fatto

Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment I have had is in the realm of theater. The Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG) has an annual competition in which over one hundred schools from the state prepare short-plays for one another. There are three different rounds and in the end three winning shows are selected. The best performers get individual rewards. My senior year, I was the lead in my high school’s production and I won individual acting awards on both the preliminary and state levels. Our show was selected as one of the three winning plays in the state and we were one of two shows from MA to move on to the New England’s round.

Insegna, impara, condividi

Some of my favorite quotes:

‘Take things more easily. Don’t ask yourself so much whether this or that is good for you. Don’t question your conscience so much—it will get out of tune like a strummed piano. Keep it for great occasions. Don’t try so much to form your character—it’s like trying to pull open a tight, tender young rose. Life as you like best, and your character will take care of itself. Most things are very good for you; the exceptions are very rare, and a comfortable income’s not one of them.’ - Henry James

‘A Cigarette is the perfect type of perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?’ - Oscar Wilde

‘You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education.’ - Dostoevsky

‘I opened myself up to the gentle indifference to the world. Finding it so much like myself.’ - Camus

‘But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou Mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou Mayest’—it is also true that ‘Though Mayest not.’ - Steinbeck

‘You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another’ -Hemingway

‘Do you know where you’re drifting?’ Henrietta pursued, holding out her bonnet delicately.
‘No, I haven’t the least idea, and I find it very pleasant not to know. A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can’t see—that’s my idea of happiness’ - Henry James

‘The Master said, "At fifteen, I set my mind upon learning; at thirty, I took my place in society; at forty, I became free of doubts; at fifty, I understood Heaven's Mandate; at sixty, my ear was attuned; and at seventy, I could follow my heart's desires without overstepping the bounds of propriety.’ - Confucius

Cosa posso offrire ai padroni di casa

I can try my best to answer any question you can think of so we can achieve a meaningful cultural exchange. As you can tell from my profile, I have a wide variety of interests and love talking about them with other people.

Paesi che ho visitato

Bahamas, Canada, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Germany, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Portugal, Scotland, United Kingdom, United States

Paesi in cui ho vissuto

United Kingdom, United States