CURRENT MISSION

Figure out what to do with my masters degree (i.e. how to continue eating lots of food and convincingly label it 'research')

ABOUT ME

I have the heart of a child, the appetite of Anthony Bordain, and the gait of a New Yorker. I am awkward, accident-prone, and mosquitoes love me. I'm young and silly, but I'm trying to get a few bruises, accumulate some scar tissue and learn the important lessons the hard way. The world is heartbreakingly big, but I'm still going to explore and attempt to understand it. All I want at the end of my life, whenever that might be, is to have no regrets but instead a lot of good stories filled with good people.

PHILOSOPHIES

(1) Take it in stride. Laugh it off. (2) This too shall pass. (3) Go big or go home. (4) Get snobby, then get sloppy. (5) At the worst, it makes a great story. (6) Why not?

Also, every day is a battle against my existential crisis and misanthropic tendencies, but all I do is win, so it's okay!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I hosted when I could, which was not often because of my roommates' concerns. I always opt to surf when I travel. I try to meet up with CouchSurfers whenever I can, be it through local or less local events. The most I do is spread the gospel of CouchSurfing and try to break down preconceived notions of the world being filled with rapists, murderers and weirdos who watch you while you sleep, breathing heavily next to your bed.

Also, just to put this out there since CouchSurfing has been undergoing a transformation into something that looks more like a start-up than a community: I've been a firm believer of the original (and hopefully everlasting) CouchSurfer spirit of opening hearts and homes to distant but new friends. Since I've joined in 2008, CouchSurfing has easily provided the most memorable experiences of my wide travels, and all of those memories were grounded in moments spent with spectacular and warm people (see my references for examples). I have infinite faith in the goodness in the universe, and CouchSurfing has been one of my reliable ways to access it directly.

Interests

conversation, watching the skies, novelty, surprises, eating good food, trying to make good food, finding weird food and eating it, food porn, DANCING, (urban) biking, eczema cream, gin & tonics, craft beers, peaty single malts, collecting more books, KenKens, crossword puzzles, [how to overcome (the bullshit of)] international development, men in three-piece suits, women's rights, queer theory, the ocean, scuba diving, snowboarding, rock climbing, hiking, mountains, rhetorical strategies, grammar, alone time, wishful thinking, creating and receiving mail, good words and sentence structure, MoMA, the Met, (post)modernism, armchair philosophy, literary and art theory, cinema, disguises, challenges, dissension

• arts
• books
• dancing
• education
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• running
• movies
• chess
• traveling
• puzzles
• juggling
• knitting
• cycling
• hiking
• scuba diving
• snowboarding
• rock climbing
• teaching
• history
• languages
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
Charlie Kaufman, Ron Fricke, Errol Morris, Miyazaki, Tarantino, Aronofsky, Woody Allen, Coen Brothers, Hitchcock, Anderson (P.T. and Wes), Kar-Wai, Malick, Linklater, Altman

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Cidade de Deus, Kontroll, Tampopo, Buffalo 66, Blue Velvet, the Diving Bell and the Butterfly, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Melancholia, Moonlight, La Vie d'Adele, the Square

https://www.icheckmovies.com/profiles/eggdropsoup/

Music:
Punch Brothers, Chris Thile, St. Vincent, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Courtney Barnett, Destroyer, Beach House, Belle and Sebastian, Arcade Fire, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Chet Baker, Leon Bridges, Ratatat, Jon Brion, Rhye, Bonobo, Kishi Bashi, Sufjan Stevens, War on Drugs, Radiohead, Voxtrot, Alvvays, Mac DeMarco, Cat Power, the Roots, Sixto Rodriguez, Feist, Outkast, Mahler, Brahms, Dvorak, Shostakovich
http://www.last.fm/user/eggdropsoup

Books:
Jonathan Safran Foer, David Mitchell, Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, Rainer Maria Rilke, David Foster Wallace, Edward Albee, Michael Chabon, Woody Allen, Roberto Bolaño, Michel Foucault
http://www.goodreads.com/eggdropsoup

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

With no sleep and within 24 hours, I hiked up Cerra Negra in Leon, Nicaragua twice to volcano board the first time and run down the volcano the second. Five hours later, I hiked up Telica under a full moon to peek over the crater to see live lava and catch the sun rising over Nicaragua as the moon set behind the smoking crater. (Maybe that's more than one thing, but it was quite a day.)

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to bake and braid challah, knit, make dumplings, juggle. I can tell you lots of random facts, opinions, theories and arguments, and I can play a mean devil's advocate.

I want to learn everything. EVERYTHING. Sock it to me.

(I'm trying to get better at rock climbing, scuba diving, and chess. I also want to improve my Spanish, Cantonese, and German. If you want to do any of those activities while speaking any of those languages, shoot me a message!)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share a passion for food that translates pretty well in the kitchen (most of the time), and I always hope to cook with/for my hosts during my stay. I have personal tales of misadventure and wonderment that I try to sustain through the traditions of oral history, but I believe stories are meant to be bartered since conversations are exchanges by definition. I'll bring an open mind and an open heart with ears wide open, but I'll also have my opinions, education, and experiences that I would love to be challenged or elaborated. Most of all, I can share a memorable experience that we'll build together through my stay - it's the beating heart of CouchSurfing, after all.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Germany, Italy, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, United States

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