I love to travel solo (or with friends/a partner if there is one) and see new places. I'm talkative and friendly and enjoy meeting new people, challenging myself, learning, growing, experiencing all that life has to offer. I sketch and write while I travel and collect stories for my future novels. You might make it into one. :P

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love connecting with people, hearing their stories, bridging the gap between culture, upbringing, distance, etc. and feel like I've known a person since birth when I've just met them.

Interests

• writing
• sketching
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• hiking
• sailing
• creative writing
• writing poetry
• writing letters
• acrylic painting

Music, Movies, and Books

I have too many favorites to name, and they change frequently and don't fit any particular theme, so I'll just throw some random names out there to show you how many and how various they are (which will explain why I can't decide):

Music:
Nick Cave
Damien Rice
Angus and Julia Stone
The Doors
Kaleo
Bear's Den
Moddi
Mika
Aesthesys
Sysyphe
Michelle Gurevich
The Andrews Sisters
Lou Reed
The Dirty Heads
Ella Fitzgerald
Viktor Tsoi
Leonard Cohen
The Glass Animals
Nick Drake
DDT
Tame Impala
Marie Fisker
Thomas Feiner
Queen
Cab Calloway
Louis Jordan
Louis Prima
The Trebleshooters...my boyfriend's band, so I had to :P

Books:
Atonement by Ian McEwan
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Forerunner by Kahlil Gibran
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
Silas Marner by George Eliot
How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Laughing Down Lonely Canyons by James Kavanaugh
Faces in the City by James Kavanaugh
Loveroot by Erica Jong
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
My Enemy's Cradle by Sara Young
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Short Stories by D.H. Lawrence
Short Stories by Oscar Wilde
My Boyfriend Wrote a Book about Me by Hilary Winston

Movies/Shows:
Atonement
Maudie
My Man Godfrey
An Affair to Remember
North by Northwest
Roman Holiday
How to Steal a Million
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
A Beautiful Mind
The Theory of Everything
Bohemian Rhapsody
Life is Beautiful
I Am David
The Little Death
Lean on Pete
The Count of Monte Cristo
Brigsby Bear
RBG
On the Basis of Sex
Friends
Altered Carbon
11.22.63
Black Mirror
Law and Order: SVU

You see why I can't pick favorites? :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've backpacked more than half of the Pacific Crest Trail which is ~2,660 miles long and goes from Mexico to Canada! It took me 4.5 months.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love hosting impromptu art lessons, poetry writing sessions, hikes ranging in difficulty levels, and late-night conversations over tea or wine. I can share what my life was like in Russia, and why I immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1998. I can talk to you about what backpacking in the wilderness for 4.5 months is like--all kinds of travel stories that I've accumulated. I'm also a good conversationalist/listener and would love to hear your stories too.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, England, France, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Luxembourg, Northern Ireland, Russian Federation, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Ireland, Russian Federation, United States