* Check out our blog from the past year if you're curious! http://burkeandboz.tumblr.com/ *

CURRENT MISSION

Ellie: To experience different cultures and ways of living. And for the food.

Ryan: I am travelling and seeing the world before I plant myself into the working environment. I hope that my experiences while travelling will help me develop an overall better understanding the cultures of the world. My goal is to become a global citizen.

ABOUT ME

Ellie: Born in Sofia, Bulgaria. I've been living in the United States for most of my life. I'm 24, short (unless you compare me to, say, children or ponies), and high spirited but very mellow when I'm by myself. I love meeting new people, seeing beautiful things, and most importantly, learning all I can everywhere I am. I graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in English.

Ryan: I'm a 24-year old Berkeley graduate with a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering. My home is Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco. I currently am teaching English in Thailand, and doing so to both aid the local community and to befriend other Thais. I am fluent in the culture and looking for opportunities outside of Thailand for authenticity.

PHILOSOPHY

Ellie: I want to live a life where when it's time to move on to the other side, I can say, man, I lived as much as I could and I tried to live it well.

Ryan: My philosophy is that everyone in the world has beauty inside. Travel is important because it opens the mind towards thinking outside of the American box. I want to have authentic experiences around to world.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We think the best way to learn a new city is by engaging with the locals. Seeing the attractions gives such a minute understanding of what cities are truly about.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None yet!

Interests

Ellie: Books on everything, writing, politics, running, meditation, any random bit of knowledge, people watching, taking pictures, taking obnoxious pictures, taking pictures when there are signs that say don't take pictures...

Ryan: Music. Books. Videogames. Hiking. Biking. Beach time. To quote Julie Andrews, "These are a few of my favorite things!".

• culture
• writing
• books
• poetry
• beauty
• dancing
• environment
• dining
• running
• meditation
• politics
• traveling
• blogging
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• hiking
• boxing
• engineering
• languages
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Ellie: Stephen King, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margaret Atwood, J.K. Rowling, Sylvia Plath, Upton Sinclair, Jonathan Safran Foer, Virginia Woolf, and then there's poetry.

I love finding and hearing about new music, but my favorites are Andrew Bird, Modest Mouse, Regina Spektor, CocoRosie, Diane Birch, The Head and the Heart, Fleet Foxes, and Amos Lee.

Movies: The Prestige, Inglorious Basterds, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Grand Torino, Titanic, Devil Wears Prada, Nacho Libre, will watch most Judd Apatow films at least once, and any 90s film, cartoon or otherwise.

TV shows: Arrested Development, Friends, Workaholics, Portlandia, Downton Abbey, and will work on Lost once I'm done traveling...

Ryan: I love music. Sometimes "avante-guard" inaccesible music, and often a good indie jammin band. My favorite artists are Sufjan Stevens, Half-handed cloud, Samuel Beam, Myley Cyrus and her dead petz, modest mouse, and of course the fiery furnaces and of Montreal, to name a few.

I like movies!

My favorite books are The Idiot by Dostoevsky and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Both speak towards that univeral truth of love. And I generally enjoy most 19th century Russian authors. Oh, and Ecclesiastes!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Ellie: Climbed Mt. Whitney in California. Definitely want to climb more mountains/cliffs/everything as I go through life! Anything that affords a great view, and I'm there.

Ryan: I used the accelerometers in my phone to link with a program I wrote. The end result is a bad-ass drum that moves with your dance moves.

Teach, Learn, Share

Ellie: I can edit your poetry. I've been known to blurt out a wise saying or two. I can give you love life advice that I would probably not take for myself. I would like to learn to play guitar and new languages.

Ryan: I can teach you some bitchin card games.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Ellie: Homecooked meals, hilarious-but-not-funny-at-the-time travel stories.

Ryan: I can bombard you with subjectively good company!

Countries I’ve Visited

Bulgaria, Cambodia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Laos, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bulgaria, Thailand, United States