I feel nomadic at heart. I love being on the move - my thoughts are clearer, my perspective broadens, I feel peaceful and content when I am moving. Hitch-hiking, catching a flight, even taking the bus or getting lost in new streets at home gives me this same feeling of freedom.

I like a challenge. In the same way, I see the beauty in things going wrong, when things don't go smoothly, and when, at the end of it all, I can look back and know that I have learnt something!

I spend my time writing and reading, doing yoga, avoiding meat products/showers/to-do lists, having fun/existential crises with friends.

I've been living in NZ for the past two years. Living the rural kiwi dream ye, nah, bro, all good eh. And in the big Auckland city smoke. Most of last year was spent at my dad's permaculture set-up - digging, planting, flood-maintenance, you name it - I smelt like it. Worked for an NGO for just under a year and spent time in the poetry/writers/pauper circles of Auckland.

Just got back from 2 months in the UK where I saw old friends, family, and spent a couple of weeks working in refugee camps in France. I don't have many solid plans or clear ideas about where my life is headed. But one thing I know for certain is that working in refugee/migrant communities will be a focal point for me for many years to come.

[WARNING: THIS INDIVIDUAL HAS BEEN KNOWN TO MISS FLIGHTS, BUSES AND TRAINS DUE TO POOR ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS, IS A KNOWN SHOWER-SINGER, DAYDREAMER AND PEANUT BUTTER ADDICT]

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

as a social experiment - to investigate what happens when people come into contact with other human beings..... because meeting locals in a new place is infinitely better than staying in a hostel! And because people are infinitely interesting - everyone has a story, everyone has something you can learn from

I fully believe that communal living is the way! I've been a host on workaway for the past year in NZ, helping manage volunteers and cohabitate with people from all around the world and all walks of life. So I know what it means to host people, and am always deeply grateful when I am able to be a guest with someone new!

Interests

Having studied a BSc in Psychology, I am always interested in how construct our individual and collective identities and how this is manifested through culture - technology, literature, visual arts, architecture. I'm fascinated by the interaction between human psychology and the physical world - how physical aspects of the world we live in shape our identities and influence our emotional and cognitive processes, how we in turn impact on the physical world, and how those changes are in turn perceived by ourselves and society.

I would like to combine my love of travel with interests in human culture and am thinking about starting a Masters in 2017 in cross-cultural anthropology.

Creative writing is an important part of my life - both writing and reading. I write every day - mainly poetry, also essays and short stories. It's my goal to have a collection of poetry ready to be published by the end of the year. Books are my obsession, my ultimate means for escapism and always affecting and inspiring.

• culture
• singing
• dancing
• yoga
• reading
• traveling
• music
• philosophy
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

banjo-pickin' bass-slappin' badassery... anything Americana, blues, rock, country (sometimes even western), folk, punk, reggae, ska..pretty much anything. Right now I'm listening to M.Ward, Shakey Graves, Sigur Ros (revival). Taylor Swift would not be welcome in my house.

massive films about nothing, tiny books about everything.. Mad Max BOOM BOOM FIRE TRUCKS CHARLIZE THERON'S BIONIC ARM. Waking Life. Enter the Void.

Books... books books books books. Salinger's Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters, Seymour: an introduction. Marquez' Of Love and Other Demons, The General in His Labyrinth. Jonathan Livingston Seagull (it's about a seagull, and it's about so much more than a seagull..). Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie. Murakami's 1Q84 trilogy. Cormac McCarthy's The Border Trilogy. David Foster Wallace - The Pale King, Both Flesh and Not (essays). Adam Gopnik - Winter. Bram Stoker's Dracula. Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Joke. Herman Hesse - Steppenwolf, Siddhartha.

Poetry along the lines of... Tony Hoagland, David Merritt, Phillip Larkin.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One time I danced in a field in bare feet with my friends.. it was pretty sweet!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you the etymology of the word 'fiddle' (as in the instrument).

I wanna learn one of your favourite personal anecdotes, how you perceive your current government, and what you think the optimum time for soft-boiling an egg is.

I would like to share your world for a little while.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Poetry, snacks. Really - words and food I generally have in abundance.

I can share space, laughs, drinks, travel tips for anywhere I've been.

I'm no expert (at anything), but over my brief time on earth I have picked up a few cooking skills, hula-hoop skills, Led Zeppelin lyrics and permaculture concepts. Anything I know, anything I have is always to be shared.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, New Zealand, Northern Ireland

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