CURRENT MISSION

To become an upstanding citizen of somewhere or other.

ABOUT ME

Grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, and have since lived in Montreal, Toronto and various places in Korea.

I like poetry, languages, movies, small acts of kindness and dumb jokes. I try every day to be as full of wonder at the world as a child.

PHILOSOPHY

Give everyone a fair shake, have as much fun as possible without forgetting the immensity of human suffering in the world, try not to be a coward, failing that try to have a sense of humour about your cowardice, and finally: if equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Surfing, hosting, befriending, proselytizing.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Montreal (Sept 07 - April 08)
1. Surfed with Ofélie
2. Surfed with Alain
3. Sublet room from Sean Olivier Parent
4. Lived one month with Patty Perez, then a month and a half with Baptou
5. Hosted Judikaëlle Saskia Albane Malourène for Christmas 07 and New Year's
6. Hosted Deven
7. Hosted Mariette
8. Hosted Shannon and Fabienne

Ottawa (March 08)
9. Surfed with Aaron

Toronto (May 08 - Aug 08)
10. Hosted Marc-André
11. Hosted Gladys
12. Hosted Alain
13. Hosted Denisse, Felix and his friend
14. Surfed with Danni
15. Surfed with Trish

Korea (Sept 08 -)
16. Surfed with Fany (Ilsan)
17. Surfed with Eunkyung (Ilsan)
18. Surfed with Jung In (Yeosu)
19. Surfed with and hosted Ed (Haman, Daegu)
20. Hosted Maciej (Bucheon)

Interests

Reading, writing, ice hockey, swimming, nostalgia, watching people on a busy street, having nothing better to do, blowing money in second hand bookstores, learning new languages.

• writing
• poetry
• movies
• reading
• surfing
• hockey
• swimming
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Poetry, novels, short stories, experimental fiction, history ... Some favourite books: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, anything by Samuel Beckett, Anthony Burgess, Muriel Spark, W.H. Auden, John Ashbery ... many others.

Favourite music changes from week to week but I mostly like jazz--Ella, Nina, Louis, Miles, Monk, Mingus et al--and indigenous folk music from various countries.

Old French movies like L'Atalante. Nouvelle Vague classics like Pierrot le Fou. Weird Canadian movies like Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain! The Japanese movie The Taste of Tea. Persian cinema, especially the movies Close-Up (Kiarostami) and The House Is Black (Farrokhzad). Any of Stanley Kubrick's movies. Among Korean movies, the documentary 워낭소리 and anything by Bong Joon Ho. I like learning about other cultures and people from the movies.

Teach, Learn, Share

You can teach me to speak more of your native language if it's anything other than English. My only sincere ambition in life is to be a polyglot.

Countries I’ve Visited

Japan, Taiwan, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, South Korea

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