CURRENT MISSION

love, learn, expand the world, be neighborly

ABOUT ME

In March 2007 I traveled to Yunnan, China to start work on a documentary investigating the local economy in Dali and how tourism is radically affecting the people who live there. Yunnan boasts nearly 40% of its population as ethnic minorities and is home to almost half of all ethnic minorities in China. Needless to say, the region is a Mecca of Chinese diversity. In Dali alone there are more than 7 different spoken languages and at least twice as many dialects. I interviewed most extensively with Chien Hueng, a 33 year old garment-maker who collaborates annually with a British couple that use Dali as a manufacturing base. Under Chienâ

PHILOSOPHY

treat others as you'd like to be treated -- with random generosity and ample curiosity

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am an excellent cook and have over five years experience as a member of self-sustaining organic and local foods coop -- both in Oberlin, Ohio and at the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, NY. I would like to share my travel experience with others and believe that contributing to a greater world community will help me to learn how to build and foster community and to share stories collectively here at home.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I stayed with a quadriplegic actor in Los Angeles for 2 weeks wherein I exchanged my serviees as a live-in nurse for room and board -- it was one of the most intense experiences in my life. It challenged my perceptions of what it means to be handicapped and how one can still cultivate a positive attitude toward life despite how afflicted one is externally.

Interests

filmmaking, biking, yoga, music, dance, vegetarianism

• documentaries
• film making
• acting
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• yoga
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• dialects
• languages
• nursing
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

BOOKS: the Stranger - Albert Camus, Heuretics - Greg Ulmer, Chora L Works - Derrida-Eisenman
MOVIES: in the mood for love, the seventh seal, draughtsman's contract, safe, 2 or 3 things i know about her, mr. death, thin blue line, pulp fiction, drowning by numbers

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've seen a person eat fire in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Teach, Learn, Share

Movie editing (with Final Cut Pro) and/or Hatha yoga.

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