CURRENT MISSION

Learnin stuff, doin things, keepin it real

ABOUT ME

I am short and have terrible eyesight. When I'm in a car that runs a yellow light, I kiss the roof. I never learned to whistle. I hate popcorn and The Carpenters. See more below.

PHILOSOPHY

Don't assume!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have relied on the kindness of former strangers / current friends in the Couchsurfing community while travelling abroad, and in turn I have met up with people visiting Washington DC, my previous city of residence.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Thanks to this site, I have crashed on couches and cots in Poland and Turkey, and I have introduced people to the strange beauty of Washington, DC.

Interests

Travelling (duh), languages and literature, film (campy, highbrow, and everything in between), vegan cooking, music (discovering it, listening to it, occasionally making it), hypothetical situations, intense and/or ridiculous conversations (especially over caffeine or wine), cafe/museum/bar hopping, countries that don't exist anymore, bad haircuts, tattoos (the concept thereof)

• literature
• beauty
• tattoos
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• coffee
• vegan
• drinking
• traveling
• knitting
• music
• languages
• language exchange

Music, Movies, and Books

In no particular order, and certainly not an exhaustive list:

Movies: anything by Paradjanov, anything by Vertov, "Jules et Jim," "Underground," "M" (well, anything by Fritz Lang), "Showgirls," "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Music: The Smiths/Morrissey, Kate Bush, Serge Gainsbourg, Russian and Polish and Argentine tangos/romances, Balkan brass ensembles, Toots and the Maytals, the Velvet Underground, the Misfits, Kino, bad pop music from the world over

Writers: Bulgakov, Nabokov, Zamiatin, Tsvetaeva, Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Breton, Hafez, Hikmet, Ionesco, Sologub, Baudelaire, Voltaire, Pavic, Tolstoy, Amichai, Dahl, Ponge, Cummings, Blake, Gombrowicz

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I jumped in the Neva River when it was -25C. Amazing.

Teach, Learn, Share

If anybody can teach me how to ride a bicycle (pathetic, yes, I know), knit, or read coffee grounds or tea leaves for divination, I will gladly cook lots and lots and lots of food for him/her. If food or drink isn't desired, there's always language exchange, but then again, why would food or drink NOT be desired?!? Also, if you can teach me how to play backgammon, I'll squeal with delight.

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