I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Geography with an emphasis on Environment and Natural Resource Management. I sailed with my school's sailing team, and I love backpacking, bike touring, kayaking, and skiing. After college, I taught English in China for 8 months, fulfilling a long-time goal of living abroad.

I can somewhat introverted, but you wouldn't know it once I'm talking about a subject I care about, and I love meeting new people. I enjoy my downtime, usually by reading and more rarely computer gaming; it's how I recharge to get out to meet new people or explore new places. I can be insatiably curious; once I get interested in something, I can completely tune the world out to focus on it until either I'm satisfied that I understand it well enough, or I burn out.

Right now I'm trying to find the right rhythm that alternates between adventure and stability. At this point in my life, I want to be making the most of my youth and lack of obligations by exploring the world, but I also want to be developing a home base and invest more into my community and relationships. I haven't quite hit upon it yet.

I'm on the road until April, heading eastbound on the Southern Tier coast-to-coast bicycle route.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because I want traveling to be more than a series of transactions: pay to stay here, pay to see this, buy this souvenir, take this photo. I want the world to be more personal than that. I haven't had the opportunity to host yet, but I would like to, as soon as I have a place of my own and roommates of the same mind.

Couchsurfing also has the benefit of forcing me to get better about talking to strangers, something I could stand to get better at.

Interests

I really love bikes. Not in the same way that competitive road racers or mountain riders love bikes; I prefer to use them for everyday living and for traveling.

I generally love adventure in most forms, and I'm curious about EVERYTHING. I aspire to some sort of balance between my physical and mental pursuits, but mostly I read about or try whatever happens to interest me until I'm satisfied. Sometimes that means not leaving the house for days while I finish a book, video game, or coding project, and sometimes it means being in the woods or at sea for a week or month at a time hiking, biking, or sailing.

I'm currently trying to teach myself the guitar. I was a band geek for 8 years and played the flute. I also have a banjo and only a rudimentary grasp of how to play it.

• books
• photography
• environment
• technology
• reading
• traveling
• investing
• coding
• guitar
• cycling
• hiking
• backpacking
• kayaking
• sailing
• skiing
• geography
• rivers
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

My favorite books include the Sherlock Holmes stories, Siddartha by Herman Hesse, His Dark Materials trilogy by P. Pullman, the Harry Potter series, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy."

My favorite movie is Into the Wild. I have some friends that love it and some that hate it, but I feel that it does a great job at neutrally portraying an interesting person, his choices, and their consequences, all with spectacular cinematography and soundtrack. The original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies also occupy a special place in my heart.

My music tastes are mostly folk, alt-country, bluegrass, alternative rock, jam bands, and classical. I'm less than a fan of a lot of mainstream hip-hop, pop, and country, but there isn't any genre that doesn't have *something* I enjoy. Lest it be said I avoid things because they're popular, I thoroughly enjoy U2, Coldplay, and Dave Matthews. Other favorite artists are Brandi Carlile, the Civil Wars, and Dan Mangan. Beyond that, a lot of my listening is divided among too many artists to count.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Kayaking on a completely still sea during sunrise.

Watching the stars from atop a butte in the North Cascades, then waking up to sunrise the next morning and watching the sun creep across the mountains in all directions.

Looking at the sunrise over my shoulder from the Emmons Glacier on Mt. Rainier.

(There seems to be a strange pattern here for a non-morning-person)

Taking the train from Everett, WA to Rochester, NY, and then back. It gives you such a great sense of the scale of the US, and in between I saw glorious sunsets, beautiful rivers and endless plains.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach:
* Photography: I was once a photography major before I decided it wasn't for me
* Website development: I worked for a few years as a web developer
* Almost anything related to technology: I'm a lifetime nerd
* Sailing: I raced for two years in college
* Bicycle repair/maintenance: I've been fixing my bikes for a long time and just built one from scratch

I'm currently learning the guitar—very slowly.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Philippines, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, United States