Scientist on a spiritual journey!

I’ve spend 5 wonderful years studying oceanography and working as an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii on Oahu, and now it is time for the next adventure.
I was always passionate about nature, especially the ocean and understanding climate change. However, somewhere along the way it became about too competitive for me in academia and I lost my spirit and the joy I had found in my work.

This summer I spend 6 weeks at a Zen buddhist monastery and this was such a wonderful experience. Meditation as reconnected me with what is important and I want to further explore and enjoy this. I plan on spending two weeks at the Great Vow Zen monastery in Portland, Oregon, followed by a 6 week silent meditation retreat at the Insight meditation society in Barre, Massachusetts.

I have a week of free time between these two meditation retreats and I would love to stay with some peaceful and conscious people that share my love for reflection of life and passion for nature and the environment.

Happy to share with you my knowledge of meditation, climate change, and travel. Although I am not a great cook, I’d love to make you a healthy Buddha bowl! I will be in a quite and reflective mode so you don’t have to entertain me too much. I enjoy a glass of wine and a good conversation, and will mainly be reading a book or hiking in nature.

Interests

• yoga
• traveling
• minimalism
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• scuba diving
• sailing
• marine science
• science
• spirituality
• buddhism
• vipassana
• sustainable living
• zen buddhism

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The Ocean Cleanup Project organized a Mega Expedition in 2015 to study microplastics in the so called "great pacific garbage patch"
30 sailboats crossed the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to Los Angelos and I was a volunteer scientist on one of the sailboats and we used big Manta Trawl nets to collect samples to better understand the plastic pollution problem in the ocean.

Teach, Learn, Share

Marine Science, Dutch language, firedancing, freediving, basics of meditation

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Botswana, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, Thailand, United States