CURRENT MISSION

to continue to broaden and root myself; to live, see, do, learn, discover, and endlessly explore; to go through the ups and downs in life with passion and without regrets; to become wiser and to share new and old discoveries

ABOUT ME

i'm very lucky to have grown up in a large, diverse and amazing family. i'm the sixth of 8 children and like my siblings was born in chicago and grew up on road trips as travelling has always been my father's passion.
growing up in a large family was like being a part of a daily circus- continually entertaining one another and being endlessly entertained. for as far back as i can remember it felt like we were also a part of a travelling circus act- jumping, flying, smacking, climbing, whipping, teasing, squabbling, kicking, screaming, crying, insulting, joking, tricking, and getting along and loving each other the only way we knew how while tip-toeing over the tight rope rules that our parents enforced. perhaps we were a little confused along the way as well as we whole-heartedy believed that our parents were aliens from another realm.
some siblings still do.
the influences of these travel experiences and growing up in a lively environment where a dull moment never had the slightest chance to become became much more prominent to me later in life as i realized that my travelling desires to see and figure out the world were slightly fanatical. little did i know that as a child i was a little road warrior in the making and that i had i inherited this fervent travel spirit that possessed my father.
aside from chicago and orlando, i've lived in virginia, nyc for 5 lovely years and got a little bit of la sun in before renting a storage unit and seeing the world more extensively. currently the road is my home which is a lovely place to be.

PHILOSOPHY

"it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection" -the bhagavad gita

"our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" -martin luther king,jr.

"and those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music" -friedrich nietzsche

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

hosting has always come naturally in our family as we've always taken in and adopted extended family, friends and others in our homes, to family functions and on our trips. it's been a natural process and a part of my life to enjoy the benefits of hosting and travelling with others. the one major difference now is that i've finally taken the step to join couch surfing and have instantly broadened my base.
for now i see couch surfing as a way to help build a community and experiences beyond conventional travelling while being involved in cultural and experiential exchanges in a thriving community.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

hosting and surfing have been a natural part of my life- i've hosted and been hosted by many friends, strangers, families, and acquaintances of acquaintances and have had almost nothing but positive experiences so when i first heard about couch surfing it made complete sense to me.
that was about 6-7 years ago while i was living in manhattan. i thought it was a brilliant idea but unfortunately only checked the site once, perhaps while it was in it's infancy stages, and didn't see a large or diverse enough pool to be lured by it. partially disappointed, partially internet lazy, and partially a skeptic of virtual forums and networks i decided to continue to host in my tiny west village apartment the good old way- via friends, family and extensions of them.
it wasn't until over 7 weeks ago that i experienced the beginning stages of my first organized couch surfing adventure. by chance i met a pair of german couch surfers named art and eugen on my birthday at the thai embassy in vientiane. while waiting to have our thai tourist visas processed we exchanged amusing travel stories, continued our day and evening together, celebrated my birthday and had a couple of enthralling adventures in the evening. that day and now many others in between have kept us exploring together as we'ved traversed laos and northern thailand like a thick of thieves.
it's been just shy of two months traveling with art and eugen now and at the one month mark is when i experienced couch surfing at a full blown level. enter thailand and straight to chiang mai to freddie's place for songkran. freddie was their host from indonesia who showed them a great time in bandung that i kept hearing about along our travels. needless to say my first real couch surfing via couchsurfing.org experience was more than great. and to top it off during songkran it was nothing short of crazy crazy fun.
freddie was the perfect host of not just the 3 of us but at one point during my stay 5 of us in his cozy little apartment (no couch but a lot of surfing :) aside from him welcoming us into his home he was very generous in every aspect of the word and i feel lucky to have had such a wonderful first experience. yet it doesn't stop with us. he's very involved in the organization and is continually planning cs events and truly loves doing it. he pretty much epitomizes what couch surfing is all about so it's fitting that he just recently became the moderator of chiang mai couch surfing. congratulations freddie!!! all those who come through chiang mai are sure to have a memorable time as well.
thanks freddie for the amazing time and all the warm memories, thank you art and eugen for properly re-introducing me to couch surfing, and thank you to all the wonderful couch surfers that passed through chiang mai while i was there to tell me that i was not official until i set up my profile.

Interests

living, traveling, learning, eating, riding anything with 2 wheels, hammocking, bio-construction, permaculture, finding things with old souls and giving new purpose and life to them

• arts
• books
• poetry
• dancing
• waltz
• environment
• dining
• flying
• traveling
• billiards
• painting
• music
• surfing
• scuba diving
• rock climbing
• tennis
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

films: anything that renders a slice of life, anything that shows point of view, perspective and character development; anything that's educational or evocative, something that makes you think or feel deeply

music: folk, indie, jazz, anything good, anything groovy- depending on the mood. some music classics for me include nina simone, bjork, cat power, michael jackson, ani difranco, portishead, radiohead, beck, any of the jazz greats, anything raw in a refined way...

books: i've been deprived for a while so i just stocked up and picked up "down and out in paris and london" by george orwell, "middlesex" by jeffrey eugenides, "cry freedom" which is a biography of steve biko, a black 1960's-70's politician from south africa, by john briley, "joy luck club" by amy tan. "damien" by herman hesse is one of my more recent favorites.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

just did it. taking a slow motorbike trip with my couch surfing buddies through beautiful northern thailand. aside from a bicycle, motorbikes are my favorite mode of transportation. natural, fresh air, surrounded by layers of varied and assorted gorgeousness, big local smiles, amazing sights, amazing food... the simple things in life just seem to be the most amazing things in life.

traveling to korea in '99, which was my fist big trip abroad and to the east, was the most eye opening experience in my life. all my life i thought and felt that my parents were crazy but once i landed in korea it dawned on me that it wasn't just my mom and dad that were crazy but that the whole country that they're from is crazy. ever since i've been a lot more interested in learning about my roots and about myself through books, traveling, observation and self reflection.
when amy tan first visited her motherland of china for the first time she eloquently wrote, "as soon as my feet touched china, i became chinese." that's exactly how i felt when i landed in korea for the first time.

Teach, Learn, Share

i can teach 24-step yang style tai chi, tennis, and scuba diving. perhaps a couple of other little things as well.

i want to learn to tap dance, move like michael jackson and waltz; i want to learn to paint, to better express myself through art and make beautiful poems and pictures.

i want to share experiences, my meals and what i do and do not know

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Laos, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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