I'm an aspiring farmer who speaks French and rereads Little Women at least once a year. I like the type of traveling when you don't know where you're going in a few days, but I also like when you find a place you like and stay for a little while. I love to play the guitar, to work with children, and to write. I love, love, love cheese and would be happy to discuss it with you further.

Three words I hope someone would use to describe me: considerate, open-minded, and warm.

Read my writing! www.suitcase-words.com

Je m'appele Jamie (c'est prononcé comme le passé-composé de 'metre' : «j'ai mis») et j'adore la France. J'ai habité ici en 2008 comme étudiante à Paris, en 2010 comme étudiante à Tournan-en-Brie, et en (phone number hidden) comme assistante de langue à Dijon. Cet été je voyage avec mon copain parce que on va au mariage de deux amis dijonnais. On est chaleureux, accueillante, et ouverte. J'espere qu'on se verra cet été!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because staying with other people is so much more fun than staying in a hotel ! (Do people really ever stay at hotels?) And because I love meeting people who live in the place where I am visiting. After so many positive experiences with AirBNB I thought I'd get brave and do a little couchsurfing. (if you want to see my profile it's here: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/1101681)

Because people have so often extended their kindnesses to me while I've been traveling and I'd like to pay it forward by helping others who are living out their dreams of seeing new places.

Interests

Farming, writing, reading, eating cheese, traveling, life in France, the life and work of Louisa May Alcott and her family, tiny houses, working with kids, crocheting, watching YouTube to learn new skills.

• writing
• books
• cheese
• coffee
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• crochet
• knitting
• guitar
• camping
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Grew up with Jackson Browne and James Taylor and the music I play is often pretty folky, but I have to admit that I love my girl Taylor Swift, in all her genre-changing ways!

Movies: Almost Famous, Smoke Signals, Moonrise Kingdom, Before Sunrise, 2gether, Mean Girls, Amélie

Books: Where to begin? I got my M.A. in literature but I will read pretty much anything. Some books that stand out: Little Women, Lonesome Dove, The Power of One, Suite Francaise, Les Miserables, poems by Mary Oliver

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Once, I won a giant ham at a lottery. It was at a bar. It was awesome (and delicious)

I also lived in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific as a child. It was a formative experience for me--life was so different there than suburban Massachusetts (where I "grew up"), and I think my positive memories of that home are part of what gives me the urge to travel.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a teacher by nature and at heart. I have taught ESL in different capacities over the years, in France and at an international summer camp for children in Windsor, New Hampshire. I have also taught writing at the university level.

But I can teach other things too! I teach how to crochet or knit, play a new song on the guitar, how to French braid. I can teach you how to milk a goat!

One of the reasons I love teaching is because it is accompanied by so much learning. I'd love to learn anything the host is willing to teach.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I am totally open--whatever I have, I am happy to share ! Usually I'd leave a book, but as we are in Burgundy this summer I would say that I'll probably be carting around lots of Dijon mustard, if anyone wants any.

Happy to share my stories, a song, a poem (I know plenty by heart), knowledge, a coffee.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Marshall Islands, United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands