CURRENT MISSION

Share smiles with the world. Hear as many life stories as humanly possible. Fall in love, dance, and kiss at least once in every city, even if I have to kiss myself (or a random stranger on the street)!

ABOUT ME

Lived in Canada my entire life thusfar, except for a 4 month stint in Nepal/India.

Favorite Activities: Jazz, Pointe, Ballet, Tap, Modern, Lyrical, Photography, Painting, Swimming, Surfing, Driving, Writing, Reading, Shopping, Traveling, Volunteering, Gardening, Going to the beach, Hiking, Suntanning, Skating, Yoga, Snowboarding, General and frequent contemplation of life.

Favorite Quotes:

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.
-F. Dostoevsky

Without love,
without people,
what is a person?
- Franz Kafka

Everything disappears. Love, trees, rocks, steel, plastic, human beings. None of us get out alive.

You can huddle in a group and face it one day at a time or you can be grateful that when your body rubs against somebody else's it explodes with enough pleasure to make you forget even for a minute that you`re only a walking pile of ashes.

Now that is the truth.

If you're strong, it'll make you free.

from the History of Love by Nicole Krauss:
If at large gatherings or parties, or around people with whom you feel distant, your hands sometimes hang awkwardly at the ends of your arms- if you find yourself at a loss for what to do with them, overcome with sadness that comes when you recognize the foreignness of your own body-it's because your hands remember a time when the division between mind and body, brain and heart, what's inside and what's outside, was so much less. It's not that we've forgotten the language of gestures entirely. The habit of moving our hands while we speak is left over from it. Clapping, pointing, giving the thumbs-up: all artifacts of ancient gestures.

Holding hands, for example, is a way to remember how it feels to say nothing together. And at night, when it's too dark to see, we find it necessary to gesture on each other's bodies to make ourselves understood.

J'adore...
I love tabasco sauce. Accents. Messy hair. Sunday mornings. Snow on eyelashes. Being silly. Pet names. Sunshine. White wine. Ripped jeans. My little black dress.Arizona Green Iced Tea and sweet white wines. Eating OUT, and sleeping IN. Green eyes. European boys who wear scarves. My awful Russian skills. Black stilettos. Waikiki beach. Salsa dancing. French, Spanish, Russian, and Hindi music. Being on the other side of the world. The arrivals gate at airports. The departures gates at airports.

I'm also a tea fanatic. Vodka is my drink of choice. Especially the strange herbal kind I haven't had anywhere but Germany.

I'm a vegetarian.

PHILOSOPHY

I want to affect lives in the best ways possible- through whatever I can offer of intelligence, of love, and of compassion.

live with intention.
walk to the edge.
listen hard.
practice wellness.
play with abandon.
laugh.
choose with no regret.
continue to learn.
appreciate your friends.
do what you love.
live as if this is all there is.
- mary anne radmacher

I believe in karma. What we do to another, what we make another person in life feel, will ultimately reciprocate. Give compassion, charity, kindness, and laughter, and you will be rewarded with a life filled with the same.

The last words...

L'amour comme un vertige, comme un sacrifice, et comme le dernier mot de tout.
Alain-Fournier (Henri Alban Fournier, dit)

Только потому, что кто-то не любит тебя так, как тебе хочется, не значит, что он не любит тебя всей душой.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfed in Europe and currently hosting the crazy people that somehow end up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada!

Will be surfing this summer in Beijing, and possibly St. Petersburg and Berlin.

Interests

Sociology, Philosophy (Nietzsche, Sartre), Psycho-analysis (Freud, old-school Erich Fromm), Poetry (Pablo Neruda, Joseph Brodsky), Photography (Annie Leibowitz), SALVADOR DALI

Cowboys and Country music
Waikiki Beach, everything in Hawaii
Sunday mornings
Laughing
Meeting new people
Travelling
Cuddling
Going to live bands
Falling in love
Kisses
Hot showers
Shifty eye contact
Late night phone calls

Boys writing poetry
Strawberries and cream ice cream from Marble Slab
Cruisin' in the Jazzzzmobile
JBF hair
Sleeping
Eating out
Stella Artois

True Religion
Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
VINTAGE
Running in the rain
Shooting stars
Awkward silence
snow
Lying underneath a sunset
When my hair falls across my back
Ties. And tuxes.
Miss Vickie's Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Chips
Foreign boys
New York City

hugs.

MY WORK (where and what):

Employer: A Hawaiian Holiday
Position:Professional dancer

I Polynesian dance for a tropical entertainment company called A Hawaiian Holiday.

Employer: Volunteer Abroad Canada
Position: Volunteer Program Ambassador/Project Leader

It's not really work, I just get to tell people about the organization I volunteered with and recruit for projects in Nepal, Ghana, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua as well, I act as the bridge between VA head office and specific project volunteers.

www.volunteerabroad.ca

• pets
• dogs
• arts
• writing
• books
• poetry
• singing
• photography
• make up
• concerts
• oktoberfest
• dancing
• salsa dancing
• ballet dancing
• chocolate
• wine
• white wine
• beer
• vegetarian
• yoga
• marathon
• running
• modeling
• walking
• partying
• drinking
• clubbing
• gardening
• shopping
• video games
• reading
• traveling
• eating out
• juggling
• painting
• music
• country music
• jazz
• hiking
• hunting
• surfing
• scuba diving
• bungee jumping
• skydiving
• snowboarding
• hockey
• olympics
• swimming
• super bowl
• history
• medicine
• religion
• sociology
• volunteering
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Favorite Music:
Dashboard, Snow Patrol, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Bryan Adams, The Goo Goo Dolls, Oasis, John Legend, Butch Walker, Ryan Adams, Augustana, Keith Urban, James Blunt, Tony Bennett, Sinatra, Norah Jones, The Smashing Pumpkins, Hootie and the Blowfish, Paolo Nutini... practically anything under the sun!

Favorite TV Shows:
Grey's Anatomy, Sex and the City, Smallville

Favorite Movies:
The Usual Suspects
The Notebook
Armageddon
Love Actually
Donnie Darko
City of Angels
Pride and Prejudice
Paris Je t'aime

Favorite Books: Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky)
The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
Fall On Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonlad)
Disgrace (J.M. Coetzee)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-gotten a tattoo in Nepali script
-jumped off one of the highest bungee jumps in the world, 12 km from the border of Tibet
-seen the Taj Mahal
-stared up at the face of Jesus in Brazil
-painted with patients in a hospital
-lead a rally for breast and cervical cancer through the streets of Kathmandu
-seen the summit of Mt. Everest

THE BUCKET LIST
* = done it!

1. Attend at least one major sporting event: the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the U.S. Open.

2. Scuba dive along the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

3. Swim with a dolphin and/or sharks.

4. Skydive.

5. Have my portrait painted.

6. Learn to speak a foreign language and make sure I use it.

7. Go skinny-dipping at midnight.

8. Take an African Safari.

9. Become a member of the Mile High Club.

10. Hike to Everest Basecamp.

11. See the summit of Mount Everest. *

12. See the Eiffel Tower. *

13. Visit the Taj Mahal.*

14. Tell someone the story of my life, sparing no details.

15. Own a room with a view.

16. Take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing to St. Petersburg.

17. Live in Paris, Berlin, Moscow, or New York City for at least one year.

18. Explore the Galapagos Islands.

19. Ride an elephant.*

20. Go white water rafting.*

21. Learn to ride a motorcycle.

22. Go bungee jumping.*

23. Send a message in a bottle.

24. Ride a camel into the desert.

25. Get a tattoo.*

26. Plant a tree.

27. Visit every continent.

28. Become a doctor of something.

29. Discover religion.

30. Learn to ballroom dance properly.

31. Make a trip to Mecca.

32. Be the boss.

33. Fall deeply in love -- helplessly and unconditionally.

34. Be in two places at once.

35. Teach children.*

36. Write a novel.

37. Sit down and paint in Italy.

38. Dance for an entire night.

39. Drink beer at Oktoberfest in Munich.

40. Be someone's mentor.

41. Shower in a waterfall.

42. Sleep on a beach.*

43. Learn to play a musical instrument with some degree of skill.

44. Teach someone illiterate to read.

45. Own a pair of Manolo Blahniks.

46. Get a dog.*

47. Write down my personal mission statement, follow it, and revise it from time to time.*

48. See a lunar eclipse.*

49. Spend New Year's in an exotic location.*

50. Get passionate about a cause and spend time helping it, instead of just thinking about it.*

51. Experience weightlessness.

52. Sing a great song in front of an audience.

53. Ask someone I've only just met to go on a date.

54. Drive across America from coast to coast.

55. Have children.

56. Own one very expensive but absolutely wonderful string of pearls.

57. Write my will.

58. Sleep under the stars.

59. Take a ride on the highest roller coaster in the world.

60. Drive a Lotus.

61. Go wild in Rio during Carnival.

62. Spend a whole day reading a great novel.*

63. Forgive.*

64. Learn to juggle with three balls.*

65. Drive the Autobahn.

66. Find a job I love.

67. Spend Christmas on the beach drinking pina coladas.*

68. Sell and/or give a painting away.*

69. See the Grand Canyon.

70. Donate money and put my name on something.

71. Buy my own house, spend time making it into exactly what I want.

72. Grow a garden.*

73. Have a baguette in Paris.*

74. See the Mona Lisa.*

75. Publish a research paper.

76. Learn to use a microphone and give a speech in public.*

77. Smoke a cigar.*

78. Go up in a hot-air balloon.

79. Attend one really huge rock concert.

80. Kiss someone I’ve known for less than 48 hours.*

81. Write the MCAT.

82. Give to a charity -- anonymously.

83. Lose more money than I can afford in Vegas.

84. Go to Vatican City.

85. Kiss the Blarney stone and develop the gift of gab.

86. Be a studio art model.

87. Make love on the kitchen floor.

88. Go to a nude beach and participate.

89. Create my own web site.

90. Visit the Holy Land.

91. Sit and look down on the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

92. Go to the top of the Statue of Liberty.

93. Stand at the top of the Empire State Building and remember Sleepless in Seattle.*

94. Walk through the Amazon.

95. Make a hole-in-one.

96. Snowboard a double-black diamond run.

97. See Niagara Falls.

98. Run a marathon.

99. Look into my child's eyes, see myself, and smile.

100. Make a wish in the Trevi Fountain.

101. Eat a meal good enough to by my last.

102. Give someone a chance or experience I missed in my own life.

103. Take a lover and call him that (before I get married).

104. Kiss two boys at once.*

105. Say "I love you" to the person I am with and mean it.

106. Teach my daughter all the things I wish I had known when I was her age but still give her hugs and make her hot chocolate when she makes the same mistakes.

107. Dance with my father at my wedding.

108. Walk on Waikiki Beach at sunset with a boy that I love.

109. Own a dark, rich green Land Rover.

110. Get up at 6am with my husband and take our son to hockey practice even though I hate mornings.

111. Never miss a ballet recital or hockey game.

112. When I get angry at my son for playing too many video games or coming back late from the neighborhood pond, stop, and look at the little bits of my husband in him.

113. Make a toast at each of my friend's weddings.

Places I want to see before I die:
*= seen it!

The Grand Canyon, USA

Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Florida, USA*

South Island, New Zealand

Cape Town, South Africa

Las Vegas, USA

Sydney, Australia

New York, USA*

Taj Mahal, Agra, India*

Canadian Rockies, Canada*

Machu Picchu, Peru

Niagara Falls, Canada / USA
Accra, Africa

Petra, Jordan

The Pyramids, Egypt

Venice, Italy

Bogota, Columbia

Great Wall, China

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Hawaii, USA*

Auckland, New Zealand

Iguassu Falls, Argentina / Brazil

Paris, France*

Alaska, USA

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Himalayas, Nepal / Tibet*

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil*

Masai Mara, Kenya

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Luxor, Egypt

Rome, Italy

San Francisco, USA*

Barcelona, Spain

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Singapore, Singapore

Bangkok, Thailand

Terracotta Army, China

Angel Falls, Venezuela

Bali, Indonesia

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Moscow, Russia

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Beijing, China

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Nepal, Switzerland, United States, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada

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