Hi!

I've been travelling since Jan 2022, and I'll keep travelling until maybe 2026. I'm not working; just travelling. I love meeting locals and learning new things :)
I'll almost always try something new that I haven't experienced yet. I love making new friends and connections.
I'm a quiet person. I'm out of place at parties and clubs. I like to listen and ask questions. I really love learning new things, and I want to understand how everyone else thinks.

So please let's meet! I'd love to hear about your life and your city! Let's go walk around somewhere nice, see something historical, chill in a park or by some water, cook something together, get some coffee or a grab a beer, go hiking somewhere, take a little road trip, play a board game or card game, listen to music, talk about movies, or just talk somewhere. Let's get to know each other and make some new friends :)

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I really like spicy food and I don't eat much meat. But I'll always try something new at least once.
I love hiking and scuba diving, and nature in general.
My biggest hobby outside of traveling is gardening. I like cacti and caudex plants. The fatter the better.
I don't have much interest in watching sports, shopping, or fashion. Unless it's a sport I've never seen before.

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If you're curious, my mom is from Beijing and my dad is from New Orleans. I grew up in a pretty Asian suburb of Dallas TX, with lots of time spent in China, New Orleans, and Mexico. Until high school, we would travel every year to China to visit family, spend most holidays and summers in New Orleans, and take road trips through Mexico every year. After college I lived in San Francisco for 5 years, with most weekends spent hiking, going to the coast, having bonfires, and other things in nature. I started travelling alone for long periods during the pandemic. By now I've spent over 2 years in both Latin America and Asia. The longest stays have been 6 months in Tokyo and Colombia, 3 months in Bangkok, Brazil, China, Istanbul, and Mexico City, and 2 months in South Korea and Taiwan.

If you're curious, my spotify is https://open.spotify.com/user/pjhell42 and my instagram is @stuntedshrimp

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I want to meet other people! I want to meet people who have had very different lives from me.

I don't have goals to travel to x number of countries or anything like that. I'm just trying to learn and understand how the world works.

When travelling, I always need new friends. I get lonely easily, and I need people to talk to, to eat with, to drink with, to share with. I really look for deep connections with people.
When hosting, I just really like sharing. I like sharing the places that I know and like, and like helping others have nice experiences like I've had.

Interests

• cooking
• coffee
• walking
• gardening
• movies
• music
• hiking
• scuba diving
• snorkeling
• parks
• mountains
• food
• tea
• forests
• trekking
• plants
• diving
• hip hop
• long walks
• spicy food
• drinks
• gardens
• r&b
• bonfires
• cactus
• senderismo
• montañas
• bosques
• matcha
• spice
• gardening,
• hacer senderismo

Music, Movies, and Books

Used to be mostly hip-hop and r&b but now it's more eclectic and acoustic. I try to pick up local music from wherever I am and make a new playlist for every place I go. All my spotify playlists are public https://open.spotify.com/user/pjhell42 ! Some favorite artists are Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, H.E.R, Jhene Aiko, Kendrick Lamar, Ennio Morricone, J Cole, Karol G, Lauryn Hill, Post Malone, Joy Oladokun, and Young Miko.

I like intense movies that are very emotional, very beautiful, or with interesting plots. I keep track of all the movies I've liked and all the movies that people tell me to see, so send me your recs! Some of my favorites are:
Cowboy Bebop
Dorehedoro
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
Into the Spiderverse
It's such a beautiful day
Odd Taxi
Oldboy
Pan's Labrynth
Paprika
Shoplifters
and most films by Tarantino and Miyazaki

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Scuba dived with sea lion pups in La Paz
Saw humpback whales jumping in Hawaii and La Paz
Swam with whale sharks in La Paz and Koh Tao
Walked among the trees of Sequoia National Park
Hiked the Narrows and Angel's Landing of Zion National Park
Saw the milky way camped half-way up Mt Rainier
Saw the sun set over a sea of clouds in Huang Shan, and again in the Paramo in Colombia, and in the coastal mountains of San Francisco
Island hopped along the estuaries, bayous, and barrier islands of the gulf coast for a few weeks in an old sailboat
Climbed Mt Fuji from the very base to the top for sunrise
Spent Dia de los Muertos in Oaxaca
Road tripped across Xinjiang
Saw sunset over the clouds in central Taiwan

What I Can Share with Hosts

If you host me, I'd like to buy you dinner or some drinks or cook for you (if you want to eat my food). I think my food is pretty good, but I don't cook meat. I can cook delicious brocollini and kale, some good pastas, some mexican dishes, a southern US dish, and some chinese american dishes (if I can find the ingredients). And of course I can help with chores around the house.

I like giving recommendations about places I've been. Usually I give much more recommendations than people expect when they ask me. Especially with nature and nice places in the US. I'll pull up Google maps and point to all the neighborhoods and describe every single one with restaurants and cafes and bars in all of them.

I can teach how to play Fly Me to the Moon on piano, with all the chords, and why the chords work that way. And other jazz chord progressions that are related.

But mostly, I can offer a new friend! We can have some great conversations and have a great time together :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, British

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, China, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, United States