CURRENT MISSION

Peacing it all together, piece by piece.

ABOUT ME

I have a vested interest in community and the process of how communities come together to address opportunities for solutions in health, education and sustainable natural resources practices. I am currently in the throes of planning travel opportunities to Costa Rica. While I have never been to this country, I have marveled at their environmental policy for a long time. My goals are many, I would like to learn Spanish from beginner to fluency, teach English as a Foreign language professionally and absorb myself in nature. I'm not leaving Costa Rica without snuggling a sloth or two, losing something shiny to a monkey, volunteering for a turtle sanctuary and receiving my second diving certification. (Maybe even climb a volcano.)

PHILOSOPHY

The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter. Mark Twain is my muse.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I use social networking sites to help meet and share ideas with people of all interests and backgrounds.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Though I would love to and it is always my aim... I haven't yet had the opportunity to couch surf with anyone, I've mostly connected with people via email to ask questions about the area and culture and meet up under the category of "meet for coffee."

Interests

My sense of fulfillment and happiness has strong roots in Family, Friends, Nature, spider webs, earthworms, sun ripened tomatoes and basil, robust coffee, fine chocolates, poetry, children, ah-hah moments... I love to learn things I do not know... life is a constant invitation to teach me things I do not know.

• culture
• poetry
• education
• coffee
• traveling
• scuba diving
• teaching
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Books, movies, music, artists; respectively: Travel, foreign, world beat: "If music is the food of love, play on! Give me excess of it!" Art: Ting Shao Kuang: specifically “Wind and Sea” Tings lithographs are beautifully elaborate, which juxtaposed my usual taste of subtle, delicate and simple. Movies: Intouchables; Amelie; Kundun; foreign, I like to read; documentaries, I like life stories of diverse humanity; Favorite Book Authors: Barbara Kingsolver; Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D; and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love spoke to me with an intimacy and longing that only life long lovers, who've never met, know. Shantaram by Gregory Davis Roberts

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

To watch someone have an epiphany because of the work you've accomplished together.

Teach, Learn, Share

I most enjoy volunteering my time in international communities. I value the ability to pinpoint one thing that can be done to improve quality of life and I like to see how communities get together and through direct action get these jobs accomplished. I have volunteered on organic farms, in soup kitchens, orphanages, outreaches for people who were terminally ill, tutored ESL and citizenship classes to refugees... Life is the most amazing thing and I wish to share it on this magnificent spectrum of humanity.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Guatemala, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan, United States

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