CURRENT MISSION

Making sure I don't rush through life

ABOUT ME

I was born and raised in New York City. After four years studying history, literature, philosophy and other fun stuff in North Carolina with a year in Japan, I came back to New York to conquer (hopefully) the biggest challenge of my life as a middle school teacher, and I'll be a PhD student in the fall studying history. Living in New York has given me the opportunity to befriend, get to know, and eat with tons of people from unimaginably diverse backgrounds, and it has definitely shaped who I am today. I love history and I think it's especially important to study and discuss the past from as many perspectives as possible in order to understand the present, which is part of the reason I love meeting the incredibly diverse rage of people on CS!

PHILOSOPHY

Never stop learning or questioning

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Traveled, surfed and hosted around Europe and Asia, and looking to get back into the CS grind here in my hometown!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Previous trips with family and friends have brought me to Europe and Asia, including some experience with backpacking/hosteling. Although I first heard about CS at a (terribly) young age, I re-stumbled upon CouchSurfing four (!!!!) summers ago looking for something a little bit different, and decided to give it a try. I've CouchSurfed all over Eastern and Northern Europe, a bit in Japan, and met up with surfers across the East Coast, which were enthralling and once in a lifetime experiences. I hope to continue the international dialogue and amazing friendships I made over the past few years by hosting and meeting new people who come my way and I hope to CouchSurf my way around the world as well!

Interests

Music, eating food (don't let the reviews claiming I am "not an MTV American" fool you!), cooking food (sometimes), talking to and getting to know new people and valuing new viewpoints, TED.com, ideas, reading basically anything (especially history books, literature, literary criticism), race and gender and identity and education, learning new languages

• books
• literature
• education
• dining
• cooking
• reading
• socializing
• music
• backpacking
• teaching
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Fight Club, A Beautiful Mind, The Graduate
Music: Everything (including playing the cello and piano)
Books: Again, too many to list. Recent favorites include Chang-Rae Lee, Eco, Foer, David Foster Wallace, and any well written work of history :)
Food, my own category: Everything and anything, especially spicy food!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Watching my sister grow up into a strong, young woman; those moments when my struggling middle school students "got it;" falling in love...I suppose I have a (pretty strong) sappy side too, haha.

Teach, Learn, Share

Esoteric knowledge or practical notwithstanding, there's tons of stuff to be learned from just talking to other people about their life experiences. That said, I do know tons of random facts...literature, history, food, society. More than anything, I love meeting people who can stretch and pick apart my brain, and challenge me to see things from different perspectives!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Japan, United States

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