CURRENT MISSION

The most current objective is to travel clockwise around the continental United States (Minneapolis is midnight). This will involve city stays in New York, New Orleans, Austin, L.A., San Francisco, and Portland. That's where couches are, we hear.

ABOUT ME

This profile exists for Jodi and Joe as a couple. The website doesn't give us a way to write that in all spaces, so let's write it here. We'll speak as a couple where appropriate and diverge into individuals when appropriate. We have been together for two years, and have lived together for one. We currently live in South Minneapolis. We have travelled throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We camp, and have never couch-surfed, but have hosted several couchsurfers through friends.

Jodi and Joe have graduated with bachelors degrees, Joe in Literature and Jodi in Horticulture. We are currently on the borderlands between committing our lives' work to a suitable career (or beginning that process), or shucking that process and generating our own livelihoods, homesteading, divorced as much as possible from the global economy. This trip represents an exploration of forms of the latter, which we might learn from and piece into our own. Dividing time between the urban and the rural (small-scale farms and the communities surrounding them), we will be entering the lives of others with open eyes and minds, eager to share and learn.

PHILOSOPHY

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Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We participate in conversations.

Jodi plays guitar and has a beautiful voice. (By the way, Joe is writing this on behalf of both of us. Jodi is more modest than to say she has a beautiful voice. But she does). Joe plays bass, and his right hand can play guitar, but not his left. Both of us write and take photographs; Joe writes about taking photographs. Upon settling down after this trip, it is Joe's ambition to establish a community darkroom, and to produce a body of work from out of this darkroom.

Jodi has been honing her cooking skills with an Indian cookbook and packet of spices.

One of the most important things in our lives is taking care of our friends. We are blessed in Minneapolis with a wonderful group of creative people, and do our best to join them in their efforts and encourage them and work toward the best possible version of each project they are working on.

If we stay with you, we would love to talk about what you have going on in your life, go to shows with you, cook meals with and for you, and start a friendship that will extend beyond our stay.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Jodi and Joe lived in a communal house, filled with people, and some of the housemates were a part of couchsurfing at the time. In this way, we met several people passing through, from North Dakota, New York, and London. One of them, Ben from N.D., ended up sticking around Minneapolis, and is a good friend now.

Interests

I feel like we've already done this.

• dogs
• writing
• literature
• cooking
• yoga
• traveling
• homesteading
• woodworking
• guitar
• cycling
• camping

Music, Movies, and Books

Joe's favorites:

Movies-- On the Silver Globe, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Wings of Desire, anything by Werner Herzog (especially from the 70's), All the President's Men, My Own Private Idaho, and My Winnipeg.

Favorite Authors-- W.G. Sebald, Don DeLillo, Virginia Woolf, Roberto Bolano, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ursula K. Leguin.

Favorite Musics-- Fugazi, Captain Beefheart, Duster, Bob Dylan

Jodi-- TBA

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Jodi and I found ourselves on a frozen lake in the middle of a snowstorm, while at her family's cabin in Northern Wisconsin. It was snowing so heavily, big flakes in our face. Out of nowhere came two awesome dogs, who we ran around in circles with, tracing wide circles in the snow on the lake. One of the dogs would wind up from thirty feet away, and come racing into the other. We found ourselves sticking up for the attacked dog, diverting the speeding one away from it at the last moment. It was funny and sad. I can barely remember an experience of a blizzard as well as this one, and I'm happy Jodi and the pups were there for it.

Teach, Learn, Share

This is an interesting idea. Jodi can share Yoga skills, and lead a small class. Joe knows his way around a darkroom, and might be able to help with yours.

We would love to learn homesteading skills, as wide a field as that encompasses. Joe would love to learn woodworking and carpentry, as well as bike maintenance and repair.

Countries I’ve Visited

Ireland, Israel

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States