CURRENT MISSION

To learn as many forms of dance as possible

ABOUT ME

I'm a student at Oxford currently, though I only have one more year there (Perhaps two, if I decide to do a Master's), studying Maths and Computer Science.

Last easter, I went travelling through some of Europe, visiting Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Venice and Milan. Sadly, we did this over 14 days, and everything was far too fast, we stayed solely in hostels, and basically only had the chances to be absolute tourists and learn none of the languages except hello, goodbye, please and thankyou.

So I decided instead that staying in one place for a longer time would be better, so I could learn the language. When I saw an advertisement for an internship in Brazil for three months, I couldn't apply fast enough! At the time of writing I've been in Brazil for two months, and I'm loving it. My Portuguese isn't at the level I'd like, but I've accepted that maybe I'm not going to be as good as I want in my time here, and will have to continue to work hard once I return to England!

At the moment, I'm staying in Ouro Preto, a city in Minas Gerais. Here is insane, with the people and the parties, as it's a student city. I'm wanting to visit Rio before I leave, and figure that going and staying in a hostel and being a lone tourist is definitely not the fun way to do this.

PHILOSOPHY

I live to learn. I'm at the moment pulling my thoughts together and reading lots with the aim of writing a book on skill acquisition. I think that people are so much more than they know, that it's so much easier to learn a skill, and they are so much more capable, if only they were to change their methods a little. Instead of expecting things to come from putting in hours of practice, they should be making those hours of practice worthwhile, and actively working towards difficulty at all times, facing failure and embracing it.

I try to live this belief in my life, so whenever something difficult is around that I can learn to overcome, I'm quite obsessive when it comes to overcoming and learning it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

At the moment, I haven't yet participated, as I've just signed up. But I'd love to host people, get to know them, and show them around where I live, show them how we dance here. I'd also love to go and meet people, stay with them, and let them show me their culture. Soon I hope to be able to update this with some actual experience!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

As previously, none yet! But soon, I hope, I'll be able to update this with some stories.

Interests

Circus skills. Specifically juggling, I've loved it for years and will continue to learn. I can juggle up to 5 balls, 3 clubs, 3 rings, I can do some contact juggling too. I can also unicycle, though not brilliantly! I'd love to be able to slackline, but I've not managed more than a few steps yet.

I enjoy certain sports. I've played a lot of football while in Brazil, though I'm still not brilliant at that. I really love basketball and table tennis, though they don't seem much played in Brazil, sadly. For about 4 months I've been training and practicing Parkour as often as I can, which is a major passion of mine.

I love to dance. In England, I've learnt salsa, and I can dance a little of other dances, such as waltz, cha cha cha, jive, bachata and bits of others. While in Brazil, I've been learning Forró, which is amazing. I love to dance, and I'd love to learn more types of dance in all of the places that I visit. This is my main interest.

• culture
• writing
• books
• dancing
• salsa dancing
• tango
• bachata
• waltz
• partying
• clubbing
• clothing
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• bungee jumping
• sports
• basketball
• soccer
• tennis
• table tennis
• computer science
• languages
• mathematics
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

As I said, the learning books are very interesting for me, but that's more non-fiction, which I suppose doesn't come under most people's definition of books to read for fun... Fiction, we have Harry Potter, I really enjoyed reading 1984, Animal Farm and A Brave New World for their philosophical thoughts. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions was amazing, and interesting both philosophically and mathematically, making it clear I'm the nerd I should be for where and what I study!

I'm a big fan of the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card, very excited for the movie to be released soon!

Movies I don't really watch many, but I'm a fan of all comedy. I don't much care for exciting, serious films, I need to be able to laugh!

Music though, my main focus is musicals. Whenever possible, at Oxford, which is close to London, I and some friends go to London to see a musical show. So far we've seen Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, and Avenue Q. I love so many musicals, and want to see so many more. Almost all of my music taste is musicals, though I also enjoy listening to comedy music, such as Tim Minchin, Tom Lehrer, and many others.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

At my university, there was once advertised a bungee jump for charity. I decided I wanted to do it, and to raise as much money as possible, said that I would do it while wearing women's clothes. A year before this, I had been to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and if you know what that is, you know that everyone has to dress in corsets, lingerie, and stockings. So I had the clothes ready.

So I get sponsored, go, and from seventy metres in the air, on a cold day, wearing only lingerie, jump off and bungee jump down. Embarrassing, but one of the funnest experiences of my life so far!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach:

Salsa dancing
Juggling
Unicycling
English (I suppose, given it's my native language)

I would love to learn:

More Forró
Samba
Tango
Portuguese (More of it!)
So many other things, anything you can teach, I'm likely to want to learn!