CURRENT MISSION

to marinate and serenade

ABOUT ME

I came to Berlin to avoid applying to PhD programs. I've been living here about a year now, tutoring English and enjoying streets named for the trees that line them. Right now I have the great fortune to live in an apartment with a view of a beautiful street with a dusty median where old men gather every afternoon to play bocce. Central Europe is so beautiful and I wouldn't mind settling here someday.

I write short stories that sometimes turn into novellas. They usually involve dust, people coming from and returning to dust, and grain elevators.

Preparing meals is maybe the best way I've found to get to know another person. I love drinking outside, especially red wine and bourbon.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've surfed with a few people and am open to hosting and surfing more in the future.

Interests

Drinking tea, growing plants, ducks, dreams, going for walks, bicycling, cooking, writing

• writing
• cooking
• wine
• red wine
• walking
• drinking
• flying
• surfing

Music, Movies, and Books

I like long, slow movies. My favorite directors are Ingmar Bergman (the long-cut of Fanny and Alexander is one of the most harrowing things I have ever seen), Terrence Malick (his landscapes are so beautiful), Federico Fellini, the Coen Brothers, and Akira Kurosawa.

I love American literature, modernism, and ancient epics. I think Moby Dick is probably the best novel ever written. My favorite short story writers are Alice Munro, Annie Proulx, and David Foster Wallace. I spent most of this spring reading War and Peace and napping outside.

More people should read poetry (my favorite poets are Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, George Oppen, Charles Wright, and John Berryman).

I'm currently struggling through Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas in German, and enjoying the Shahnameh. Reading it right before bed has been giving me the best dreams lately.

I love American folk music and pretend to play the mandolin.

Where is art here? Where is architecture? I really love Islamic miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, Robert Rauschenberg's silkscreens, and Frank Gehry's buildings.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The other day I was walking through a park with a friend just before a rainstorm and we came upon a clearing where there were maybe fifty swallows all circling just above the ground, and we stood in the middle of them and they started weaving around and through us and I think in that moment I understood on a visceral level why people dream about flying.

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States