I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm an adventurist. I love traveling to new and interesting places. I'm a nerd and a geek. I like sci-fi and fantasy and rpgs and comics, but I also enjoy reading non-fiction works on things like neuroscience and theoretical physics. I decided one day in 2012 that my new driving goal in life would be happiness and so far I'm doing a darn fine job of aligning my life with that goal. Travel is a big part of that. You can read more about me on my blog www.gallivantrix.com

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm addicted to travel. Even more, my favorite part of travelling is meeting amazing people along the way. Don't worry, you're amazing. To quote the Doctor, "In 900 years of space and time, I've never met anyone who wasn't important." Right now, I live in a single room, so I'm not really able to host, but I will be exploring and hope to find some nice hosts, and I'm happy to meet up with people who are coming to wherever I happen to be living at the time and show them all the best local places.

Interests

I took some tests a few years ago to learn what my strengths were. All the tests came back with two results in common: curiosity and love of learning. So, yes, I'm interested in things. This really isn't a cop-out. If you're into geology and want to explain the rock formations of the local landscape, I'll listen and ask lots of questions even though I don't know anything about it (yet). Things I know I like: reading (everything except Romance), music (everything except rap, modern country and the varieties of metal that try to sound like noise), movies (not a huge romcom fan, no gore, everything else is good, especially love cartoons), sci-fi (tho, Larry Niven is a jerk), fantasy (esp low fantasy or near real fantasy), cooking, eating, playing, singing, dancing, hiking, swimming, anything joyful really... I like a lot of stuff.

Music, Movies, and Books

Doctor Who (old and new), The Last Unicorn (book and movie) and everything else by P. Beagle I've read, LOTR & Hobbit (books and movies), Tori Amos, Beth Hart, Beatles, Doors, Terry Pratchett and the Discworld books, everything by Neil Gaiman, China Mieville (author), MLPFIM, turns out I like Gaga and Katy Perry despite my best efforts, ummm, Toderick Hall is my fav YouTube artist, Eddie Izzard is my fav comedian (living, since Robin W. passed) and probably my favorite executive transvestite.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

While I was living and working in China, I had a textbook to use as a sort of guide and I was told that there was at least one student in every class who would report me if I went into topics that were off limits by the government there. I was really surprised to see that our book had a chapter about AIDS & Homosexuality that was aimed at teaching people more facts and acceptance rather than fear and rejection. This was an amazing opportunity for me to reach out to a group of young people who had been told some pretty insane myths their whole lives. I didn't spend too much time on the book before I just opened up the class to questions and discussion. We talked about love and relationships and I think it helped a few people to start to think in another way. angry faces gave way to thinking faces at least. BUT the amazing thing, after class, one young man stayed behind to talk to me. This wasn't too strange because Chinese students tend to not want to ask questions they think might be embarrassing in front of their peers. This young man didn't have a question for me, however. He wanted to tell me that he was gay, and that I was the first person besides his lover that he ever felt safe admitting that to. I was blown away.

Teach, Learn, Share

"Teach, Learn, Share"? Yes please.

I'm what's called a "maven" personality. This means I love to collect lots of interesting tidbits of knowledge (hint: it's all interesting) and then go share it with glee and excitement with anyone who will stand still, or at least not walk faster than me.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share stories of all the places I've been.
I can share my cooking skills, I love feeding people.
I can share my ears and listen to what you have to tell me about your life and the places you love.
I can share my eyes so that you can see your homeland through my excitement.
I can share my joy.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Mexico, United Arab Emirates

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United States