CURRENT MISSION

Fill my heart with incredible people & natural places

ABOUT ME

I'm living again in the beautiful place where I was raised - Humboldt County - in order to build a life around family, community & sustainability, but I want to continue my US & world travels so I don't let my childhood old self down (once an aspiring National Geographic writer and foreign correspondent...)

I'm in my 2nd year of a Masters in Social Work.

My most amazing travels have been the ones where I stayed with families or friends of friends and lived for a short while in someone else's world, experiencing their ordinary lives rather than the tourist sites. Thank you to everyone who has let me in, I've been incredibly lucky :)

PHILOSOPHY

Though I've never put this in text before, as the things we say to ourselves in our head seem far cheesier when spoken aloud, I'll follow your prompt CS and go for it:

I'm living my life to expand my capacity for empathy, to reciprocate the incredible gifts and support that I've been given, and to stay as constantly available/open for that fleeting but incredibly powerful feeling of connection and wholeness that some call God.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I would love to provide a couch, but am unable to do so until I have my own place. Please contact me for a tour around Arcata, home-cooked meals, hiking, biking & other Humboldt adventures.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Just started CS... but I've done a lot of rideshare, both giving rides & taking and have loved it. A scaled-down version of learning how to make strangers comfortable when suddenly sharing their lives & space. It's completely addicting.... from all the comments I've been reading, CS is a fuller version of this same incredible experience.

I have stayed with many friends of friends while traveling & know how to be a gracious, considerate, low-impact guest.

Interests

- People, people, people!
- Cooking (particularly Indian, West African, Mexican food)
- Farmers markets
- Hiking & backpacking
- Beach & river adventures (swimming, rock scrambling, fort building)
- Playing the flute & singing in my band, thelittlestillnotbigenough
- Learning the mandolin & bluegrass music
- Road trips & unknown small towns
- Reading
- Photography
- Creative writing
- Dance - Salsa, West African, Square & Contra dancing
- Localizing! Food production, economies, politics, policies & solutions
- Sustainable agriculture & relearning what our grandparents knew

• writing
• singing
• photography
• dancing
• education
• dining
• cooking
• mexican food
• partying
• gardening
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• backpacking
• christian
• catholic
• swimming
• agriculture
• teaching
• religion
• social work
• volunteering
• road trips
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Some of my favorite books of all time:

- Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle
- The Education of Little Tree - Asa Earl Carter
- Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter - Simone de Beauvoir
- The River Why - David James Duncan
- Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
- The Other Side of Eden - Hugh Brody
- Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
- The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
- East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck
- Cat's Cradle & Galapagos - Kurt Vonnegut
- Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood
- East of the Mountains - David Guterson
- Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism - Max Weber
- Worked Over - Dimitra Doukas

Favorite movies:
- Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
- Off the Map
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
- The Sandlot
- Gladiator

Music:
I'm in a band with some amazing people that is best but not adequately characterized as experimental rock.... https://soundcloud.com/thelittlestillnot

My music library contains: bluegrass/folk, classic rock, current indie/alt/experimental rock, Cuban salsa, "African" acoustic, classical, motown, big band jazz/swing & blues.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Spent 3 days exploring un-regulated cave cities carved into sandstone cliffs in Cappadocia, Turkey - once built/occupied by early Christians fleeing from Roman persecution.

Attended a multi-day Catholic funeral/huge party for a Ghanaian boyfriend's grandmother in a tiny town outside of Kumasi (capital of the Asante people, home of the Asantehene/"King")

Grew up in a stable, loving family with a real sense of community & ecological interdependence.

Teach, Learn, Share

Ever wanted to nerd out talking about theories of human evolution, early hominids & cultural change? Please contact me, I'm starving for it!

Random things I may know little more than the average bear about:

- Playing the classical flute
- Religious "syncretism"/mixture in the "Black Atlantic" (cultures created out of the Atlantic slave trade)- particularly of the religions created from the mixture between Christianity/Catholicism, West African traditional religions (including "Voodoo") & American indigenous religions
- Making tamales
- Backyard vegetable gardening
- Sexual health education - (former Planned Parenthood education dept. volunteer & employee)

Countries I’ve Visited

Burkina Faso, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ghana, United States

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