CURRENT MISSION

Exploring the world and helping out as much as possible and where I can

ABOUT ME

I'm a progressive open-minded, honest, happy, bicycling, rafting, sea kayaking, trekking, backcountry skiing, general outdoor adventure guide and ecologist. I love exploring the world, meeting new people, and living amongst and with people of different cultures. I find the best way to learn is to talk and live with people and as much as possible learn their language.

PHILOSOPHY

Helping the World, Compassion, Environmentalism, Sustainable Agriculture, Learning, Respecting.
My Grandfather used to say "When you make someone laugh, for that split second, he or she forgets all of his or her problems." I like to live by that philosophy also...I like to make people feel good.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am looking to meet, host, and stay with people from around the world. In my trip around the world the last couple of years I knew people or had friends of friends I met or with whom I stayed. Most of the people were not from Couchsurfing.com, but I still would love to host or get to know people through Couchsurfing.com. I think it is a wonderful way to connect people around the world. Now that I am a bit more settled here in France, I am looking forward to hosting people in my home. I love to cook dinners for people I am hosting or for people hosting me and help out however I can. I've done lots of things for my hosts, including: babysitting, cleaning, fixing bicycles, gardening, and landscaping.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have slept on many couches and often provided a couch for friends or friends of friends in transition. I am new to couchsurfing.org and looking to interact more with the community. I think it is a wonderful resource for connecting people around the world. I find couchsurfing a great way to get to know people and spend quality time with people. I have gained some incredible friends through couchsurfing or living with or renting a room from locals. I still have great friends from places like Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia Borneo, China, and Singapore from these experiences.

Interests

Travel, Life, the Universe, and Everything! Outdoor Adventure Guiding, Backpacking, Rafting, Snow Wilderness Expeditions, Sea Kayaking, Biking, Ecology, Environmental Stewardship, Birding, Botanizing, languages, listening to and playing a wide range of music genres. Fixing, designing, and building stuff.

• birds
• dancing
• salsa dancing
• swing dancing
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• gardening
• traveling
• music
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• backpacking
• kayaking
• skiing
• telemark skiing
• agriculture
• biology
• ecology
• languages
• science
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

Please, excuse the lengthiness of this, I took it from something I wrote for Facebook a while ago. I have discovered lots of great music, movies, and books since and always open to more!

Music:
I listen to lots of different music and collect lots of music and musical instruments. I've played the drums since I began lessons at the age of 10. I'm mostly trained on the drumset. I've played in lots of different groups with a wide variety of genres of music.

I play or listen to Funk, soul, Motown, reggae, blues, ska, New Orleans Jazz, Jazz, Latin Jazz, salsa, merengue, batucada, West African, South African, Ethiopian, world groove, banghra, Klezmer, Balkan, 60s, 70s, 80s, samba, son, cumbia, heavy metal, classical sitar and tabla, disco, classic rock, hair bands, hard rock, big band, swing.

Favorite Books:
I read mostly non-fiction, although read lots of fiction in Spanish. Omnivores Dilemma; books about African, African-American, West Indian, Native American, Latin American, etc. culture and/or history; funny books like A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson or Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken; political books with good references like Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency by Michael T. Klare; natural history books, particularly field guides like Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman and the Jepson Manual (the California Plant Taxonomist’s bible); very useful technical books: Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils (NRCS USDA), Standard Soil Methods for Long-Term Ecological Research (Robertson et al. 1999), Arboriculture, Integrated Management of Landscape Trees, Shrubs, and Vines (Harris et al.); UC Davis Extension publications (Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower's Guide to Using Less Pesticide); Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair for Road and Mountain Bikes by Jim Langley; other favorite authors or books once upon a time Shakespeare, Leon Uris, James Michener, John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet

Movies:
I like all kinds of movies, but definitely favor comedies. David Attenborough documentaries (The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, The Life of Plants). I'm a bit of a movie quoter (Monty Python; Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, John Cusack, Steve Carell, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, Woody Allen movies, particularly, ...And Now for Something Completely Different, The Meaning of Life, The Life of Brian, the Holy Grail, High Fidelity, Nacho Libre, Tenacious D The Pick of Destiny, Old School, 40 Year old Virgin, Anchorman, Zoolander, Fletch, Caddy Shack, The Jerk, The Mask, Sleeper, Take the Money and Run, Everything You Want to Know about Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, Annie Hall, Delirious, Raw, Coming To America; Coen Brothers' movies, particularly, The Big Lebowski; Christopher Guest movies, particularly, Spinal Tap; Zucker and Zucker films). Other movies I like: Jackie Chan movies, Clint Eastwood Movies, Star Wars (the original three), Lord of the Rings, Revenge of the Nerds, Superbad, Amelie, Animal House, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Princess Bride

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I bicycled 10000km (6000 miles) across the United States and Canada.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teaching: I teach paddle techniques for rafting and sea kayaking, backcountry basics, cross-country and telemark skiing, bicycle maintenance, arboriculture, agricultural ecology, sustainable agriculture, field biology, bird watching/identification, plant taxonomy and identification, soil science, biogeochemistry, drumming (mainly snare and drumset). One of my favorite classes to teach is igloo and snow cave building!
Learning: I am always learning. I would love to improve my salsa dancing and get back into swing dancing. I would love to learn samba and batucada (both dancing and drumming). I started learning French recently, and am always trying to learn different languages. I would love to learn Portuguese and Chinese.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love cooking and cleaning for my hosts. A nice bottle of wine or a case of beer goes a long way. I'm open and a good listener too. I'm very mechanical. I love guiding and teaching too, but I'm not overly didactic.

Countries I’ve Visited

Angola, Belgium, Belize, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Guatemala, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Chile, Ecuador, France, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, United States