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Overview
About Me
Some folks compare it to a sabbatical.
Some say I'm having a mid-life crisis.
I get a lot of "you're having an Eat-Pray-Love experience"!
As I see it, I simply had no choice.
In Jan 2016, I quit my job and moved from my comfortable apartment in Boston into my Dad's basement in rural Connecticut. Three days later, I boarded a flight to Cairo, one-way. I haven't been back to the USA since.
The idea to put everything aside and do extended travel came 3.5 years earlier, over cocktails on a sparkling June evening with a dear friend. I told Wendy that I was miserable in my career and that I couldn't see the point. I confessed, out loud for the first time, that in all my life I've never felt satisfied. I felt paralyzed by fear of regret - that when I'm 75 I'd look back at my life and see that I never followed my dreams of world travel, never felt the infinite variety of human experience, never grew to my full potential, and gave up my life to the lazy comforts of doing what's expected. All I wanted to do was pull apart everything and leave, and then write a book about my adventures in the hope that just one person would hear their own battle-cry in my story and unlock their self-made shackles.
I had SO many reasons not to go... nice girls don't do this, it's dangerous, what about the impact to my career, my friends and parents will lose respect for me or think I've gone insane, I'm not strong enough, I'll wind up as a barefoot derelict.... wild dogs will chase and maul me!...or, the worst - I'll go on a quest and I'll FAIL to find whatever I'm looking for. Seriously -- I had every excuse possible.
After a few more years of lying to myself and living a life that I believed was satisfying to others, the pain and pressure became so great that they exceeded my fear of gutting my life and taking this journey. I literally couldn't live like this anymore! I committed myself to confronting and slaying fear in all forms, having fun, testing my limits and probing my prejudices and expectations.
I really don't know what comes next for me after this. Professional writer? Geopolitics and diplomacy? Peace Corps? Yoga studio plus juice bar? It's fun to think about but way too early to decide. For now, I'm traveling, growing, and working on my book. I view each day as a practice in humility and compassion, for myself and for those around me, and I carry exceptional gratitude for the resources, opportunities, and people that come my way.
Why I’m on Couchsurfing
My most cherished memories on this trip are all about the people I've met. Staying in local homes, it's like the formality and safety-buffer between us is stripped away, replaced by a family-like trust and intimacy that only deepens from the inevitable miscommunications and charades-for-words.
Hostels are great, but... I didn't travel all this way to meet other tourists. I came here to meet YOU, meet your friends and family, and to learn about your life, our shared struggles, and our different approaches. Are you an expat? Awesome - why did you choose this new country? What's your experience been like?
Practical stuff: I'm a nonsmoker, very light drinker, no drugs, and I like pets.
Interests
- writing
- belly dancing
- cooking
- yoga
- reading
- blues
- world music
- hiking
- astronomy
- geopolitics
- international relations
- adventure travel
- learning languages
- spirituality
- quantum physics
- different cultures
- metaphysics
- vegetarian cooking
- independent films
- latin dances
- raw vegan
- prehistory
Music, Movies, and Books
I love Mississippi Delta blues, funk, Radiohead, the Doors, Cesaria Evora, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, classic MJ, latin rhythms and singer-songwriter music.
I read on a broad spectrum of topics, and in the last few years my taste has shifted away from fiction, so now I read mostly nonfiction. I still love fiction but there's just so much to learn and only so many hours in the day... Perennial favorites include Life of Pi and the work of Paulo Coelho.
I like movies but haven't seen a lot of the blockbusters; and I watch little tv while traveling. I prefer classics (Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Alfred Hitchcock), old sci-fi (Blade Runner, Star Trek, Twilight Zone), and independent film that surprises, challenges, or twists the mind.
What I Can Share with Hosts
Cooking a broad range of world cuisines, to suit whatever dietary needs... I have a lot of new food intolerances, and these restrictions have led me to develop a whole new portfolio of recipes :)
Bellydancing lessons
Yoga, dance, equipment-free workouts
Adventures
Reiki (I'm a level 2 practitioner)
Analytical insight about any country I've visited
Help with writing your business plan
Countries I’ve Visited
Albania, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Egypt, England, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Wales
Countries I’ve Lived In
Indonesia, Norway, United States