ABOUT ME

I grew up on a farm riding horses and breaking my wrists jumping off of hay bales. I like big words and water slides and bikes with baskets on the front and candid photos. I can't spell Febuary without spell check (even though my profile says I'm an English expert). My hair dries kinda curly when it's wet, and I was the swim team holdyourbreath champion in fifth grade. I like eating curry with my hands at those attempt-authentic Indian restaurants you find in the downtown cores of big cities. I have one long scar on the back of my neck from a truck, and a few on my knees from soccer. I love trying new food and travelling alone, and running fast. If I didn’t like blood and guts so much I’d be an English teacher or a lawyer, but instead I am a writer who gets paid to be a nurse. I want to fall in love with an artist. I am a tree-hugger who likes kale chips and bare feet and acoustic guitars and braided hair and music festivals, but I don't smoke enough pot to be a real hippie.

PHILOSOPHY

I want to collect up all the subjectivity of others and allow it to influence my own, with the hope that one day I'll be able to see the world as it is.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

See below- just getting started!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Word of mouth and lack of cash and last minute desperation laced my Europe travels with couchsurfing, but I have only just created a profile on the website so my official experience is limited. That being said- I'm excited for opportunities to expand it!

Interests

I am always reading, except for when I'm taking a break in a coffee shop to sketch or write. I enjoy improper grammar and invented words. I like windy days and red wine and conversation about whats-wrong-with-our-world-and-what-can-we-do-about-it.

• horses
• writing
• music festivals
• festivals
• dining
• wine
• red wine
• coffee
• running
• shopping
• reading
• traveling
• music
• soccer
• swimming
• teaching
• law
• nursing

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: I really like documentaries. Lately, about hydraulic fracturing (Gasland), performance art (Marina), eco-terrorism (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front) and paradigm shifts (I AM). I think my favourite movie of all time though might be Gone Baby Gone, and I've watched Crash more than a few times. I don't mind the occasional chic-flic if it tells a good story...like Lars and the Real Girl, or Love Actually (feel free to roll your eyes).

Music: I love live music and going to shows. As for particular bands, I was gonna make a Top 10 list but I figured that made me sound like a radio station so I'll just tell you that lately I've been into Of Monsters and Men, Dan Mangan, and Listener. Also, it might be relevant to say that a friend introduced me to Anti-Flag last week and although I really can't get into punk or screamo, I wish I could because their lyrics are less about my-last-relationship and more about how Depleted Uranium is a War Crime.

Books: I will honestly read anything, even magazines (I mean like Adbusters and Filling Station, not the magazines my roommate keeps in her gym bag, or the AlbertaRN ones I get in the mail every month. Theres never anything good in those).
I love fiction. Prose. Novels. Novellas. Stories. Nikolski by Nicholas Dickner, Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. I've read a lot of the classics too, like James Joyce and Charles Dickens, Hemmingway and Edgar Allan Poe, and it's one of my life goals to get through a Tolstoy.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I hope it doesn't sound cliche, but I think of everything I've seen in my travels, what leaves me awestruck are the simple transactions that restore my faith in humanity. The moments that support the notion that people care about each other. That people want to partake in the messiness of human relationship, want to converse, and trade polaroids, and sleep on each other's couches because they are invested in the same grassroots ideas, and want to help each other experience the world.

Teach, Learn, Share

Growing up in a family of five kids taught me to share my toys really well.

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Ireland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, United States