I'm learning Miskitu - but Couchsurfing doesn't allow that as a language option!

After five years as a public servant (trying to save the world, aka working on international climate change issues), I decided to return to school and pursue a PhD in Geography. Most of my work is in Central America on questions of climate change and social justice. I spend a lot of time on the Caribbean Coast of Honduras (and Nicaragua a bit)

When not reading academic articles, I love total beach reads (sci fi, romance, thrillers... the pulpier, the better) - especially if I can be at the beach, wine and beer tasting, trying to convince my roommate's cat to love me, hiking, playing pick-up volleyball with the chemistry faculty at my university, and watching British people be nice to each other while baking obscure concoctions during competitions held in tents.

I quite like compound sentences with lots of parenthetical phrases.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Looking for affordable and friendly places to stay in cool new locations!

Interests

• environment
• wine
• geography
• social justice
• local food
• cooking shows

Music, Movies, and Books

Oh gosh. Is this as trick question? Well, when I was teaching my students how binary numbers work, and one of their practice numbers to convert from decimal to binary was "42"... and two of them actually knew what book that was from... :-)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've survived hurricanes in three countries (Isabel in '03 in the US, Gustav in '08 in the DR, and Nate in '17 in Central America). I do not want to add to that list! But, what I've learned: always confirm before the storm starts that you have a wine opener handy... and the wine.

Teach, Learn, Share

I am teaching Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Fall 2018 and also am an expert in how to travel to extremely rural areas of Latin America (hint: lots of power banks, bug spray, and light-weight pants and long-sleeved shirts are top of the packing list... and American chocolates are a super popular gift for some reason). Happy to share knowledge about either!

I'd love to learn how to cook new dishes - especially veggie-friendly.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Eternal thanks and excellent hugs. I'm also an excellent listener. And if you have pets, I will definitely play with them (which I guess is a benefit to me, but still...).

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Virgin Islands, U.S., Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, England, Honduras, Nicaragua, United States