Hi, I'm Lauren. I'm a caffeine dependent life form native to the Pacific Northwest, USA. I'm fond of reading, photography, feminism, vodka-based cocktails, and the Oxford comma.

I've been in Europe since May and hanging around the Balkans for the past few months, mostly doing Workaway. I'm about to start a 3-month stint in Tallinn, Estonia where I'll be freezing my ass off but getting paid for it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To couchsurf, duh.

I'm hoping to do some traveling from Tallinn - Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Russia - and want to try my hand at couchsurfing. I've heard nothing but good things from friends; it seems like a fun way to see a new city and meet new people.

Interests

Traveling is the main one, but besides that you'll likely find me clicking on links about space exploration, mass extinction, psychopathy, and other random pop science-y things. I enjoy documentaries about history - I'm currently working my way through a BBC series called Death of Yugoslavia. I like reading and learning about politics and political economy, globalization, feminism/social justice, media, language and grammar, and ancient civilizations.

• books
• photography
• documentaries
• womens rights
• cooking
• cocktails
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• backpacking
• communications
• history
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

I love reading. If you put something with words on it in front of me, I'll probably read it. So I've read a lot of terrible books (proximity, what can I say?) and some amazing books. Favorite novels include Station Eleven, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Americanah, Magic for Beginners, and the Harry Potter series.

As far as movies, I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson and Hayao Miyazaki (their movies are so pretty), The Breakfast Club, the Heathers, other 80s movies, LOTR, Hitchcock, Goodbye Lenin, Big Lebowski, Shaun of the Dead, things like that. Also love TV shows: Veronica Mars, Todd & the Book of Pure Evil, Buffy, and X-Files are some favorites.

I enjoy most types of music. I'm fond of everything from punk to hip hop to jazz. And I love going to live shows.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I was pretty proud of myself when I sold all of my worldly possessions, bought a backpack, and said "see ya later!" to all my friends and family.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Hopefully travel stories, interesting conversation, book recommendations. I'm also a decent cook and thoroughly enjoy getting the chance to cook (or bake) for other people.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Macedonia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, Estonia, Germany, United States