Hi everyone! I'm Leah, a 23-year old adventure seeker hailing from the beautiful mountains and valleys of the Pacific Northwest, a place I've called home for the past 6 years. Growing up in urban Philadelphia, I was raised in a fast-paced environment fueled by human interaction, creativity, and collaborative innovation; Philadelphia is a beautiful place, yet I never really learned when it was appropriate to sit back and take a breath. Unknowingly, I found that solace-- that restorative air-- 18 years later when I moved to Oregon for college.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Philadelphia and Eugene, Oregon. Two vastly different places on the outside-- different histories, demographics, peoples, ecologies, infrastructure, the whole shebang. However, they share a fundamental similarity which, ultimately, unlocked my curiosity for traveling, for knowing people and where they call "home", which is that, regardless of the environments in which people live, across space and time, people strive to be happy. People strive to grow, to create, to laugh and eat and explore, to learn and share stories, to reminisce. People are people, regardless of where they live, and they want to be "people" together, with others.

I am on Couchsurfing because I want to be with others. I want to grow, create, laugh, eat, explore, and learn what there is to learn from people who have vastly different things to teach and share than I do.

Thank you for having me!

Interests

My interests vary depending on the day and depending on who I am with, but I love cooking, reading a good book (primarily non-fiction) with a hot cup of tea, going on walks, bike riding, rock climbing, and listening to music. I also love to play the piano (when there is one available, which unfortunately doesn't always happen), taking pictures, chatting with people (and sometimes not), writing various things, and exploring book stores and old cities. I also love to hike and go backpacking, spending as much time "unplugged" in the wilderness as possible.

• animals
• writing
• books
• poetry
• beauty
• environment
• cooking
• instructor
• reading
• traveling
• music
• piano
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• backpacking
• rock climbing
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I love movies directed by the Coen brothers, like Fargo and A Serious Man. I also love the animated films directed and produced by Hayao Miyazaki. It really takes a lot for me to not enjoy a movie, although it can be quite difficult for me to sit through an entire one.

One of my favorite fiction authors is Tom Robbins, who has an incredible talent of writing 300+ pages of vastly entertaining, yet seemingly nonsensical gibberish and turning them into a wildly profound statement within the last 3 pages of the novel (gets me every time).

As I already mentioned, I also love and primarily read non-fiction, oftentimes on topics such as neuroscience, psychology or the spiritual realm of things. If you haven't read "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks, I recommend it.

My parents raised me on Michael Jackson, the B-52s, Talking Heads, and Moby. I grew up in a house where in one room, I was practicing my alto saxophone solo for my jazz band performance, while my brother was busy in another on the piano trying to write music in the style of the brilliant Philip Glass and my dad, somewhere far yet so close in the distance (sorry pops), shrieked away some old Klezmer tunes on his clarinet. I love music. I can talk about it forever.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Some people would probably say that I've done "a lot" of amazing things. Amazing is a weird word to me because it distinguishes events that are outstanding from those that perhaps don't have as much (if any) value. I would say that everything that I do has value, and as long as I am open and self-aware enough, everything can be perceived as amazing for what I can gain from it. Perhaps if we ever meet, we can chat about all that is amazing about our lives.

Teach, Learn, Share

" When you know how to listen, everyone is the Guru"- Ram Dass

"Even after all this time The sun never says to the earth, "You owe Me." Look what happens with A love like that, It lights the Whole Sky."- Shams-ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez

[I spent many hours studying mystical poetry in my Religious Studies classes at the University of Oregon. I would not consider myself to be a "religious" person, but there is so much beauty in its creative elements.]

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook! I actually love spending a lot of time in grocery stores and markets when I travel because I think you can learn a lot that way. I also find various household cleaning tasks to be both nostalgic and calming, and I have a fondness for folding laundry (especially when it is warm). Traveling to me doesn't always have to be full of incredible "newness"; experiencing the "day-to-day" in other countries is equally as fulfilling to me than some other extreme journeys (although I do like a balance of both).

I also love spending time with children (I was an outdoor instructor at an elementary school for one year), and animals! I can also share my mind, which loves to learn and teach and explore. When I travel I bring my audio recorder with me, and I enjoy recording peoples' stories and writing about them, with consent of course :)

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Israel, Nepal, Switzerland