CURRENT MISSION

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

ABOUT ME

Vietnamerican; trained as an engineer, but I also love the arts; I enjoy going out and on nature excursions but do not mind a quiet, lazy day to myself either.

I am constantly on a quest to search for something, but I sometimes have no idea what it is.

I have lived 13 years in Vietnam, 5 in the Bay Area (California), 4 in Boston, 1 in Germany, 2 years in Lisbon and another 2 in Pittsburgh for school. I also lived in China for 1.5 years while learning Mandarin. I most certainly will eventually settle down somewhere in the Bay Area.

PHILOSOPHY

The Golden Rule

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Meeting new people, especially ones from different cultural backgrounds, is always a thrill. I believe in everyone's capability for love and kindness, and it is important that we create and foster an atmosphere for these qualities to thrive.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain

Interests

On top of my head: photography, food, drinks, traveling, playwriting, music, (good) movies...

• arts
• photography
• dining
• cooking
• drinking
• movies
• traveling
• music
• snorkeling
• sailing
• skydiving
• engineering
• languages
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Any movie, music, book or play that teaches me something new, that sheds some light on what it means to be human. To name a few:

-Catcher in the Rye, The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Galapagos and Cat's Cradle, The Great Gatsby
-Schindler's List, Eternal Sunshine, Hotel Rwanda, Fight Club, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Garden State (both the movie and the soundtrack), movies by Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), Wong Kar Wai (Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, 2046, Happy Together), Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Volver, Talk To Her, Bad Education)
-Angels in America, The Seagull, plays by George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde
-The Beatles, Miike Snow, Norah Jones, Depeche Mode, Empire of the Sun among many others

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-Skydiving in Boston!
-Breathing in the freshest of air at Yosemite National Park
-Snorkeling in the Exuma Islands with sharks and stingrays
-Seeing for first time the Milky Way at Santa Cruz beach
-Sailing on the Charles on a beautiful, moonlit summer night
-Smelling the rice fields again for the first time in almost 10 years
-Witnessing the picturesque landscape around the Neuschwanstein Castle
-Sinking into the grass under me on a warm California summer day
-Picking pieces of myself up and put them together again after the most painful heartbreak

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you the languages I know, how to cook and bake, and of course learn what you know. I can introduce you to various types of food that I know and the kind of music I listen to. If you want to know about renewable energy policies around the world, especially in the U.S. and China, I'm your guy. I can most definitely teach you how to annoy Americans, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Germans.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Canada, China, Curaçao, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Germany, Portugal, United States, Viet Nam