CURRENT MISSION

To experience the world (not just SEE it) through meeting amazing new people!

ABOUT ME

Updating this after a few years is pretty tough! So much has changed, but I'm still a perpetual student!

I'm currently an assistant language teacher in the rural reaches of Japan, (an island in Kagawa in Shikoku), and am having a complete blast living a life that is so completely different from my regular city/suburb life back home. Living the island lifestyle here is such a life changing experience, and has made me more open to experiences and people.

On the other hand, I can't wait to be a university student again - I love the student life - and welcome any opportunity, like couchsurfing, to meet new and exciting and international people!

PHILOSOPHY

Ganbarre! As a shy kid, I missed out on a lot, and I'm trying to make up for it now. People can be awesome, if you give them a chance. Never turn down the opportunity to get to know someone! One's life is made up of the experiences you have, yes, but it is the people who make those experiences great.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've hosted some people in time past and it was fantastic! The people who use this site are (in my experience) amazing and sweet and original and kind ... the list goes on.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

hmm, this may not count because it wasn't through the site - but I did have an amazing experience while visiting a friend in Japan. Along with myself, she also hosted another friend who lived in Fukuoka that I had never met before. This girl was so sweet and immediately offered to let me stay in her tiny dorm room in Fukuoka for 5 days if I wanted to. She met me at the bus station and helped me navigate the transit system, and spent the days showing me around everywhere! I even got to party with her friends. Seriously such an amazing experience! And since then I've been lucky to host some amazing people here in Calgary, and offer them a similar experience. Nothing like singing at a Korean karaoke bar too break the ice!

Interests

Lesse ... friendship, travel, literature, writing, theatre, music, movies, mythology of all cultures, Western European and Asian history, Broadway, karaoke, culture of any kind, really.

• culture
• writing
• literature
• singing
• make up
• partying
• movies
• traveling
• music
• karaoke
• teaching
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Broadway musicals - my true love! Not so much the current trend of taking a famous band and stringing together some spaghetti plot to cram all their songs into (yes Mamma Mia! I'm looking at you - no matter how enjoyable a movie you are at 3 in the morning with friends).

I do love my classic rock, film soundtracks, Japanese rock and pop, Glee ...

For movies I love my epics, my classical hits ... (Okay it's a matter of taste, but it's really hard to list everything I like - I just love movies! Right now I'm currently working my way through the AFI Top 100 list - now if only they'd quit changing it!) My favourite movie would have to be Lawrence of Arabia, though. Intense, emotionally involving epics seem to be my thing - though it takes a huge amount of effort to stick the DVD in the machine. Love period movies! - like The Age of Innocence, Gladiator, Rob Roy ... etc. And anything with Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, or Katherine Hepburn = fantastic! And is it any surprise, being an English major after all, that I love my BBC and Masterpiece Theatre classics? Pride and Prejudice, Wives and Daughters, North and South, Jane Eyre, Cranford ...

Books: yeah let's not go here. There's just too much! But I tend to love books that are larger than life. At least when I have time to read them. That's why I love my Victorian writers: the Bronte sisters; George Eliot; Dickens; (not Hardy! Ugh. Hate Tess! - though the Gemma Arterton version was pretty awesome). Historical fiction is also a favourite, as is Fantasy (though finding good fantasy amongst the soap-opera crap is a quest in and of itself!), and I love children's literature. Favourites would have to be: George RR Martin, Terry Pratchett, Susanna Clarke, Gail Carson Levine, Diana Wynne Jones, Bernard Cornwell, Timothy Findley, Tim O'Brien - (the Vietnam War is just so fascinating!), LM Montgomery - (what Canadian girl doesn't love Anne of Green Gables?), and the be all end all: Tolkien. Obviously I love to read - but it works since I want to be an English professor.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Following on the advice of never passing up an opportunity, I'd have to say watching fireworks on New Years Eve in Istanbul - fireworks both in Europe and Asia - was the most amazing experience I've had in my travels so far. SO much fun! Because of that night I became such better friends with the people I was with, I learned the tragic life history of our poor waiter (who gave us free bottles of champagne, lots of baklava, and party hats! Haha.), and just had a great time. To think I almost didn't go because of a stomach ache!

Teach, Learn, Share

Never turn down an opportunity! - that's the biggest lesson I have learned from traveling and living abroad ... even if I don't follow my own advice all the time.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan

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