CURRENT MISSION

Be hardworking and kind.
You can never know too much about being alive.

ABOUT ME

I love making new friends through food, music, and dance. I'm currently working on a neuroscience PhD, training in the Brazilian martial-art/dance form capoeira, and scheming alternate forms of free public education. I manage and sing for my funk/jazz/hip-hop band Scubaphone, who are also enabling my childhood dream of running away to the space circus ^.^

Life is the best video game of all
RUN!
when you can't run...
DANCE!
when you can't dance...
FIGHT!

Traceurs voulons être et durer.

PHILOSOPHY

You can believe anything, as long as you're hardworking and kind.

Those who do not dream, never live, and die as mere shadows of the heroes they might have been.

Communicate early and often.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I love being able to trust strangers. I also love storytelling - connecting through others by both creating and sharing stories together.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

_2008_
-Joined couchsurfing in May
-Summer of 2008: went on a 72-day roadtrip and couchsurfed most of the time, meeting people and sharing stories (watch videos from our travels on http://thisamericansummer.blip.tv/).
-hosted many surfers after returning to Boston

_2009_
Spent this year so far meeting a wonderful assortment of interesting travelers, excellent guests, and new friends. I'll be hitting up some traveling of my own next year!

_2010_
Worked my lab tech job, paid off student loans, and went to both Firefly and Burning Man for the first time! I also got to know more of the local Boston couchsurfing community.

_2011_
Co-wrote a musical, went to Steampunk City, became a presenter at the Museum of Science, and got into grad school! Didn't do much couchsurfing or hosting :(

_2012_
Deferred grad school to produce our original musical and went on my first canyoning trip before moving to Lisbon, Portugal for my first year of grad school! Couchsurfing meetups in Lisbon was a great way to meet people outside of my Institute and practice portuguese.

_2013_
First year of grad school, and my first full year living abroad! Hosted occassionally, but was pretty busy with coursework and research.

_2014_
Moved back to Cambridge, MA, USA to begin a research collaboration at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory on Cape Cod, MA. Research kept me from doing much hosting or traveling, but I'm living in a co-op for the first time and learning all sorts of practical skills like plumbing and gardening!

_2015_
Traveled to Australia and New Zealand for the first time, and fell in love with the wilderness and the wonderful people there. Had my first bad couchsurfing experience, but CS was very supportive and I'm getting over it with much help from loved ones.

Interests

acrobatics, adventure, anime, bicycles, capoeira, cocktails, comics, cooking, corsets, dancing, eating, fire, fractals, green, juggling, music, parkour, photography, scifi, singing, travel, wilderness medicine

• arts
• singing
• photography
• documentaries
• dancing
• capoeira
• education
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• cocktails
• running
• gardening
• technology
• comics
• anime
• movies
• tv
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• music
• jazz
• sports
• teaching
• languages
• medicine
• neuroscience
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Amadou & Mariam, Atlas Lab, Beatles, Bela Fleck, Blue Scholars, Led Zeppelin, Mos Def, Moses, Mum, Myles Davis, Pink Floyd, Rihanna, Scubaphone, Sigur Ros, The Books, THEESatisfaction, Too Many Zooz, Yeasayer

MC Escher, Salvador Dali

1602, Batman (esp. post-1985), Fables, Kingdom Come, Superman: Red Son, The Sandman

Animorphs, Fragile Things, Godel Escher Bach, The Dark is Rising, The Giver, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, To Kill a Mockingbird

Brick, Cidade de Deus, ET, Gattaca, Hard Candy, La vita e bella, Star Wars: The Original Series, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Dreamers, The Man From Earth, Usual Suspects, Wizard of Oz, Ying xiong (Hero)

Arrested Development, Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Battlestar Galactica, Carnivale, Connections, Firefly, Futurama, Invader Zim, Monty Python's Flying Circus, NCIS, NOVA, Planet Earth, Sesame Street, Supernatural, The Muppet Show, Venture Brothers

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I once flew in a blackhawk helicopter as part of a film documentary crew. We were told to hop out while the blades were still going and huddle in the grass while the 'copters take off, but I had been filming right up to this point so I flipped around onto my back and kept filming. I got a beautiful close-up of the blackhawk, whipping the wind around this field with its blades as people jumped out and threw themselves into the tall grass.

Teach, Learn, Share

Life is an adventure of learning, play with me!

I can teach...
- Neuroscience (BRAAAAINZ)
- the art of Korean food (NOM NOM NOM)
- spinning poi, contact juggling, fire juggling
- Music and Movement! jamming and dancing

I want to learn...
- interesting languages (dead languages and fantasy languages also welcome ^.^)
- new recipes
- new games
- new instruments

Let's share...
- jam sessions! because music is a universal language
- sport death: because only life can kill you
- weird movies
- comics and graphic novels
- anime

What I Can Share with Hosts

Many smiles and laughs interwoven with music from instruments and from deep within our soulful diaphragms. Hands that love to pull weeds from gardens, empty sinks of dirty dishes, and fill bellies with home-cooked food.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Iceland, New Zealand, South Korea, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Portugal, United States

• 

•