CURRENT MISSION

Smile, travel, enjoy life, be heathy

ABOUT ME

2014

I haven't been active on CS for the last few years. Now I'm back on.

2010

I am grateful that I have a chance to travel the last few years. If you don't get this chance, I would be more than happy to share my experiences with you and maybe one day it will be your turn. Here is something about who I am spiritually.

Part Chinese (where I was born), Canadian (where I spent many years here), part Greek (where I love the warm turquoise water), part Indian (where my health depends on), latina (where my passion is, dancing).

That'd be truely amazing if I have all those genes genetically!

Someone who travels around (outside my resident country) with a wireless router (if you think it's weird, wait until you get to India or in cases where your host's wireless router is somehow not compatible with your laptop wireless card or simply there is only a wired DSL modem.

Hitech savvy. I assembled a computer (motherboard, harddrive, fans, Optical drive, ROM memory, etc). I helped friends with computer problems: virsus cleaning. Help setup wireless routers. Helped non-computer users set up email addresses and teach some to use skype (which is an amazing technology).

I was given nicknames in 3 different occasions
1) queen of Tetris when I was working as a software engineer
2) international salsa girl
3) gadget queen

When I dance and see others dance beautifully, I forget human sufferings. Chronic pain makes me more aware of others' emotional and physical pain.

I could be moved or touched by music and dancing. Also get excited by technology (hitech gadgets especially those for traveling).

I have tears in my heart for those who suffer. When I was in Mysore, India in 2010, I met this 31 year old male Indian tailor who lived with his 28 year old sister. Their parents passed away. In the Indian customs, a woman usually marries in her early 20's and a man in his late 20's. They were poor and they were singles. Despite they had nothing, they were very happy in helping me (my special request of altering a pair of pants). Despite the alteration wasn't a good job, I gave them a lot more than the normal price of alteration in India. Normally I would have been upset with a job not well done, but I held back my tears and had a happy face and told them that the job was good and that I was happy because I could see how genuine they were in helping me despite how difficult their lives were. They were still happy. Sometimes we need to be grateful of whatever we have at the moment. There are a lot of people who are a lot worst than us.

When I first heard this song "I will take care of you" by Amy Sky (Canadian singer), I stopped and listened because it rang a bell in my core. I seemed to be born to take care of things.

Passion: dancing - salsa, argentine tango, ballroom, ballet, jazz, modern, belly, flamenco. I concentrate on salsa now. And want to do more on Argentine Tango one day.

Water: Scuba diving - Open water dive cert in Koh Tao/Thailand and the Adanvced Open water dive cert in Naxos/Greece. Some fun dives in Plakias of Crete/Greece. Love swimming especially in Naxos, Greece. The turquoise color of the warm water is irresistable!

Traveling: love it and meeting people are great. Did my first long trip to different countries in Dec 2007 and ended in Sept 2008 when I needed to go to India for professional development in Yoga. I was there for 6 months and travel 3 to 4 months to different countries like London/UK, Cairo/Egypt, Bangkok/Thailand, Seoul/South Korea, Dubai/UAE, Naxos, Crete/Greece, and Germany.

Health: inspire and help others. Yoga, pilates, and tai chi instruction. Utsadana (massage by foot) and Abdominal Chi Massage.

Work: I used to be a software engineer in Vancouver, Canada (OSI 7 layers protocol testing, high and low level programming in networking and telephony software). Got chronic neck pain and switched profession to yoga, pilates, and tai chi instruction in 2003. I like to be healthy and in shape.

Mountains: like hiking and nature. Green grass, trees, and landscape -- pleasing to the eyes! Love flowers of different colors and smells.

Learned these 2 massages in 2010:
1) Utsadana: full body oil massage (lymphatic drainage) by foot pressure. Because of my Fibromyalgia pain, I could not massage with my hands (not full body anyway) without having pain afterwards. So I learned this massage because I won't apply pressure with my hands at all. Only using my foot to apply pressure instead.

2) Abdominal Chi Massage: massage of your internal organs in your abdominal area e.g. small/large intestines, liver, lungs, heart, etc...From my teacher's website, this is what he said, "Working together with controlled breathing and direct massage on these areas we aim to balance the organs in many ways. If there is abundance of heat we want to cool it, if there is tension we loosen it and where there is a lack of energy we enliven it." Of course, I am still learning. It might be awhile before I get to his stage.

PHILOSOPHY

Someone once wrote a poem based on one of the purposes of my life:

I would radiate at death's door,
filled with love and laughter.
I'd marvel at all I had done before
and embrace whatever's everafter.

I would reflect on the people I'd known
on everything my life did touch,
of the joy I had shared and how I had grown
and how love had been there so much.

I would remember my soulmate and family
and how nothing loved can be lost.
I'd bask in the notion I'd lived life for me
and still gave my heart without cost.

I'd reflect on the times all I had was myself
and find happiness in a soul that was free.
A soul that knew love and something else,
what it truly meant to be me.

My spirit would dance as it stole me away
and my soul would burst open with laughter.
And my joy would flood the mystical gateway
between this life and whatever's everafter.

Could you get a glimpse of my philosophy?

Anyway, I believe the world is a circle of help. If we can just look deep inside the core of a human being, we are all the same.

Would you not want to help your beloved brothers and sisters?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Started after I went to India the first time in Dec 2007. I met Alex from Canada while I was traveling in Cairo Jan 2008. He told me about couch surfing.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfed
2008:
Dubai: Tony Deprato, Reza Basaerian, KAVVY June
Crete: THEODOROS FOTOPOULOS Aug

2010:
Mumbai: Vishal Sadhwani, Dev and Gaurav Jain, Jan
Chennai: Lise Froger, May
Malaysia: Nabil Kannan June/July
Singapore: Hernan Saurit, Vishy June
Belgium: Gert and Karine August
Hannover: Marion Tischmann August
Goettingen: Sabina September

2011:
Sydney, Australia: Jennifer April

Hosted
- 2008: Dan from London
- 2009: Jeremy from Seattle

Interests

Dancing, helping others, like learning different languages (French, Japanese, and Spanish. All 1st year university courses. I love salsa so much that I took 3 semesters of Spanish. If you don't use it, you lose it. I only know how to say "how are you" for the above 3 languages. Almost learned Greek as I like the islands very much and German as I know quite many Germans by now),

traveling, swimming in warm water, computers, yoga, pilates, tai chi, giving and receiving massages, music, piano, hiking,

eating and trying out different cuisines, palmistry, roller blading, scuba diving, skiing if it's not too expensive or too cold,

high tech gadgets to make traveling around the globe easier.

• coloring
• dancing
• flamenco
• tango
• ballet dancing
• coffee
• exercise
• yoga
• pilates
• flowers
• technology
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• jazz
• piano
• hiking
• surfing
• scuba diving
• skiing
• swimming
• teaching
• engineering
• languages
• software
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies - I basically like all movies except scary and gory. Lots of blood is not my cup of tea. Here is some sample of my favorites: "The Hunt for Red October", "Dead Again", "Life is beautiful", "Die Hard I",...

Music - latin, dance (salsa in particular), chanting (love Gayatri mantra. Can listen to it hundred times. Soothing), soft rock, classical. I don't really have any favorite artists. It is the lyrics or the melody of the song that I am more into.

Books - Haven't read too many. But I enjoyed "The Hunt for Red October", "Sorry"... During my last 6 month trip in India (2010), I have read around 10 more books and listened to 3 audio books. During this 2010/2011 trip, I read aruond 10 books so far where I read 5 books in a week in the hostel of Sydney, Australia. I really enjoyed Ramses the Great by Christian Jacq. Thereby inspired to visit Egypt again.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Floating and meditating in warm calm crystal clear water with soothing sun on my face and body in Naxos in Sept, 2007. Blissful!

- Danced salsa and demo'ed yoga on a 4x4 square coffee table surrounded by 9 arab men and 2 friends in Dahab, Egypt in a late night in Dec, 2007

- Hitch-hiked from a non-Engish speaking Indian motorcyclist in Mysore, India, 2008

- Cooked lunch for friends in India and dinner in Naxos in 2008

- Learned to drive a moped in India 2010 and have been driving a moped in Mysore/India for 4 months! Free and wild! If you know of India, you know how crazy it is to drive here.

Teach, Learn, Share

I enjoy sharing. Whatever I know, I am more than happy to share. I enjoy particularly in showing people how to be healthy in the exercise arena and helping people with computer problems.

Helped a friend to install a wireless router in London, UK. Also install a wireless router in Germany even when I don't speak and understand German!!!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, China, India, Thailand, United States

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