CURRENT MISSION

finding the perfect taco

ABOUT ME

a peripatetic good-time enthusiast

PHILOSOPHY

My mom always says "you are exactly where you're supposed to be". My mom also likes to tell me that there's a lid for every pot. I guess it has something to do with all the fish in the sea and my chances of ever catching one. She's full of sage advice like that. My mom basically rocks when it comes to life philosophies. Unfortunately, I'm a terrible fisherperson (figuratively and literally) and an oddly shaped jar (figuratively, only).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I hosted a LOT in Korea and a bit in Kuwait. I surfed in Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'An, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Interlaken as well as helped organize and attended meet-ups in Shanghai, Beijing, and Lloydminster. Enjoyed a brief stint as a nomadic ambassador, wouldn't mind being an amb again.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Couchsurfing is awesome! When I joined, it was about a place to sleep and saving a little money, but I soon started doing a LOT more hosting than surfing, and I realized that it really is about more than just a place to crash. It's also about all the great people you can meet on your way through life!

Interests

muay thai, rowing, bungee jumping, ballet, ukrainian dance, reading, cooking, scuba diving, traveling, lomo cameras, syntax, semantics, morphology, having new experiences, learning new things, exploring new places

• fish
• poetry
• dancing
• ballet dancing
• cooking
• wine
• reading
• traveling
• fishing
• hunting
• surfing
• scuba diving
• bungee jumping
• boxing
• rowing
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: I am a sucker for pretty much any comedy. I also love "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", "Chicago", "Old Boy", "Everything is Illuminated", and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

Books: I've read (and liked)
"Crime and Punishment" (Dostoevsky)
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (Kundera)
"Confederacy of Dunces" (Toole)
"The Neon Bible" (Toole)
"Memories of my Melancholy Whores" (Marquez)
"Norwegian Wood" (Murakami)
"As for me and my House" (Ross)
"Everything is Illuminated" (Foer)
"The Prophet" (Gibran)
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" (Wilde)
"The Culture Code" (Rapaille)
"In Defense of Food" (Pollan)
"The Black Swan" (Taleb)
"The Satanic Verses" (Rushdie)
"Jitterbug Perfume" (Robbins)
"Skinny Legs and All" (Robbins)
Lonely Planet
Current project is to read all of "In Search of Lost Time" (Proust)-- I'm almost finished volume 2.
Is it just me, or are Dan Brown books really terrible?

Music: Cure, Hayden, Ween, Violent Femmes, Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Corb Lund, Johnny Cash, Jack Johnson, Pixies, City and Colour, White Rabbits, Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Jose Gonzales, The Hives, Wilco, Kaiser Chiefs, CAKE, White Stripes, Iron & Wine, Bloc Party, Cat Power, The Clash, Broken Social Scene, Badly Drawn Boy, Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, The Kinks, Kings of Convenience, Pulp, Beck, Velvet Underground, Pogues, Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, Of Montreal, Panic at the Disco, Bright Eyes, The Killers, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Magnetic Fields, Strokes, Jack Johnson, Elliott Smith, Electric Six, Bif Naked, and the list goes on...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Rowing on the North Saskatchewan on a dark, cold October morning in inky black water with shooting stars and the Northern Lights dancing above our heads.

Abseiling down a 25 metre waterfall in Vietnam wearing only cheap canvas shoes and without a helmet!

Learning how to read an alphabet that looks like it's composed of tetris pieces.

Head-butting Wesley Willis.

Being in Kim Il Sung's mausoleum.

Being in Kim Il Sung's mausoleum when the power went out.

Sparring with a Thai boxing champion and eventually tripping him (purely by luck).

Coming from a country that prints little ditties on our currency. A quote from our five dollar bill: "The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places: the school, the church, and the skating rink, but our real life was on the skating rink." I don't want to brag, BUT it's also available in French! Even more to brag about: we have bilingual sayings and poems on all our bills. How many other people can say that about their currency?

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to fold a dollar bill (or tugrug note) into a tiny little t-shirt and I can teach you how to make wine (or a rough approximation) from grape juice, bread yeast, and a balloon.

I'm currently making a living as an English teacher, so I could "learn" you some English! I've also worked as a French teacher, so if you'd be interested in learning French, I could teach you a few words. :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Cambodia, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, North Korea, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, Kuwait, Mongolia, Myanmar, South Korea

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