CURRENT MISSION

To be conscious, free and joyful! To walk my soul’s path and spread the bliss! =oD

ABOUT ME

I am...I simply am. =o)

PHILOSOPHY

I can’t immediately point to one all-encompassing life philosophy at this point in my life; instead I live by a few guiding principles and ideas that can be summarised thus:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. - Rumi

I am not an important person, but I have an important job to do.

I like to challenge myself and push myself out of my comfort zone.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Change is the only constant. Everything else shall pass.

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil. - C.S. Lewis

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. - C.S. Lewis

What legacy shall we bequeath the children of tomorrow?

My personal philosophy is definitely a work in progress!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I traveled around the world from March 2011 to June 2012 and met wonderful people through Couchsurfing. Now I'd love to give back and host some surfers while I'm based in Melbourne!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I just returned to Melbourne from 16 months of roaming the world, an experience made all the more transforming by CouchSurfing.

From my very first tentative steps at my first stop, Nairobi, into the warm welcome of Pauline, who was a home away from home, to my last stop at the awesome CS mini-village in Brooklyn, NYC, with Evan and a whole invasion of fellow CSers....

Having friends all over the world is a blessing that words just can't do justice to!

Interests

Languages -€“ I absolutely love learning languages! Currently learning Spanish and have my sights set on mastering Mandarin and learning perhaps Arabic.

Photography

Muay Thai - totally addictive! From it I have gained greater fitness, strength, muay thai and self defense skills, and the motley family of www.aimacademy.com.au

Exploring the world

• photography
• beauty
• education
• fitness
• boating
• traveling
• jiu jitsu
• teaching
• languages
• language exchange
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Life is Beautiful, The Joy Luck Club, Chicago, The Constant Gardener...

Music: Almost everything from Rachmaninoff, Liszt to anime piano themes; indie pop, hip hop to world music, kirtan, latin, jazz and big bag swing to upbeat Disney!

Books: Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, The Journeys of Socrates, The Alchemist, Aphrodite's Daughters, Half the Sky, The Power of Now, The Good Women of China, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Flowers for Algernon, The Girl in the Picture, First They Killed My Father, Boxing with Shadows...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

There are so many!

1) A recent experience that was just amazing was travelling through rural Tibetan Autonomous Region of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces of China with my friend, who is an administrator of an orphanage for Tibetan children.

We took two of the students with us during their school break as their home was too far away, and during our time together, I witnessed them slowly emerge from their shells and blossom. When I first met them, they were very quiet, reserved and hardly spoke. By the end of our 2 weeks together, they were playing practical jokes on us.

It was such a privilege to witness them opening up and blossoming and to have played a part in a chapter of their story. I look forward to going back to see them again and to stay a while next time.

2) Another was spending a whole day at an intimate Thai elephant park, where I had the opportunity to feed the elephants, learn to ride them bareback, wash them and interact with them, all under the watchful instruction of loving mahouts.

3) Sunrise on Dune 45, Sossusvlei, Namibia

4) Horse trekking through the undulating hills of Lesotho

5) Floating on the Okavango Delta in Botswana on a mokoro

6) Attempting to pilot a mokoro and failing miserably, but sharing side-splitting laughter in the endeavour.

7) Attending an ANC Rally shortly before elections in Johannesburg as an 'intern' photojournalist with a CS friend.

AFRICA in general!! Oh...such natural beauty...

8) Life at InanItah. (this would be a whole separate list!) Awakening to the beauty and profundity of life lessons that nature offers at InanItah.

9) Gazing at sunsets against Volcan Concepcion in the Nicaraguan jungle

10) Living in community for the first time at InanItah

11) Little leg in my journey that involved 3 cities, 1 border crossing, 4 friends, 6 chicken buses, 7 hours, 1 stolen wallet (mine), much sweat, and kind strangers...most of all, kind strangers.

12)Pushing myself beyond what I thought were my fitness limits through intense muay thai and Brazilian jiu jitsu training.

13)Serene, and stormy, boat ride in Khao Sok National Park in Thailand.

Teach, Learn, Share

There is a Chinese children’s song that I have loved since the very moment that I heard it. One of the lines of the lyrics goes like this: “Qing ba wo de ge, dai hui ni de jia. Qing ba ni de wei xiao liu xia.” Which loosely translates to “please take my song home, please leave your smile behind”.

There are all manner of things that we could share and teach each other. We could start with conversation and go from there. =o)

As for practical skills, I speak fluent English and Mandarin Chinese; we could enjoy language exchange. I could teach you some self-defence?

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Botswana, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Zambia

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China, Spain

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