CURRENT MISSION

become better at most things

ABOUT ME

All about me
a concise autobiography by,
Matthew Nelson

I was born in California, but grew up in the great state of Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.

In 2008 I graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon where my affinity for Russian literature got me to major in Foreign Languages and Literature with a concentration in Russian.

After graduating from college I received a fellowship to teach and study in Russia. I lived in Russia for the two years where I teach English and American Studies at universities in Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia, and Vladivostok, in the Far East.

I then moved to San Francisco, to be near my friends and the ocean. I spent 3 years living in the Bay Area (SF, Berkeley, Oakland), which is the most beautiful place in the world. That's also where I met my wife.

Two years ago we moved to Atlanta in the South of the U.S. I went back to school and earned my M.A. in Applied Linguistics. Next, we are moving to Maine!

I enjoy all of the usual good stuff (food, music, books, travel, tasty beer, etc)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I haven't participated in a few years. When I lived in Vladivostok, I hosted people in my tiny apartment and stayed with some really great people all across Russia.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

All positive.

Interests

music, books, beer, food, bikes, basketball, coffee, writing, Russia, banjo, soccer, dogs, windmills, Oklahoma, the interweb, bison, history, the panopticon, country music (the real stuff not that Toby Keith crap!), going places, languages, sociolinguistics.

• dogs
• writing
• books
• literature
• dining
• beer
• coffee
• traveling
• music
• country music
• basketball
• soccer
• teaching
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Currently Reading:
"Infinite Jest" - David Foster Wallace, "A People's History of the United States" - Howard Zinn

Currently Listening:
The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave, The Dodos - Visitor, Bill Callahan - Sometimes I wish I were an eagle,

Russian Literature and Vonnegut.

Indie ala Cap'nJazz, Pavement, and Akron/Family
Country ala Dock Boggs, Hazel Dickens
Electronic ala Prefuse 73, Caribou

Teach, Learn, Share

I play banjo. I make pizza. I speak Russian. I am an English teacher. I do research in sociolinguistics and intercultural communication.

Countries I’ve Visited

Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Russian Federation