CURRENT MISSION

WINTER: To ski every mountain in a 3 hour drive of my house. SUMMER: Take as many bike tours around Bavaria as possible! And to get to know my husband's quirky country!

ABOUT ME

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”
-Miriam Beard

"Chance Favors the Prepared"
-Louis Pasteur

KEYWORDS: cooking, traveling, hitchhiking, hot springs, juggling, accordion music, unicycling, performance art, storytelling, fondue, metals, art, culture, economics, and a good bottle of vintage Porto!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

I am practical, a little cautions, and love to plan (for better of for worse!) As I said I love to cook, and love traveling through countries sampling anything that crosses my path! Hey! Most of the culture is in the food! However when I am not traveling or cooking, or eating I am making things. I graduated with Fine Arts, and International studies under my belt. My work is in metals, in Bronze and Sterling Sculpture/Wearable Art with attention to technical skills and accessible imagery that are for the most part travel-inspired. Apart from art and cooking, I love all types of music (play some clarinet and accordion myself), and enjoy nature hiking, urban hitchhiking, fire juggling, riding the unicycle, and doing things I have never done before! Check me out at: www.mellingtoncartwright.com!

PHILOSOPHY

To, of course, experience life to the fullest. I try and do it all....and my work-a-holic tendancies may be the death of me. but I live my life to make things, and to move move move! Making things and practicing the art of perpetual motion is what makes me feel the most alive in this existence. Unfortunately it has been very hard to settle down and settle for one thing or one place because of it.

I am, partly in an endless search for home. I share homes in many peoples hearts and memories, some in Santa Fe, new Mexico, some in Boston, MA, some in Seattle, WA, Bangkok, Thailand and now Munich, Germany. It's kind of my endless struggle with wanting to travel but wanting to settle somewhere. Stability vs. Instability I guess...

To contemplate what it means to be multi-cultural...and what it means to be a boarder-walker, a go-between, a hilltop climber upon peaks and dunes of the ever-shifting sands of cultural taboos...always tripping, always falling when I fail to tread lightly

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I put people up when I can, and provide information about the surrounding area I live in as well as travel times from point A to B and tips on where and where not to go.

***UPDATE**Dec. 11,2012***

Due to the saddening major changes which have happened to couchsurfing (which also included the removal of my long-time ambassador status) after 8 years of being a part of this awesome community I have finally decided to become more or less inactive on the site because it has become something almost unrecognizable. I have also noticed when people write couch requests there is no personal messages anymore... only couch spam. It saddens me deeply to write this and to realize it is the end of something I use to be so passionate about.... If you would like to get ahold of me for an emergency couch or a simple message please write me at: MellingtonCartwright@gmail.com

I will be creating a new profile on www.BeWelcome.org in 2013. Please look for me under the same user name there. Thank you.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Drayton Heirs just came to Santa Fe, and we went out for drinks and stories, and became so inspired by eachother that we are considering doing a CS travel project (art, documentary, etc... maybe) so stay tuned!

I can say that I strongly support this database and the idea of a network for travelers and hosts. I am glad to be a part of an extended traveling community, especially when I cannot travel a lot.

Interests

oh boy... well I love love cooking, (especially Spanish,and Japanese cuisine!) into Juggling, unicycling, oil painting,(sometimes online gaming.....I'm a nerd...shhh! don't tell anyone!) and dreaming. But my favor things are metalworking and travelling!

The one thing I am not interested in though, is lethargy. When you meet me you will notice that I am a little slow on knowing about things on TV, or pop culture. I just don't allot myself anytime in front of TV's or other screens.

• dogs
• arts
• culture
• humanities
• performing arts
• documentaries
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• running
• walking
• drinking
• clothing
• tv
• traveling
• juggling
• painting
• metalworking
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• sailing
• skiing
• business
• economics
• hitchhiking
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Coraline, etc. Harry Potter, Garth Nix fantasy fiction. Anything by Tom Robbins, Classic works, especialy those by Thomas Hardy, Mark Twain and Ralph Waldo Emerson; The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, any book you throw at me on Gastronomy, oh and a healthy dose of The Economist. Movies? ...AMELIE! Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lunacy, Little Otik, The Science of Sleep, Chocolat, Dead Alive, Bad Taste, Ratatoulle, French, Foreign Films and really bad n' cheesy horror B-movies. Music...TORI AMOS! Smashing Pumpkins, The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, Sigur Ros, Amina, Black box Recorder, Neko Case, The Flaming Lips, Manu Chao, Of Montreal, Mrs. John's Soda, Yo La Tengo, The Magnetic Fields, and Sterolab.... oh boy...that's a little bit about the music I listen too! What a mouth full!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Number 1: Cultural Confrontation

Surviving living in Thailand without knowing much Thai, and attending school, and living with a conservative Chinese family (mine) for the amount of time I was there was pretty challenging and amazing. I do not try and attract the word "fun" in my travels, but rather the word "enriching" and constantly seek to further the elvolution of myself. My attraction and adventures in Asia are amazingly enrishing across the board even though they come at the price of suffering, and frustration sometimes. In long and in short I can only say that All of Thailand was an amazing thing done and seen.

Number 2: Evolution

(9/3/07) I returned from Black Rock City, and Burning Man. This has opened my eyes, made my heart humbled, and created amazing bubbles of thoughts in my mind concerning revelations on humankind, kindness and the life force of the world. Do I sound a little Hippy-Dippy-New-age? For those of you who know me I am very pragmatic, practical and logical, but the energy and healing that the desert shoved into my soul while stripping me down of many other social factors and stirred something greater in my awareness of mortal role in this reality and my interactions with people. yeah ok... so I sound like some spacey new ager for sure! :)

Teach, Learn, Share

1)When traveling always bring a towel. Douglas Adams is correct, a towel is the most important thing and hitchiker, traveler can have on him.
2) When Hitchiking it is good to carry a large walking stick since although cumbersome it has allowed me to be picked up since it identifies you as a traveler and not a junkie hitching to the next town over to pick up drugs. (So says the people who have picked me up.)
3) When hitching (and female), be very cautious. Dress clean and presentable, yet cover yourself up in layers of clothes to look bulky and not so attractive. Tie hair back and wear good shoes. Make sure you look at them in the eyes so you can both judge eachothers character... and finally, the most important tip on assessing a ride: Look in their back seat as you run up to the car. I have always judged a drivers personality a bit by how they keep there back car seats... i.e. does their car have baby clothes, and child's seat? papers and business documents? Is the car cleanb, or dirty? is it dirty with beer cans and greasy car parts, or dog hair and baby toys? This will give you a lead into their personality even before you see their face. Although this advice will NOT protect you 100% from murderers and creeps, it is a tip I have used man y times when assessing rides, especially when you have about 15-25 seconds on the freeways shoulder. In addition, examine the car once it pulls up, then run up to it, examine, back, then examine driver. Car, Backseat, Driver! Good Luck!

if anyone has any other good hitching tips especially what women hitchers do, please let me know. Hitchiking is my favorite means of travel, not for the free aspect, but for the people you meet and the stories you share ont he road. So I would like to know about others tips and tricks for safety and hitching.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Laos, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Netherlands, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Spain, Thailand, United States

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