CURRENT MISSION

Remember the future!

ABOUT ME

"Panda!"
"Duo, I need less of your sass and more of your shut the hell up!"
"Duo, you're like the Sarah MacLachlan of everything."
"You are the nicest mean person ever."

The above four quotes describe me surprisingly well.

I like things that are funny, absurd, nerdy, and/or delicious. An interesting side effect of that is I like myself most of the time.

I live a small and wonderful life and dream small and wonderful dreams. I spend modestly, except for when it comes to food. I'm firm believer in the power of food: very few other things in life can unite and delight people the way food can. Music and math come close, but I've offended many people's delicate sensibilities by attempting to sing and the majority of math I do involves measuring ingredients for cooking and baking.

People are sometimes amazed by how much I know. I'm always amazed by how much more there is to learn. For me, this is what makes meeting new people so much fun: everyone has knowledge to impart and stories to tell. I love accounts of unique lives and witty banter. It lets me see the roads I have not taken and perhaps never will. I can talk a fair bit myself, but I'm a better listener.

I've traveled more in the first half of my life than I have recently. This is something I wish to rectify in the near future. Right now, I'm more than happy playing a good host in Chicago.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is boring without a soundtrack.
Everything is beautiful, and though some things will hurt, they're worth it.
Try not to be a dick.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

While I've surfed and attended CouchSurfing events, the main way I participate is as a host.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

It started with meeting friends who happened to be CouchSurfers and evolved into co-hosting, hosting on my own, and now co-hosting once more. I hope to be surfing soon.

Interests

When alone, my time is spent doing science, reading, cooking, and all possible combinations thereof.

When with friends, my time is spent cooking, eating, playing games, and talking about everything and nothing.

• singing
• dancing
• education
• dining
• cooking
• baking
• reading
• music
• surfing
• teaching
• engineering
• languages
• mathematics
• science
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Moonrise Kingdom, American Beauty, Hero, plus numerous others. Occasionally I like to fall asleep while watching Fight Club. It's a pretty surreal experience.

Nine Inch Nails, Florence + the Machine, Calvin Harris, among other things. Daft Punk is great for getting work done (Tron Legacy soundtrack, how I love you). Polite people say my taste in music is divergent. Honest people say my taste in music is pretty damn weird. Currently listening to a lot of: Lorde.

American Gods, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kitchen Confidential, and more. I tend to prefer fiction, but also enjoy the (true enough) non-fiction styling of David Sedaris and bad-ass chefs.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In 2013, I visited the vast expanses of Inner Mongolia. We drove on miles after miles of empty highway with nobody else in sight except shepherds herding their sheep. The fog-enshrouded mountains were shedding their summery green and turning shades of bright red and yellow. The grasslands were withering with the season and, in a few troubling spots, desertification was flaying the land. The entire journey was desolate, surreal, and beautiful: it felt like one of the last place in China untouched by the onslaught of industrialization.

Teach, Learn, Share

Will nerd out about:
Ceramic engineering and other science-y tidbits
Education
Cooking
Games
Bad puns

In exchange for:
Good stories
Whatever your area of expertise happens to be
Languages
Music recommendations
Dance lessons

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Japan, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, United States

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