Hi! Merritt here. Pittsburgh-raised, Washington-DC transient, have lived in Argentina and China in my early 20s.
I am currently living in Antibes, France with my partner Cullen, a DC-native and dual French-American citizen.

About our Journey:

We started traveling together in March 2020 when we went on a retreat together in Thailand with the group Trillium Awakening. We got “stranded on the island,” Gilligan-style with 18 others, at the home of our happy hosts when covid hit. We left the island adventure to create our own meditation sanctuary together at our favorite hotel in Bangkok, House By The Pond. The next four months in confinement included eating delicious pre-prepared microwave organic Thai meals delivered to us every week, drinking instant Nescafé coffee while overlooking the skyline of Sukhumvit, and swimming in our practically private roof-top pool, surrounded by palm trees and home to a handful of chickens that provided the (very few) residences with eggs.

During this time, I woke up at 6am every morning to tutor a home-bound student living in Washington, D.C. When things finally opened up in Thailand, Cullen enrolled in Thai-massage school at Wat Po Temple. It wasn’t until July of 2020 when we were able to fly into France, where I could enter the country on a student visa.

When things started to get a little crazy in the U.S. with presidential elections, we decided to stay in France where things were a bit calmer, health-care was a given, I could continue to study at the University of Tours. Since then we have continued to travel throughout France/EU including trainings, retreats and volunteering in Berlin, Belgium and Plum Village monastery (Thich Nhat Hanh lineage).

What we ‘Do’:

We are both are more students of life, of ‘being’ rather than ‘doing.’ We bring our being-ness to every interaction, as part of a unique self symphony of other heart/mind/souls who wish to play their part in the masterpiece we co-create with every interaction.

We are both committed to both seeding and surviving the future in this time between worlds, in which we (humanity) will have to making the cross from one world’s story into the next, so our life is very full with study, practice and application of the best modalities we know to date to make this possible.

We wish to share and cross-pollinate our training and facilitation practices:

- Social Presencing Theater Advanced Practitioner (Co-developing project for certification)

(https://www.u-school.org/spt)

- Warm Data Host (In application for September 2024 certification)

(https://www.warmdata.life/)

- Certified Emergent Dialogue

(https://oneworldindialogue.com/home-new/emergent-dialogue-essentials/)

- Certified Holacracy

Merritt: BS Anthropology and English Writing, Teach for China 2013-15, Powell Bilingual Elementary, Ms. Merritt-Microschooling 2020, Awakened Human Design 2023

Cullen: MBA Strategy, Innovation and Information Technology, MS Information Science, BS Information Science, Co-Founder [Humanomics.Us](http://humanomics.us/), The G Spot 2033, Founder Meditate Everywhere, Samsara House 2023

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I started this profile in 2011 when I moved to China.

I am re-joining with my partner Cullen as we look for host for 1-week in Berkeley, California for Warm Data Lab Host training at the end of September 2024.

We have done a lot of couch-surfing, cat-sitting, and airbnb outside of the networks and can share references upon request.

Interests

reading, writing, running, yoga, hiking, biking, beach bumming, searching out small cafes, visiting unknown towns, playing and seeing live music - especially jazz

I want to learn to surf! (Merritt - tried in March 2017 in Costa Rica, still want to learn, on the waves and not just da couch :) )

• culture
• writing
• yoga
• running
• reading
• music
• live music
• jazz
• cycling
• hiking
• teaching
• languages
• beaches
• cooking together

Music, Movies, and Books

Currently Listening to: Anyone who is in the NPR Tiny Desk concerts (profile 2011)

On my Shelf: Steppenwolf, Herman Hesse and Women who Run with Wolves, which I'm been pacing through for about 5 months (Merritt, profile 2011)

(still Women who Run With Wolves, 2024)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Ran my first 10k in Dali, Yunnan and came in 9th place for women (Merritt, 2011)

Sailed to Bermuda (Cullen, it was in the 90s)

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach - English, Chinese, Spanish, French to adults or kids
Learn - new languages
Share - stories from around the world, observations on culture, and delicious home-made vegetarian foods

What I Can Share with Hosts

Appreciation and study of our various practices mentioned in the “About Me” section.

Music:
Merritt - saxophone
Cullen - guitar

Cooking:
home-made jams, appreciation of French cuisine (pain perdu, cafe au lait), Indian and Thai curry

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, Uruguay, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, China, France, United States