Hey! I’m new to Couchsurfing, but have traveled a good bit in my (rather short) life. I was born and raised in Nashville, TN, but I'm a second year Master student at ETH Zürich. I work on string theory and other topics in high energy theory, but I am also really into languages, literature, climbing, capoeira, and activism. I lived for a year in Salvador, Brasil, working with solidarity economy in Afro-Brazilian animist (Candomblé) holy spaces. I lived for a few months in St. Petersburg, Russia and studied Russian as well in undergrad. Afterward I took five weeks and took varied forms of transit from Petersburg to Indonesia (trains, buses, and some commuter flights). I also studied at the Sorbonne for 6 months and at École polytechnique for a year.

I'm not in the US right now, so I can't host, but if you need recommendations for places in the US, just hit me up ~

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet and interact with real people in the places I pass through bc ppl are cool :) I’ve met so many wonderful ones in so many places.

Interests

• literature
• capoeira
• piano
• rock climbing
• mathematics
• physics
• linguistics
• quantum physics
• classical guitar
• latin
• classics
• classical greek

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Shoegaze (Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Lush, Jesus and Mary Chain), Slowcore (Low, Codeine), Kraftwerk, Swans, Blackgaze (Alcest), Noise, Folk, Alt-folk (Bon Iver, Sufjan), Alt Rock, Prog Rock, Brazilian MPB (Caetano, Gil, Djavan) Bossa Nova (Jôbim, Gilberto), Russian rock (Кино, Аквариум), French alternative (La Souterraine)

Movies: I’m really into art film and the history of film. Lots of Soviet cinema (Tarkovsky, Norstein, Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera). One of my favorite recent films is Martel’s Zama — absolutely breathtaking. I’ve been getting more into French new wave film lately. Check out La Jetée by Christopher Marker! I like movies a lot, but haven’t had as much time to watch as many as I’d like.

Books are wonderful. I have been working a lot on languages lately partially because I love to read books in the original (Aeneid, Tacitus’ Annals in Latin, Iliad in Greek, Voltaire in French, Dostoevsky and Pushkin in Russian). I think when ppl say you can only read a book in the original, that’s really pompous and false - most translators are really good; however, the more different a language is from English, the more you lose in translation I think.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Helped film a 40-minute documentary on the Pataxó tribe in Brazil near Santa Cruz da Cabrália. Since Cabral landed there in 1500, the indigenous peoples have been most affected by colonialism and have been working to recapture aspects of culture they have lost or which are quickly dying. They requested a documentary to aid in explaining their culture to visitors, as well as to serve as a means of recording their culture.

Teach, Learn, Share

I play guitar and piano and love to teach! I am also an English teacher and am always happy to help you practice your English:)

What I Can Share with Hosts

English practice! Good conversation about linguistics, politics, art, literature, music, physics (or really anything else you wanna talk about).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, England, France, Russian Federation, Switzerland, United States