My girlfriend and I are part way through an extended plane/train/boat/bus/car/scooter/bike hopping trip around Europe, which we are documenting with a website:

www.theavantgrandtour.com

Please check it out!

While studying at the University of Colorado in Boulder I hosted a few couchsurfers and am glad to say each became a friend. In my own travels, couchsurfing has proven an ideal vehicle for meeting similarly curious people and gaining insight into the places they call home.

As of May, 2014, I completed a Bachelor's of Environmental Design (architecture) and am passionate about development, cities, buildings, design, art, technology and ecology. I've interned at an architecture firm specializing in net-zero energy/passive-solar neighborhoods, worked as a graphic designer promoting sustainable transportation, a mechanic repairing and reselling abandoned bicycles and a structural engineering tutor.

My summers of 2013 and 2014 were spent in the Virunga volcanos of Rwanda building rainwater catchment pavilions.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because the world is big and because the world is small. Finding common human traits can be as enlightening as participating in the near infinite diversity of cultures.

Furthermore, because travel isn't so much about observing the unfamiliar (one can do that from their own couch) as it is about placing yourself in it. Such intent leads to genuine experiences as well as opportunities to learn about one's own life by comparison. Practically, this means never focusing singularly on any aspect of a culture but rather trying the food, seeing the art and architecture, learning about the history and customs, meeting the people and generally adopting the local lifestyle as much as a visitor can. Most important, it means being open to conversation.

Put simply, I take stock in the golden cliché of hospitality: do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. I take pleasure in making sincere guests feel as welcome as family and trust there are many who would do the same for me.

Interests

As mentioned, I have a profound academic and professional interest in art, design, engineering, computation, urbanism and the built environment.

That said, I grew up scaling the Rocky Mountains, descending Utah's canyons, getting lost in the woods of Colorado and California and running rivers in Arizona and New Mexico; the wilderness of the American West is where I feel most at home.

• arts
• culture
• literature
• architecture
• design
• graphic design
• environment
• dining
• beer
• running
• boating
• technology
• traveling
• drawing
• bouldering
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• ecology
• teaching
• engineering
• history
• rivers
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Lists are tricky, they tend to get long.

Music:
Neil Young, Nick Cave, Violent Femmes, Pixies, The Roots, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Deerhunter, Gorillaz, Schlomo, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, The Flaming Lips, White Stripes, Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, LCD Soundsystem, Sylvan Esso, OutKast, Robert Johnson, TV On The Radio, Otis Redding, Nirvana, the Talking Heads so on and so forth.

Movies:
Clerks, Goodfellas, The Third Man, Magnolia, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amélie, Fargo, The City of God, Twelve Angry Men, Apocalypse Now, Trainspotting, Motorcycle Diaries, Samsara, Boyhood, The Lord of the Rings, etc.

Books:
Gravity's Rainbow, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, A People's History of the United States, HOWL, Calvin & Hobbes, A Clockwork Orange, Siddartha, Ishmael, Another Roadside Attraction, Brave New World, Man's Search for Meaning, Homage to Catalonia, The Far Side, Stranger in a Strange Land, Sirens of Titan, The Illustrated Man, Invisible Cities, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Delerious New York, Cradle to Cradle... again this could get lengthy...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Befriended gorillas with bananas, and guerrillas with guns.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm happy to teach anything I know... structural engineering, guitar, drawing, web design, the English or Spanish language, history... any knowledge I have I'd be happy to share. I'm even more flexible about learnin.

Also I've made a small habit of exchanging homestyle meals with hosts as a means of getting to know each other and learn something about each other's traditions.

What I Can Share with Hosts

A generally pleasant disposition, plenty of tales from the road, worldly experience, honest curiosity, a wealth of knowledge regarding food, craft beer, music, literature, art, architecture and history and a comfortable place to stay in sunny Colorado if you're ever able to make the trip.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Scotland, Spain, Thailand, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Albania, England, France, Northern Ireland, Spain, Turkey, United States