CURRENT MISSION

I like meeting interesting people and showing them around a little. I have never Couchsurfed myself but I always seem to meet great people when I host.

ABOUT ME

I am a single teacher in St.John`s. I have lived, worked or studied in around 9 different countries. Travel is a big passion of mine. I speak French and Spanish. I teach for two years and take every third year off. I'm looking forward to my travels when I'm off in September 2020 for the year. I’ll be heading to study Spanish in Lima, Peru. I will also be going to visit family in Europe.

I have dual Irish Canadian citizenship and have studied and or worked for around four years in Europe. I went to high school in Quebec and then to school in Switzerland. I spent a year working in my grandfather's pub and grocery shop in a small town in County Galway, Ireland. I studied Spanish in Malaga, Spain for a year. I have spent many springs and summers wondering around the continent.

I prefer to live in a place rather than just pass through on a holiday. So I lived two years in Japan in Goshogawara and Hirosaki in Aomori Ken. I lived two years in Bogota, Colombia. I also studied Spanish in Buenos Aires, Santiago and Quito. I spent four fascinating months in Cuba at the University of Havana studying Spanish as well.

I'm off in again September 2020 for the year. I'll be in Florida for some of the fall. I plan to spend a month or so volunteer teaching in a Tibetan refugee camp in Dharamsala in India. These days I'm in love with South America. I plan to travel there in the winter of 2021. I'll head to visit family and friends in Europe sometime during the year.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I like meeting interesting people. It's interesting to be able to open my house to people from all over the world. It is a lot of fun getting to know how people from other places view the world, their world and our Canadian world, crazy interesting.

Interests

I love to read. Brandon Sanderson is one of my favourite authors. I loved The Mistborn series and Elantis.

• traveling
• socializing
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

I love all kinds of Spanish music. Van Morrison from Belfast in Northern Ireland is another favorite of mine as is Boz Scaggs and Flores from Spain to name a few

But I'm interested in lots of other music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A few years ago, I biked down Cotopaxi Volcano. It's not far from Quito in Ecuador. We had ours bikes on the roof of a truck and drove up the volcano. It's the second highest summit in Ecuador at about 5,900 meters(19,000 ft).

At the top, it looked like the moon and was cold. Nothing grows there as the sun is too powerful. But as we biked down , it started to look at first like a grassy blanket and quickly became increasingly lush and we were treated to a visual feast. Was like cycling down into a Camille Pissaro painting, simply stunning. I'm planning to bike some more volcanos this coming year.

What I Can Share with Hosts

This city, St. John’s, is around 500 years old, and is a mix of old and new, The Europeans came to fish off the Grand Banks, some of the richest fishing banks in the world. They sailed in from Ireland, England, France, Spain and Portugal and some stayed. These days we are slowly seeing some people from all over the world settle here once again This brings an added richness and charm to the place.

St. John’s is a hilly port town and is colorful and visually unforgettable. A fine place to wonder from pub to cafe listening to the music and to an eclectic collection of surprisingly melodic accents that reflect our Irish and English past. The music scene is a pleasure and to be found in the bars around the waterfront.

I live in St. John’s and back onto a River where I swim most summer days. I'm very close to downtown and the harbour. If I'm free I'll take you for a swim in Rennies River. I got a bee hive last summer and hope to have sweet honey this summer. There are about 40,000 bees there at the height of the summer.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Dominica, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica, Morocco, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Ireland, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, United States