CURRENT MISSION

"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."

ABOUT ME

Greetings! My name is Claire and I’m a recent college grad and grassroots political organizer living in the lovely little city of Charlottesville. I’m a reader, student of social movements, Texas native/East Coast transplant, dancer, and road-tripper. I have loved being part of the couchsurfing community the last two years and look forward to surfing and hosting even more.

I train and connect college students across Virginia who want to organize around issues of social, racial, and economic justice and education accessibility, to collectively envision and build a world with more people power and less corporate power. I feel pretty lucky :)

Current mission: living courageously. "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've surfed four or five times now while traveling/road-tripping (both alone and with friends) in the Southeast and Northeast, and I hope to offer my own couch to surfers when I have my own place soon!

The more I couchsurf, the more I don't want to travel any other way. It's allowed me to get to know new places far better than I would have otherwise, and, more than that, meet amazing people. Give & give back. So glad to be part of the CS community.

Interests

Poetry (writing & reading), politics, good conversations with little attention paid to the time, good conversations over booze, shuffling around a new city, camping, exploring places with friends new or old, comedy, hip hop and modern dancing, anthropology, being the recipient of good music, board games, Democracy Now in the morning, mountain air, laughing really hard.

• writing
• poetry
• dancing
• education
• politics
• board games
• reading
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• camping
• surfing
• bungee jumping
• anthropology
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: River City Extension, Bon Iver, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The xx, Ben Kweller, Cold War Kids, Rachel Yamagata, & things I can dance to.

Authors: Chimamanda Adichie, David Foster Wallace, Tony Hoagland, Joan Didion, Zora Neale Hurston, Paulo Freire, etc.

News: Democracy Now, the Nation, New York Times, Slate, Alternet, n+1, ThinkProgress, Huffington Post, Waging Nonviolence, feminist blogs.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Bungee jumping off a nuclear cooling tower in Soweto, South Africa.
Meeting the King of Bhutan on a hiking trail.
Living/working on a sailboat for a summer in the BVIs.
Already finding two thin-spaces: Iona, Scotland, and Ura Valley, Bhutan.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bhutan, Chile, Costa Rica, France, India, Mexico, Mozambique, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, Virgin Islands, British

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bhutan, United States