CURRENT MISSION

write.

ABOUT ME

I'll put this at the top, for full disclosure, even though it's not the most important thing about me: I find the gender options offered by couchsurfing to be limiting. I am a male identified person, with the emphasis on person. If you're confused about this, feel free to google 'gender spectrum' or 'transgender umbrella'. I'm also very open to conversation about this.

So. On to the important things, like personality:

Hey I can be pretty quiet at first--I'm not shy, but don't always talk a lot. I'm interested in almost everything, but especially languages, poetry that messes around with language, development and connections between languages and cultures...

I read a lot. Russian literature and poetry, French poetry, especially. Platonov, Dostoevsky, Pasternak (poetry, not prose), Khlebnikov, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Tristan Tzara--these especially.

But my favorite novel at the moment is The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursala K. LeGuin.

I like to go places and write down as much as I can about what I see. I want to record everything, and then write poems or stories.

I will walk for hours in a new place--this is my way of understanding where I am, what it's like there. I like to wander around and get lost and climb things and look at other things and people, and then figure out where I am and then get lost again and walk until I can't feel my hands if it's winter and go to a kafe and drink black coffee and who knows what I will find one of these days.

I practice yoga anywhere there is enough floor space, and if there isn't space I'll make up yoga adaptations and do some anyway.

I want to know what you're reading, and what you think about.

I want to see as much of Russia as I can while I'm living here, talk to as many people as possible, sit in the corner of as many rooms as possible and watch what life is like. I want to sit in the corner of rooms all over the world, and see what life is like.

I get really sick of living in the city sometimes. Need to find a forest or a mountain or both, go walk in/on it all day.

I'm terrified by the idea of 'going out dancing' in the modern sense.

PHILOSOPHY

'thy people, lord, thy people, are good enough for me'

'take wrong turns, open unmarked doors, if you see a group of people in a field go find out what they're doing. Do things without knowing how they'll turn out. You're curious and smart and bored and all you see is the choice between working hard and slacking off. There are so many adventures that you miss because you're waiting to think of a plan. To find them, look for tiny interesting choices, and remember that you are always making up the future as you go.' XKCD

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have met so many generous people traveling, and look forward to meeting many more. Someday when I have my own place I will host other travelers.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Stayed with a wonderful family in Casablanca, Morocco in 2010
and With a very lovely lady in Tours, France, in 2011.
Have stayed with many fantastic, kind, people all over Russia (2012-13)

Interests

hiking/trekking, biking, yoga, genetics, biology, biodiversity, organic farming, milking cows, fresh peas, reading french, russian, american (any!) poetry, writing, apple trees, tall ships (spent two years working as a deckhand on various schooners on the east coast of the states), folk music, language, linguistics, russian literature, philosophy, thinking, cooking good food, eating good food...

• writing
• books
• literature
• poetry
• make up
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• coffee
• yoga
• walking
• drinking
• reading
• traveling
• music
• folk music
• cycling
• hiking
• biology
• teaching
• genealogy
• languages
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

the little prince.
notes from the underground.
hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Kitchen Knight
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Brothers Karamazov
House of the Dead
Soul -Platonov
The Waste Land -T.S. Eliot

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I wake up every day, and so far my lungs still breathing, heart still beating, eyes still perceiving, brain still spinning along making words.

Teach, Learn, Share

can help you with english if you want

yoga if you want--I'm not a certified teacher, but I've been practicing for a year.

if you're into philisophical discussions over tea I can dig right in there with you.

or walking all day to get somewhere cool.

Countries I’ve Visited

Senegal

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Russian Federation, Senegal, United States