My name is Nicolas Constantine Garcia, and I'm a third year electrical engineering student at the University of Notre Dame. However, I'm studying at Oxford University in the UK this academic year.
I was raised on an alfalfa farm in New Mexico, in the U.S.
I've been working with my hands and operating heavy machinery my entire life, but I also play music and shoot a longbow.
I operate on the philosophy that it's my choice to be in the moment and have a good time, so I'm constantly on the look-out for ways to make situations more interesting.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm not going to have many opportunities to travel in the near future, so I really want to get out and conquer Europe while I have the chance.
Ho hum.
Honestly, there are few things I enjoy more than meeting new friends and connecting with people. I come from a very insular background, and I alone among the people I grew up with have the opportunities to appreciate interaction with someone from another culture. That's really why I couch surf. It's not the locales that matter so much as the people I meet.

Interests

I'm really into traditional archery; I've been shooting since I was fourteen years old.
I've been trained in orchestral percussion, and I've been playing the drums and piano for going on ten years. Piano-wise, I really like improvisation and composing my own originals.
My biggest hobby is lifestyle design; I like questioning long-held notions about how one ought to live. I really like experimenting with wacky ideas, especially when it comes to health. My favorite topic is performance: what can I do to make myself better? For me, that's an obsession, and my love of bio-hacking is something really sets me apart. Results of this obsession: I meditate daily, take frigid showers, practice cognitive tracking, and have experimented with several diets, among other things.
I'm also really into technology. Unless you have a physics degree, or are otherwise really into the developing tech scene, I bet I could tell you about a couple up-and-coming realities that might just blow your mind. I want to contribute to the frontiers of electrical technology, so I try to keep up to date on some of these topics.

• culture
• performing arts
• design
• meditation
• clubbing
• technology
• traveling
• music
• piano
• drums
• hunting
• archery
• engineering
• physics

Music, Movies, and Books

I love historical fiction, particularly the Saxon Tales by Bernard Cornwell and Steven Pressfield's Greek novels.
Other than that, I love blogs and books about performance enhancement and lifestyle design (i.e. anything written by Tim Ferris or Dave Asprey).
I can appreciate most types of movies, but I really dig action and comedy.
As far as music goes, I'm into alternative and modern rock.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Leading up to sophomore year of college, I was really getting into mental performance and productivity, specifically for the college arena. I ended up discovering a lot of obscure and mostly helpful resources for accelerated learning and greater retention.
I noticed that not only were other people not doing what I was doing, but they were completely oblivious to it.
So I put together a presentation on all the most effective techniques and resources I found. I convinced the IEEE club at my university to sponsor me and I advertised over Facebook and tried to get everyone and their moms to come. I ended up presenting for fifty minutes to about forty people.
I got a lot of great feedback, and I know of several people who have taken my experiences to heart.

Teach, Learn, Share

I want to learn about your social systems. What is taboo? What is not? What do you think about certain conventions? Tell me stories about your parents and parents' parents. How did they live?

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'll tell you all about what it's like to grow up on a farm in the American Southwest.
I'd like to tell you about my adventures in Europe and China.

But what I really want to share with you are crazy ideas.
My favorite part of conversation is when someone says something that no one involved has ever thought about. I especially like being that person, because I'm lucky enough to have been exposed to so many ideas while having the time to think about them. What I'm saying is, I want to share interesting, meaningful conversation with you. That way, I'm not only being a cultural ambassador and the best-guest-I-can-be, but I can also connect on a personal level.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom, United States