Hi -- we're Nik and Savannah, a pair of queer cis women in Philadelphia who love building community and learning about people and places!

Nik works at a university ("helping online courses not suck" is her way of describing her job) and Savannah works at the city's economic development agency (working on a team that uses federal grants and other funding to loan money to businesses and nonprofits that wouldn't qualify for traditional bank loans -- frequently women-owned and BIPOC-owned businesses). We met online at the very end of 2020 and began traveling back and forth between Philadelphia, PA and Wilmington, NC to see each other for 18 months before Nik moved to Philly.

Now we share a cozy two-bedroom apartment with cats, houseplants and a slightly overcrowded fire escape garden. Fun fact: We knew it was "real" when we gave each other dedicated lines in our respective budgets.

We spend a lot of time with friends, in parks, playing board games, Latin dancing (mostly Nik), birding (mostly Sav), reading, cooking (Savannah is very into Ottolenghi recipes), and finding fun things to do in Philadelphia.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We love sharing our second bedroom with friends and family and are interested in hosting potential new friends and connections too.

Savannah's parents spent several years living in Slovakia and Russia in the 1990s, and in the UK in the 2000s, and the friends they made while living abroad have stuck with them and brought them a lot of beautiful connection (and travel experiences). We went to visit them and their friends in Bulgaria in 2023 and were struck at how amazing it was to visit a place and get to know it with the help of people who knew the cities and country well. We want to share what we love about Philadelphia -- and to share in what other folks love about their home towns, cities, and countries.

Interests

• cats
• books
• salsa dancing
• cooking
• vegetarian
• board games
• music
• hiking
• volunteering
• parks
• food
• biking
• sewing
• latin dance
• crafting
• birding
• learning spanish
• pescatarian
• movie nights

Music, Movies, and Books

Nik's recent or enduring favorites:
- Sitcoms, bad reality TV, terrible CW teen dramas (The Good Place, The L Word, Riverdale, Yellowjackets, to name a few)
- NK Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Erin Bow
- Priory of the Orange Tree

Sav's recent or enduring favorites:
- Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire
- Studio Ghibli movies

We both love sapphic movies, scifi/fantasy, and pop music.

Teach, Learn, Share

Between us, we can share:
- Basic sewing techniques/repairs (or how to thread your sewing machine)
- Basic salsa/bachata steps
- A few baked goods (banana bread and chocolate chip cookies, mostly)
- Bird identification lesson
- Excellent recipes (that we did not invent)
- Personal finance tips/budgeting enthusiasm

Countries I’ve Visited

Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States