I grew in a sleepy town on the Black Sea coast and always dreamed of traveling. Now, I live in Chicago and love it. I like to meet people from all over the world, learn about them, and share what I've learned by writing and teaching. I've worked as a journalist, professor, school teacher, textbook writer, actress, voice actress, tour guide and interpreter.

I document my travels on Instagram at seagulls.waves

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love meeting people from different places and learning about them. When I travel, my favorite thing to do is to get to know people who live their daily lives there and sharing a bit of their life with them. I will happily host families with kids and show you around! Chicago is a great place to visit with kids, especially during the warm months.

Interests

Meeting people. Experimental theater. Literature. Hiking, snorkeling, camping. And most importantly - traveling, discovering new cultures, getting to know cities and towns and villages and people who live there.

• literature
• theater
• dancing
• baking
• reading
• classical music
• world music
• hiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Nina Simone, blues, old-timey jazz, classical (Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rakhmaninov), world and folk music

Books: One Hundred Years of Solitude. Everything by Camus. Chekhov, Dostoevsky. Mark Twain, Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway.

Movies: Coen Brothers, "Everything is Illuminated," "La Dolce Vita" and most things by Fellini, Tarkovsky, David Lynch, "Royal Tenenbaums" and everything else by Wes Anderson, film noir

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've crossed Europe from Edinburgh to Barcelona on four trains running away from a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that was preventing me from getting back to Chicago to my students.

A play I wrote won in a theater competition and was staged in London and New York.

Teach, Learn, Share

Every time you talk to another person, you learn and you teach

What I Can Share with Hosts

Friendship, laughter, stories, and experiences

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Bahamas, Canada, Cayman Islands, Croatia, Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Montenegro, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Hungary, Russian Federation, United States