CURRENT MISSION

To listen to nature and to humans; to be real and present as often as I can; to understand my own feelings.

ABOUT ME

I like lakes, campfires with good friends, languages, books, and living as though industrial civilization had already collapsed.

I grew up middle-class and suburban in Ohio, and I’ve been slowly recovering ever since. I’m learning to love, to listen, to care for the land, to live from the land, to live like there is a tomorrow, to be a good ancestor, to live with others, to understand others, to understand myself.

There’s a lot to unlearn and reject on the way to all that, and I find that the way I live now is fascinatingly unacceptable and inexplicable to folks back in the suburbs. I often end up living as what the law would call a vagrant, circumventing laws that are wrong, working for love instead of money, and enthusiastically embracing the unfolding collapse of the global economy. Life’s more fun down here among the riffraff.

At base it’s all about living genuinely, though, not some need to try to be a rebel. I wander, but I’m slowly and circuitously wandering toward a real, deep understanding of what it means to be *home* — I intend to settle down somewhere and put down roots that will last at least my lifetime and hopefully some generations after it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I wandered the globe a lot from 2012 to 2014, and mostly camped out in forgotten spaces in a little tent, but occasionally came to Couchsurfing to find someone to stay with if I was going to someplace where I knew no one.

I'm wandering again (as of this writing in 2018), but this time around I’m going to more places where I know someone or at least can call ahead, so I’ve used Couchsurfing much less. In between my two trips I lived in Minneapolis and offered a couch but never ended up meeting anyone through that.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Stayed with fantastic hosts in Kraków, Moscow, Oxford, and Machynlleth (Wales), each one a completely different unforgettable experience, and even went to a party in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Interests

• books
• environment
• canoeing
• camping
• hunting
• calligraphy
• languages
• spirituality
• permaculture
• biking
• stories
• learning
• primitive skills
• words

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: The Mountain Goats, Joanna Newsom, Sufjan Stevens, Sibelius, Philip Glass, Neutral Milk Hotel, Bartók, The Books, Penderecki, John Houx, Frank Zappa, Cake, The Beatles, The Punch Brothers, to name a few.

Books: Alan Mendelsohn the Boy from Mars, Walden, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (and its forerunner the Tao Te Ching), Neither Wolf nor Dog, the entirety of Calvin and Hobbes, Amphigorey, Gravity’s Rainbow, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and many many more I’m not currently remembering.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and I biked to the Tonlé Sap lake. There were people taking an expensive tour boat to a floating village on the lake, but I decided to just walk down a long spit of sand into the lake. It was abuzz with local people, repairing boats, eating lunch, kicking balls around, just living. Then I got to the end of the spit and a Canadian guy who had come out of nowhere helped me into a new level of adventurousness: he didn't let the end of the land stop him, he just hailed a passing local boat and asked to go wherever the driver was going. I hopped in too and we made it to the floating village and saw people living in bright-colored boats, and we ate snake jerky and saw dried alligator skins and drank with a local. And hitchhiked back, too.

Teach, Learn, Share

Stuff I know:
— Some Korean cooking, and a pretty good pad Thai recipe I learned in Thailand, which I can demonstrate if the necessary ingredients are on hand.
— Calligraphy/fancy lettering.
— Languages. I only speak one second language (Spanish) with anything approaching fluency, but I know bits here and there about dozens of languages, and would be more than happy to talk about them.
— And relatedly, English word histories. Absolute ridiculous nerd for these. Ask me anything.
— Practical dumpster-diving.

Stuff I'd like to know more of:
— Wilderness skills. Especially wild edibles.
— Permaculture in practice, both the landscape design part and the sometimes neglected community-building part, which is in some ways even more important.
— Your stories. What people are like — they're all so different.
— Cooking the local food wherever I am.
— Other languages. One can never know enough.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Stories from my previous travels, including trainhopping tales and hitchhiking stories. As well as practical tips in case you want to try getting around either of those ways. And of course the destinations I arrived at, like fun places all over Europe, and wildernesses and intentional communities around North America.

I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve taken for their first dumpster dive. It’s a way to get free (and perfectly sanitary) food and have an adventure at the same time.

I’m currently more of a student than a teacher of what it means to interact with nature in a spiritual way, but I’m more than happy to share with anyone who doesn’t know the things I know and would like to.

Countries I’ve Visited

Cambodia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Laos, Mexico, Mongolia, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea, United States