CURRENT MISSION

I'm back home in Ottawa and trying to get back into the swing of things. My data is collected so now my next mission is analyzing and writing. First, I must beseech the motivation gods...

ABOUT ME

Well, I'm a PhD candidate at uOttawa who loves cats, food, D&D, and this beautiful planet. I adore my hometown and love showing people that Ottawa is just as amazing as Toronto or Montreal, just in very different ways.

I’m able host people and also happy to meet travellers for a coffee or drink.

PHILOSOPHY

阅读道德经. Go.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Well, I've mostly hosted people. When I lived in Vlora, I was the resident tour guide. After a brief hiatus, I started surfing again in the Baltic countries and will once again be hosting people now that I'm back in Ottawa.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

With very few exceptions, I've had fantastic experiences with CouchSurfing! Some of the places I've seen wouldn't have been as fun or interesting or meaningful if it hadn't been for my hosts :)

Interests

My general interests tend to revolve around my sociological/academic interests: the sociology of art and culture, the sociology of language, the construction of race and ethnicity, post-socialist nations in transition, urbanism, sex and sexuality, and gender. Of course I'm interested in traveling, too. Also, I love D&D and would be keen to get a regular group started!

• arts
• culture
• architecture
• photography
• coffee
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• painting
• camping
• teaching
• sociology
• beaches
• mountains
• nature
• roleplaying games
• dungeons and dragons
• dungeons & dragons

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: South African kwaito and pop, North American oldies, classical and instrumental music, disco, klezmer music, hip hop and R&B, mariachi and conjunto, and 80s/early 90s Balkan music (e.g., Lepa Brena)

Movies: Rocky Horror, Chicago, Evita, Huozhe, The King of Masks, Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom, Fiddler on the Roof, Gong Fu Hustle, Rejected, Bollywood films, Iron Jawed Angels, The Bird Cage, Kinky Boots, Love Actually, Calendar Girls, Torch Song Trilogy, Big Eden, Crash, The Contender, But I'm a Cheerleader, Fahrenheit 9/11, Death of a President, 54, Bowling for Columbine, My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Books: Animal Farm, 1984, The Color Purple, Howl, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Solstorm, Saknad, Mördare utan ansikte, Stolen Harvest, 道德经, The Communist Manifesto, Slaughterhouse Five, Fahrenheit 451, Nickled and Dimed, Bait and Switch

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One? Everything I've ever seen or done has been amazing. I've seen the pyramids in southern Mexico, my family's breathtaking hometowns of Saltillo and Monterrey; the Mars-like landscape of northern Armenia and the only remaining Greco-Roman temple in the former Soviet Union; the bullet-marked buildings of Sarajevo and northern Bosnia by train; the Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral and Russian Cathedral in Sofia; the vast Canadian wilderness and booming metropolis of Toronto as well as the European jewel of North America, Montreal; the breathtaking botanical gardens in Copenhagen; the never-ending metropolis of Paris; the Caucasian Republic of Georgia that will forever hold a special place in my heart; the contrast of old and new in Berlin as well as Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg; the hippo reserves in Weichau, the largest market in West Africa and the slave castles of Cape Coast; the Acropolis; the artfully romantic architecture of Budapest; Gullfoss, Thingvellir and Geysir, plus Gay Pride in Reykjavík; the world's largest complex of sundials in Jaipur, the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, Mother Theresa's convent, the sex temples of Kujaraho, the Buddha's birthplace and boddhi tree of enlightenment, burning and decaying bodies in the Ganges in Varanasi, the Himalayas and Mount Everest, the tea plantations and tiger reserves of Sikkim, the site of Christianity's arrival to India, the Silicon Plains of Bangalore, plus a dozen states and even more cities of the world's largest democracy by train; the winding alleys, River Liffey and Guinness plant in Dublin; HaKotel, the Dome of the Rock, the Old and New cities of Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, the Dead Sea, the cosmopolitan metropolis of Tel Aviv, the hills of Haifa and the beaches of HaBonim; the fashion capital of the world, the Forum, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel and Michaelangelo's David; the slums of Kingston and the pristine beaches of Montego Bay; the desert in Jordan; the global diversity in Prishtina; the ancient in Ohrid, the serene in Sveti Naum and the bustling in Skopje; the ancient Maltese cities of Valletta and Rabat and the idyllic beaches of Xlendi; the fairytale city of Kotor, the hideous captial of Podgorica and the picturesque Sveti Stefan; the sand dunes of Scheveningen, De Parade in Utrecht, the Rijksmuseum and redlight district in Amsterdam, the Oude and Nieuwe Kerken in Delft and the international capital of the world; camels and shephards in the West Bank; the fun-loving capital of former Yugoslavia; Table Mountain, Lions Head, and Signal Hill in Cape Town, the Garden Route, and the Cape Winelands; Gamlastan, Djurgården and the islands of Stockholm; plus hundreds of cities that define the diversity of the United States.

Teach, Learn, Share

As a teacher, I tried to bring my traveling experience into the classroom at any possible time. When I taught in Albania, I would sometimes have my couchsurfers come into the classroom and talk about themselves and their experiences.

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Namibia, Netherlands, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Poland, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Albania, Canada, Georgia, Mexico, South Africa, United States

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