Graduated from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, USA with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology. Spent the three years since then in Kenya, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa, Thailand, Spain, and Ireland doing wildlife research, animal training, or tourist traveling. I love animals, science, cognition, ethology (study of animal behavior), and field work. I spent a year living in the Masai Mara collecting behavior data on spotted hyenas and had an incredible time. Hyenas are my favorite animal and I could talk about them forever.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love to travel, meet new people, and see new places. I want to learn about conservation and nature the world over, and spend as much time out in wild spaces as possible...but also love thriving cities stuffed full of people and museums and culture. Couchsurfing seems like the best way to do this while on a budget, especially. Due to the nature of seasonal employment opportunities in the field of wildlife research, I often don't have a lot of money to spare, but can't quite stomach the idea of returning to my parents' house in the USA every time I'm not actively working at a field site. I want to travel all over the world and meet all kinds of people!

Interests

• animals
• dogs
• writing
• reading
• traveling
• animal care
• music
• hiking
• backpacking
• ecology
• gender studies
• science
• wilderness
• playing music
• harp
• playing piano
• dog training
• gender equality
• nature conservation
• zoology
• elephants
• queer theory
• ethology
• spotted hyenas

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - rather eclectic taste, recently been into EDM and movie soundtracks. I love Symphony of Science, if any of you fellow science geeks have heard of that - it's scientists' words autotuned into surprisingly good music. You should check it out.

Movies - anything Disney. Anything thought-provoking. Basically just not horror or romance movies. Also I try to find the most feminist movies I can.

Books - fantasy or sci-fi if I am reading fiction, science/psychology books if I am reading non-fiction...Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is probably my favorite book of all time, and it is actually fanfiction, but involves a lot of principles of rationality, human cognition, and explorations into character motivations that I really like.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiked up the Grand Canyon barefoot. My feet got blisters from rain-soaked shoes and I took them off after only a few hours of hiking up. It was crazy and hurt but I felt so accomplished when I finally got to the top. Also the number of stares and concerned words I got from people was pretty incredible. Met a lot of interesting people that way!

I also once got to participate in the release of a brown hyena from the wildlife rehabilitation center I was volunteering at in South Africa - a truly rewarding and exhilarating experience to watch him finally run free again after over two months in an enclosure healing.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I know a lot about hyenas, animal behavior, ecology, animal training, and psychology/cognition. I speak English fluently (I'm from the USA so grew up speaking it) and could teach some. I like to cook and would be happy to make some meals for hosts. I have an enormous music collection (12,000+ songs and some audiobooks) and a sizeable collection of scientific papers on a variety of subjects in digital format that I could share via flash drive. And I have interesting stories from my travels around the world if you want to hear them!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Egypt, England, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ethiopia, Kenya, United States