CURRENT MISSION

I've spent too much time just being, and not enough time living. It's time to change that.

ABOUT ME

I'm a teacher from Australia's beautiful Sunshine Coast. I'm friendly, social and mostly sensible. I live with my partner, my teenage son, and three cats.

I enjoy learning about the local culture and history of an area. I love trying local foods & drinks, and I really enjoy good company.

PHILOSOPHY

What the heck, why not?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I don't know yet. I've just started.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have hosted visitors from France and Canada. We had a great experience both times.

Interests

Travel, eating foreign foods, learning about different cultures.

I love foreign supermarkets. I think they really show how people live. And I love being escorted through a foreign supermarket by a local who can tell me what everything is!

If I'm travelling on my own I'll stick with major tourist attractions, but if I have a guide I would rather see the real country.

• cats
• fish
• culture
• drinking
• traveling
• socializing
• fishing
• teaching
• history
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

Music is really important to me. I wish I could play an instrument or sing but I can't, so instead I am a very enthusiastic audience. I like most styles of music except dark head banging stuff and opera. My favourites are generally folk, or folk inspired. I love a lot of Seventies' classics. Some of my favourites are The Waifs, Cat Stevens, The Whitlams, Kate Miller-Heidke. These days I tend to choose individual songs rather than commit to the artist. In my car currently is New Politics' Harlem which I like to play very loudly.

I read a lot, but mostly non-fiction and a lot of it is for work. My favourite novel is Catch 22 and it's one of the few books I've ever read more than once. Non-fiction books I have loved include The Science of Fear, Nudge and anything by Dan Ariely. I'm just finished Gabriel Mate's "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction" and it was excellent.

I'm really picky about movies and my kids say I'm overly critical, but really I just get frustrated by the stereotypes and predictability of most of what's out there. That said, my favourite movie is a cheesy Hollywood comedy - Dave, with Kevin Kline and Sigorney Weaver. Movies I've enjoyed recently include "Blue is the Warmest Colour," "Short Term 12" and "Don John."

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Okay, apart from the birth of my children, the most amazing things I've seen are travel-related, and probably somewhat cliché, but they are still amazing to me so I'll list them here:
1. The first time I went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. The waters were so clear and blue, the coral a multi-colour wonderland and the fish so curious and colourful.
2. We arrived in NYC late at night and decided to visit the Empire State Building. We got up there at about midnight and it was snowing (remember I'm from the sub-tropics so snow is really special to me) and the lights of the city and the snow were just so incredibly gorgeous.
3. Niagara Falls in Winter time (see comment above about snow). It was really so gorgeous.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a teacher so I'm meeting people and learning from them all the time. I'm an information sponge, so I think I have something to learn from just about everybody.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Germany, New Zealand