CURRENT MISSION

Seeing new places, meeting new people, and learning new things!

ABOUT ME

My name is Sara and I just finished school at American University, where I studied Latin American Studies and Spanish. I love to travel, see new places, and meet new people. I've spent time in Nicaragua and Mexico, as well as many other shorter trips in the US and abroad. My friend and I are traveling this summer, and I'm so incredibly excited to learn new things and meet new people across the US. I love old time blues music, eating fried green tomatoes, and dancing salsa (among other things). I grew up in Springfield, IL and am likely moving to NYC at the end of the summer.

PHILOSOPHY

I see myself as a tiny part of a large world in which we are all connected to each other in some way or another. I think the problems we see every day are a result of us forgetting that we are all in this together and that we all have a responsibility to ourselves, each other, and the world. I am always trying to deconstruct this tangled web we live in to understand the ways injustice functions and how it limits who we are and prevents us from being who we should be. I spend the majority of my time trying to understand more deeply and turn that understanding into action. I can't wait to meet more of you who feel the same!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I'm new to the Couchsurfing community and am looking forward to getting more involved. I have tons of travel experience and I don't need hardly anything to be comfortable and happy. I'm a laid-back, considerate guest who is always willing to return the favor.

Interests

Eating Southern food, reading all the books I can get my hands on, listening to bluegrass, practicing jiu jitsu, researching folklore, seeing new things, reflecting on life, and making this world a better place.

• books
• folklore
• dancing
• dining
• reading
• traveling
• music
• blues
• jiu jitsu
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon; Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde; Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua; Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton; This Side of Glory by David Hilliard; Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano; A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn; Soledad Brother by George Jackson; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz; Chomsky on Anarchism by Noam Chomsky; Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander; The Empire's Workshop by Greg Grandin; and the list goes on and on.

Music: Mississippi Fred McDowell, Blind Willie McTell, Skip James, Gillian Welch, Earl Scruggs, Brother Ali, Calle 13, Carla Morrison, Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, Roscoe Holcomb, Chavela Vargas

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach some Spanish to anyone who's interested in learning! I don't consider myself an expert on anything, but am very interested and have some knowledge about Central America and Mexico, the origins of blues music, and social movements.

I'm always interested in documenting folk history (like oral testimonies) of people's lives. We all have a story to tell and I believe history can best be understood not from a history book, but from the ordinary people who lived it. I love to talk about everyday experiences and am always interested in hearing people's stories.