CURRENT MISSION

To learn, explore, grow, love, and connect with the world.

ABOUT ME

I'm a high school English and Rhetoric teacher.

I crave adventure.

PHILOSOPHY

To do justice, love mercy and live humbly.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I love travel and I love people. I hope that Couch surfing can be a way for me to connect, make new friends, and explore the world around me.
When possible, I'd love to host people, but I'm ready to show visitors around my hometown, or offer travel advice!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Currently I'm planning a summer excursion to the UK. Half of my time will be spent studying at the University of Oxford. Suggestions or travel tips for the UK? Please let me know!

My couch surfing experience has been limited; I've not traveled or hosted myself, but it's been a fantastic way for me to connect or learn about places that I've visited.

Interests

[In no particular order] I love coffee, reading, faith, soccer, adoption, the Olympics, family, friends, and any opportunity to be hospitable!

I'd consider myself an amateur philologist. Snail mail is wonderful, postcards are fantastic, and writing is a glorious pastime. I collect books and keep handwritten notes that have been sent to me.

I geek out over all things literary. I sing (soprano). I love Star Wars. I love to cook and take care of people.

I am passionate about teaching. My students challenge me, inspire new perspectives, make me laugh, and push me to live life intentionally and live by example.

I love the outdoors, and think very highly of the national park system.

Road-trips are preferable to flying, but I am filled with child-like excitement whenever I set foot in an airport.

Nomadic at heart, travel for me is necessary, and I constantly feel the call to explore the world around me. I am hopeful that these experiences will be followed by many more.

• writing
• books
• singing
• cooking
• coffee
• flying
• reading
• traveling
• outdoor activities
• camping
• surfing
• soccer
• olympics
• teaching
• lakes
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

[A very short list of books that I have read]:
Les Miserables, Hugo
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
The Hobbit& The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Tolkien
The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas
Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and other plays by Shakespeare
Beowulf, trans. Heaney
The Nibelungenlied, author unknown
Gone with the Wind, Mitchell
Sherlock Holmes, Doyle
East of Eden, Stienbeck
Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, Austen
Travesties, Stoppard
Ulysses, Joyce
The poetry of Plath, Keats, Yeats, Kerouac, Collins, and others...

[Some movies I've seen and loved]:
The Fall
The Princess Bride
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Casablanca
The Philadelphia Story
His Girl Friday
Much Ado About Nothing
The Usual Suspects
...and many more.

Music:
Generally: folk music, classic rock, Broadway musicals, Americana, Jazz and other genres. Currently my playlist consists of: Josh Garrells, Frankie Leo, Ray Lamontagne, Bon Iver, The Black KEys, Mumford and Sons, The Civil Wars, Bob Dylan, Old Crow Medicine Show, Flogging Molly, Kimbra, James Taylor, Bastille, Ben Rector, Milk Carton Kids, and many, many others...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've circumnavigated the Great Lakes, traveled to most of the continental U.S.A. from the Pacific Coast to New York City to sunflower-filled plains of Kansas, taken a 4 hour train to the northernmost inhabited city in Canada, and helped with construction work on a church in Tijuana, Mexico. I've played camp cook to a group of 35 campers (most of them students) in the mosquito-infested Everglades.

I've visited museums, wineries, historical monuments and national treasures, traversed gardens, hiked mountains and stood in breathless amazement of forests and waterfalls.

Teach, Learn, Share

Make lists, prepare for anything and everything. Don't wait until the night before to do laundry before packing. Extra towels always come in handy.

Countries I’ve Visited

United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States