CURRENT
2021: Traveling the world with my daughters (ages 7 and 9). I'll be in Brooklyn a few months.

MISSION
To understand this world. Now, also, raise my kids.

ABOUT ME
Spent the last 7 years living in Kona, Hawai'i fixing up houses, hosting work traders, setting up a home base and my airbnbs.

Before that, I spent 3 years in Nepal, where I was super immersed in setting up a media arts collective, a guesthouse, and then a 'family life' as my first daughter was born in Kathmandu.

I was born in Ukraine, but my family emigrated to the US when I was 6. But then at 18, I started roaming and it became a way of life. I like to move slowly through the places I go to, respect them, begin to attempt to understand something of them, experience whatever may come my way.

I am full of wanderlust, am happiest on the road, and always wanting adventure. My preferable method of travel is hitchhiking. I become thrilled when someone invites me to stay in their village.

A short film I made on happiness in Nepal:
Khusee Bhaneko: A Thing Called Happiness

A media arts collective we started in Nepal:
Sattya Media Arts Collective

Just me:
@aneechka_v

PHILOSOPHY

* "Live to the point of tears." -Albert Camus

*Don't listen to what they say. Go see. ~Chinese proverb

*"Those who know they have enough are rich" -Lao Tzu

*"Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry." -Jack Kerouac

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have been CSing since 2005, staying at people's places all over the world A LOT. When I was more 'settled' in places like Kathmandu (Nepal) and in Austin (USA), I hosted a bunch too. Have met great people and made some lifelong friends through CS.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

In villages in Nepal (no couches!!)
In mountains homes in India
Taken in by families in Morocco
Everywhere I have been in Europe
Through homes of Mexico
West Coast of the US
most of it before I knew there was a site to do it formally!

Also, I use it all the time to ask people questions, connect with people all over, find travel partners, share info, and so on. It's been really amazing for that.

Interests

Activism
Photography & Film
Philosophy
Anthropology/Sociology
Cultures/Peoples
Languages
Nature (really getting out there into it)
Music and dancing or jumping around
Writing
Reading
Walking up mountains, camping on beaches
Hitchhiking and plain old hiking too
Cooking
Jam sessions
Farming
Drinking wine, wine, wine
Crazy long conversations
Culture jamming and subversive activity in general

• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• photography
• film making
• diy
• cooking
• wine
• walking
• drinking
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• camping
• anthropology
• communications
• journalism
• languages
• sociology
• hitchhiking
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

too much to start-

BOOKS:
Kerouac's The Dharma Bums and all his books really; Haruki Murakami; Wade Davis's Light at the Edge of the World; Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond; The Razor's Edge by Maugham; Ishmael by Daniel Quinn; Siddhartha by Hesse; The Kite Runner & A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini; Life of Pi; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius & What is the What by Dave Eggers; The Perks of Being a Wallflower; The Space Between Us; Catcher in the Rye; Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing by Robert Wolff; A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen; The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra; Barbara Kingsolver; The Bell Jar by Plath, ee cummings, Dylan Thomas, and the list goes on, and on, and on.

Media/Journalism/Web/Activism: Edward Murrow, P. Sainath, ADBUSTERS, Vice magazine, Al Jazeera, BBC radio, Al Jazeera, The Daily Show, Story of Stuff, Vandana Shiva, Arundhati Roy

music:
Ani Difranco, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Utah Philips, Pearl Jam, Joni Mitchell, Beatles, Bob Dylan, RATM, Dan Bern, The Breeders, Mazzy Star, Regina Spektor, Tori Amos, Raina Rose, punk, ska, blues, folk, rock, rap, bluegrass, spoken word and all kinds of random stuff as long as it makes me think, feel, or dance. (Though I admit I have a soft spot for acoustic guitar). What I love most of all maybe is the unnamed, unpackaged music that is made in a moment, and in that moment only...whether it was jams at Kerrville Folk Festival or street musicians or in villages where music is by the people, for the people...

MOVIES (many are docs):
Baraka, Examined Life, Born into Brothels, Powaqquatsi,
The Root of All Evil, Persepolis, Bridge Over the Wadi, Paper Moon, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Spirited Away, Garden State, Daughter from Danang, Himalaya, Foxfire, Beautiful Losers, Travelers and Magicians, Up the Yangtze, Amelie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Brother's Keeper, Fairytale of Kathmandu, Garbage Dreams, Last Train Home, Taqwacore, There Once Was an Island, etc.

this is a choppy list...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

*Having an idea and then seeing it become a reality
*Kindness of people of all places,
*Mountains, deserts, cities,
*Random chances and happenings
*Bumping into people on other sides of the world years later accidentally

This world.

Teach, Learn, Share

Looking to learn more about filmmaking, farming, sustainable living, and DIY. And languages. I want to hear about your favorite books, films, songs, foods, etc.

And now about how to travel and live and do everything....but now with kids.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Nepal, Ukraine, United States

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