CURRENT MISSION
Finish PA school, so I can get on with having a decent life without being a judas goat.

ABOUT ME

I have a bad habit of doing things at the last minute. Sometimes it burns me, sometimes it doesn't. If I plan too much, though, it never happens. So I don't plan. What's it say in the Tao de Ching? Be water-like? Water doesn't ever have a plan, per-see; it just knows where it's headed, and it always gets there.

I'm currently wrapping up my first year as a physician assistant student at ISU in Meridian, living in downtown/North End Boise.

PHILOSOPHY

Goodness between strangers is immensely gratifying. It's one of the few things that ever makes me feel religious. That and being above treeline on a sunny day.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've couchsurfed a little. I'd have surfed more, but hosts like plans. I hitchhike a lot, though (sometimes walking just isn't going to get you to the train station in time...) and that's more or less the same idea. Anyway, I don't need a lot of plans, so you can just email me when you need a couch. I check pretty regularly.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

surfed thrice, formally, in Vicenza, in Buenos Aires, and Bogota and many times informally in Georgia, Nepal, Turkey. Also hosted once in Ankara. Lived in a co-op in Madison and another in Phoenix which while not on couchsurfing, both hosted surfers and guests on a regular basis. My parents have hosted several bike tourers on their farm through couchsurfing.

Interests

Bicycling, mountain climbing, getting lost, eating well. Cast iron pans, ultralight camping gear, sandals, mountain lakes.

• dining
• cooking
• running
• walking
• cycling

Music, Movies, and Books

The Plague, Camus
The Rum Diaries, Hunter S. Thompson
1492
August 1914, Solzhenitsyn
The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky
The Secret Miracle, Borges
Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Last summer, I walked to the highest village in Europe--Ushguli, Georgia--arriving during a power outage and just as the sun was setting, so all the houses were just illuminated by candles or oil lamps. I ended up running into a Georgian who spoke some Turkish, so I was able to arrange to stay in a little farmhouse for the night. Eating a meal of stew cooked over a fire, with a little matsoni and some pickled greens, by candlelight in a stone house, with only the rushing of the mountain stream outside, and the crackling of the cooking fire to disturb the medieval silence of that village was a truly beautiful experience.
The above story is old, but Ushguli has changed a lot in the last 7 years, so I keep it as a memory of how the place used to be. Still an amazing experience.
A few years later I walked the Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango. That was pretty amazing.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can fix bike flats, bake a wicked apple pie, and get a fire going in a hurry.
I can also make a good carbonara too now.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook and clean? I was a linecook and dishwasher for about a year once, so I'm pretty fast at both.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Peru, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Georgia, Turkey, United States