CURRENT MISSION

bring a smile to eveyone i come in contact with

ABOUT ME

I love learning and exploring and find that couchsurfing is the absolute best way to learn about a place and interact with people in a positive way. Though I travel for long spells and have lived in several different cities in the US and abroad, Seattle is where my heart is.

In my free time, I like to read, walk around a new neighborhood and sample their food, try making a new dish for dinner at home, swim in the ocean, ride a bike around the city, ride long-distance trains, and have good conversation with friends or strangers.

I work in cultural landscape planning, researching and designing for national heritage sites throughout the US Northeast. My background is in landscape architecture, urban planning, and historic preservation.

PHILOSOPHY

try everything once

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have surfed a few times in USA, Israel, Palestine, and Turkey, hosted a few, gone to several meet-ups in Cambridge, Mass, hung out with lots of couchsurfers in Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfed in Detroit, San Luis Obispo, New Orleans, Ramallah, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Avenos, Sekjuk, etc.. was lucky to borrow bikes from a few hosts and loved getting to explore so much of the city this way. hosted lawrence sanchez from anaheim and showed him around boston. lots of drinks/meetups/group outings in Israel and Palestine.

Interests

architecture and design, urban heritage conservation, american landscape history, sitting outside and drawing, photography

visiting national parks, camping, backpacking, hiking, forests, deserts, and beaches

trains, streetcars, trolleys, finding abandoned transit corridors and walking down defunct rail lines

urban exploration, ruins of all types - from old factories and industrial sites of Baltimore, to chichen itza or etruscan foundations in tuscan basements

food of all types, trying food of all corners of the globe - here or there, (if I haven't heard of it, that's what I'll order), coffee in a french press, fermenting, mixing drinks and trying old cocktail recipes

wandering around places i've been a thousand times or never been at all and finding the extraordinary in the ordinary

• architecture
• design
• photography
• dining
• recipes
• cocktails
• coffee
• walking
• drinking
• traveling
• drawing
• blues
• cycling
• hiking
• backpacking
• camping
• swimming
• animation
• history
• beaches
• parks
• urban exploration

Music, Movies, and Books

currently reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Got nearly stranded in the middle of sugracane nowhere on an electric train during a tropical storm in Cuba. Saved by a series of fortuitous events, only to find my scheduled flight out of Havana the next day had been delayed indefinitely due to the storm. Not good when you have no access to bank accounts or credit cards! Fortunately some of the most hospitable people on earth live in Cuba.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can give a tutorial for beginners in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign. I speak conversational Spanish. I want to learn to play blues harmonica and Eastern European and Irish fiddle, and learn to speak Arabic.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belize, Cambodia, Canada, China, Cuba, England, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Peru, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Palestine, United States

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