CURRENT MISSION

Put Thought Into Things.. Be Nice Enough.. Laugh and Always Bring an Umbrella

ABOUT ME

I'm definitely a born traveler, even though living on the road becomes tiring. I caught the travel bug at 17 and I've been wasting money ever since. I do love my transitory life, as every place I go, whether it's Venice or a new gas station, is an adventure to me. New people, places and experiences are what does it for me, so I'm excited to see who I meet on Couch Surfing. Still, I am settling down a bit and travelling less and now live in London. I'm unable to host but am happy to meet up for coffee / pints at any time.

I'm definitely a thoughtful guy, or at least I hope I am, and I try to think before I act, even though often it's a facetious claim. I'm quite sarcastic as well - really.. sorry - I read a lot, listen to oodles of music, use the word oodles in speech and love to look at art I don't understand. I am also a devoted chef; I am always up for being shown a new technique or style of food, as the best way to learn about a culture is to eat its food. Food is life and we cook in the flat as much as possible. I have a fancy new frying pan I bought at TK Maxx to use. And I have a wok.

PHILOSOPHY

Be a kind, caring soul. That's it. Don't take life too seriously and have thick skin, because it's tough out there. No need to waste time on what doesn't matter, and A LOT we worry about is worthless in the grand scheme of things. Stuff is just stuff. Life rises above that. And don't be a dick. Really.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I came into couch surfing through a Canadian friend in 2006 and have hosted over twenty people since, with nothing but positive results. I don't really host much nor have a huge amount of time, but I have made some great friends through this site. I love the networking abilities this site offers. Saying that, I do feel some folks take advantage of this community and I've gotten quite good as seeing right through that. I do love everyone, but putting more than five minutes into your profile helps. Those with no profiles will not get any love from me. So there.

Interests

I love music and it occupies both my free time and professional life. Aside from my studies, where I'm sorting out a PhD in Cultural Studies, I work full time in music, running the export entity for Canada in Europe.

Good Music + Good Food + Interesting Conversation = Bliss

• fish
• arts
• culture
• dining
• cooking
• cheese
• coffee
• baking
• vegetarian
• running
• pub crawls
• traveling
• music
• fishing
• surfing
• cultural studies
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Any movies by Kevin Smith, Almodovar, The guy who did Thank You For Smoking and Juno or Linklater. Submarine, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, anything sarcastic. I also love the obligatory cartoons: Family Guy, Simpsons, Robot Chicken, American Dad and Futurama. I don't watch much TV, but streaming now and then is great, especially by Daily Show fix, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras and lots of inane British stuff my girlfriend teaches me about.I listen to too much music to count... Beatles, Arcade Fire, STARS, Wolf Parade, the Labrador Music catalogue, Bjork, Sub-Pop stuff, Big Scary Monsters, Phish, Grateful Dead, all sorts indie rock, classic rock, West African music, jazz, bluegrass, good hip-hop, lounge, tin pan alley, gregorian chant, the noise that buses make when they accelerate... I read tons of academic jargon for school (Derrida, Butler, Deleuze, Foucault et al), and love non-fiction aside from that as well. I am keenly interested in African Politics and Genocide Studies, and read a lot about Rwanda, Congo, Tanzania, Eritrea and Liberia right now, for that. To keep my head in the clouds, I try to read lots of fiction, which has consisted of Kerouac, Kesey, Murakami, David Foster Wallace, Penguin Classics, Douglas Coupland, Orhan Pamuk, Ian McKewen, Hemingway, Roddy Doyle, Dickensian and Dickens work, Alice Munro, Thomson Highway and most importantly, two epochal scribes, Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein.
And many many more...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have traveled all over the world... Yet, I feel I've done nothing. Rafting down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon was something else. The Grand Place Square in Brussels is what I believe man-made perfection, even in the rain. I've traversed much of Portugal, been thrown off the Duomo in Milan, got stranded in Yellowstone and broke down in rural Nebraska. I have also been to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. I have also crashed a Star Trek Convention in Switzerland and got stranded on Water Island in the U.S Virgin Islands for a while. I also got stitches in the middle of a Northern Canadian forest. I was an idiot that day.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can play percussion... I love pub quizzes. I can also cook... I did say this already. Not bake, but cook. Cooking is an art, baking a science. case and point.

I am a vegetarian, one that doesn't eat meat, chicken or fish. I like cheese though. I don't get people who don't.. idiots.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Czech Republic, Faroe Islands, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States

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