CURRENT MISSION

Meet good people and see the world, simple as that.

I'll be in the US & Southern Europe for most of 2024 - Send a message if you'd like to meet up!

ABOUT ME

I left the USA back in 2000 and have been living abroad or traveling nonstop ever since: about 9 years in Asia, 1 year in Oceania and 2+ years moving around Europe, 15 months in Southern Africa, almost a year in Latin America, 2 years in Turkey, a year in Bali, another in Korea, 4+ years in Thailand and more than 18 months living on ships in the sea, and I'm still surprised by every new place I visit. Life is a little more interesting when you don't know what is going to happen next year / next week / tomorrow.

PHILOSOPHY

"[My] career advice echoes the political advice offered by Benjamin Franklin: whenever you are faced with a choice between liberty and security, choose liberty. Otherwise you will end up with neither. People who sell their souls for the promise of a secure job and a secure salary are spat out as soon as they become dispensable. The more loyal to an institution you are, the more exploitable, and ultimately expendable, you become .... When faced with the choice between engaging with reality or engaging with what Erich Fromm calls the "necrophiliac" world of wealth and power, choose life, whatever the apparent costs may be. Your peers might at first look down on you: poor Nina, she's twenty-six and she still doesn't own a car. But those who have put wealth and power above life are living in the world of death, in which the living put their tombstones - their framed certificates signifying acceptance to that world - upon their walls." -George Monbiot

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I do as much as I can with CS, because the events, the people, and the activities are a distillation of all the nicest parts of traveling. As somebody once said: Too much of a good thing is absolutely wonderful.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I wandered across expensive Japan without ever having to pay for a hotel room, thanks to the generosity of the locals and expats there. And, in 2005, I saw Europe by bicycle, thanks to a great deal of assistance from members of this site. Hosted for a while in '06 in Vietnam, and '10-'11 in Turkey.

Interests

My love is the arts, which is kind of a shame because my own artistic talent is laughable. Still, creativity, expressiveness, style, originality -- these to me are what makes life beautiful, and worth the effort.

• arts
• literature
• walking
• politics
• traveling
• cycling
• camping
• sailing
• swimming
• economics
• history
• journalism

Music, Movies, and Books

I abhor a cliche so anything original, inspired, even incendiary, is likely to keep me interested. For music (my first love), I grew up on the Manic Street Preachers, NIN, Public Enemy, Eminem and Marilyn Manson, along with more groovy & low-key stuff by Massive Attack, Portishead, Air, Morcheeba, Amon Tobin, or classic jazz. I also loved the old Bjork, Tori Amos, P.J. Harvey, Nick Cave, Pulp ... I'm always looking for new music that has the same free + fearless spirit as these groups used to have.

On more serious topics, I go for Pinker, Dawkins, and Daniel Kahneman (science), and news & commentary from Matt Taibbi.

For podcasts, the best I’ve found are Jocko and America This Week. I also get a kick out of Glenn Loury, Coleman Hughes, My Dad Wrote a Porno, and Hardcore History.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

'You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.' -Mae West

Here are some of my highlights over the years:

* Long trips across the Australian Outback, and Mongolia / Russia via the Trans-Siberian Railway

* Helping protesters occupy Gezi Park in Istanbul in the summer of 2013, through rain, sunshine and tear gas

* Working on a cruise ship in Hawaii

* Walking through Angkor Wat and the Taj Mahal, as well as the astonishing sites of Shwe Dagon, Mawlamyine and Bagan city in Myanmar

* Lots of jungle walking, river cruising and hiking (including Machu Picchu) in Peru

* Camping on Cape York in Australia for a month

* 5 months of cycling around Western Europe in 2005

* Cruising around the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Arctic on a ship

* Taking an RV across America as part of a roving 'wolfpack'

* Skinny-dipping with 3 CSers in a South African mountain river

* Climbing Mexican pyramids and swimming in cenotes

* Sailing by catamaran to Madagascar

* Teaching for very short periods at schools in Nepal, Goma (the Congo), Soweto (South Africa), and at a leper colony in Madagascar.

... More recently I stood close to Noam Chomsky at a protest in Istanbul, and also met journalist Jonathan Cook in Nazareth. Still, the best of the bunch so far may just be trekking around the Annapurnas in Nepal. I'll be back there very soon ...

Teach, Learn, Share

I get asked a lot about traveling, which is great, but I have many other interests. I can answer (or help you find answers to) most reasonable questions on evolution and human nature, and I'm pretty knowledgeable about literature, as well as getting by abroad for years at a time. Try me.

What I Can Share with Hosts

More stories than you have time to listen to. :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Viet Nam

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