CURRENT MISSION

Time spends quickly - make the most of it!

ABOUT ME

I'm an occasional sojourner when time and budget permits and find happiness exploring new frontiers and meeting new people. I value and celebrate diversity. Some say I'm quick to laugh, and they'd be right. Lately, I've had the lovely feeling I've arrived at a comfortable place in this world... contented to seek out adventure and adventurists.

Also, I know the difference between a tourist and a traveller and prefer the latter. ;)

PHILOSOPHY

I try to look at the world with fresh eyes each day. Often, I'm awed by the discoveries made through people I meet and experiences we share.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Often and with enthusiasm!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Hosted:

Josh & Dan - Grand Rapids / Chicago
Gianni di Caro - Lugano, Switzerland
Pierre Esselink Cren - Santiago, Chile
Jennifer Bertagnolli - Springfield, IL
Moses Allen - Springfield, IL
April Menegazzo - Denver, CO
Jon Cordoba - Tempe, AZ
Lauren Greenfield - Chicago, IL
Juan Carlos Fariña Zeairi - Sevilla, Spain
John Skyhiker - London, UK
Hannah Martin - Basel, Switzerland
Roy Coughlin - San Francisco, CA
Katy & David - Paris, France
Shauna Ward & Company (Lindsey, Jonathon, Richard, & Robin) - Ireland, England, and Wales
Henri d'Armancourt & Julie - Paris, France
Sascha - Berlin, Germany
Kelly - Denver, CO
Seth Conger - Athens, GA
Matta (Mauro & Tonianne) - NYC
Aur Beck - Carbondale, IL
The Shackeltons - Chambersburg, PA
Daina - Tuscon, AZ
Margaret Kramer - New Zealand
Clay & Steph - Milwaukee, WI
Corey & Sarah - Grand Rapids, MI
Hana Nower - Upstate NY
Jamie Anderson - Oxford, UK
Simon Rashleigh - Melbourne, Australia
Adam Thiel - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Sabrina Rickli - Says, Switzerland
Justin Blasi - NJ
Miles Copeland - Bishop Auckland, UK
Dan O'Donnell - Bristol, UK
Fabien Champion - Paris, FR
Amy, Krista, Shawn, and David - Memphis, TN
Magdalena - Poland
Yakov - Kiev, Ukraine by way of Chicago :)
Meriem - France
Darren & Omar - Zurich, Switzerland; London, UK
Joann & Dana - Layton, UT/Long Beach, CA
Louis Baguenault de Puchesse - Paris, FR
Jennie Fernandez - Albuquerque, NM
Luke Huckstepp - Newcastle, Australia
Nina & Maria - Leipzig, Germany
Nina & Patrick - Madison, WI
Frank Martin-Buck - Ann Arbor, MI
Baptiste Didier - Paris, France
Bruno Narciso - Lisbon, Portugal
Alex - L.A., CA
Charles Elison - Philly, PA
Alex & Riika - Paradise, CA and Finland
John Gosslee - Nashville, TN
Giovanni Pazienza - Italy
Michael Petras - international man of mystery

Surfed with:

Katy & David in Vancouver, BC
Rain in Vancouver, BC
Harry Warner in Fulford on Salt Spring Island, BC
Rob in Victoria, BC
Aur in Carbondale, IL
David Ip in Chicago, IL
Joe G. in Chicago, IL
Lorie Guevara in Chicago, IL
Daniel Stahl in Flagstaff, AZ
Chris Prentice in Moab, UT
April Menegazzo in Denver, CO

Travelled with:

Natalia, Lorie Guevera, Mike Turner, and Zoe McNuggets - Turkey
Demi Beys - to Chicago, Memphis, NOLA, San Francisco, Belize, and Guatamala
Beth Opbroek - to many trips to count, most recently a rad roadtrip to Carbondale, IL and a very memorable trip to Las Vegas
Brooke Baker - Carbondale, IL
Alex - CHI to STL
Crystal and Jim Rolfe - We roadtripped to the Grand Canyon and beyond
Katarina Myska - Chicago
and
countless
others

Interests

TRAVEL, helping others, reading, cooking & imbibing, spending time with free-thinkers and world-experiencers, thrifting, relief printmaking, going to live shows, all things ART-related, container gardening, music, RAGTIME, archaeology, history, private reveries, and DISCOVERY.

• arts
• cooking
• wine
• gardening
• thrifting
• reading
• traveling
• music
• history
• tourism
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: those by world travelers, The Life of Pi, The Bad Girl's Guide to the Open Road, The Sex Lives of Cannibals, The Stranger, The Secret Life of Lobsters, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (apparently, I'm attracted to book titles beginning with the word 'The'), anything on the subject of art, every single thing written by David Sedaris and some by Charles Bukowski, my writer/chef blogging pals

Cinema: Foreign films (especially anything by Julio Medem), Tampopo, Red like the Sky, The Lives of Others, Bend it Like Beckham, Blazing Saddles, Amelie, Young Frankenstein, Singles, Delicatessan, The Sting, Dangerous Liaisons, Lost in Translation, The Daytrippers, Living in Oblivion, The Royal Tennenbaums, Rushmore, Groundhog Day, Inception, The Princess Bride, Cold Comfort Farm, The Pillow Book, Death and the Maiden, The Matrix, Uncle Buck, The Shawshank Redemption, French Kiss, Orlando, Happy Gilmore, Trainspotting, and on and on...

Music: John Coltrane, James Brown, Scott Joplin, Tom Waits, Cannonball Adderly, Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Meat Beat Manifesto, MC Chris, Mozart's Requim, Future Sound of London, Sonny Rollins, Finitribe, Shostakovich, CAKE, Mulatu Astatke, Debussy, Gogol Bordello, Ween, Jason Wembley, sometimes even mindless pop blared at unhealthy levels (currently Pumped up Kicks is repeating often), locally -- Rum Drum Ramblers, the Monads

Art: German Expressionism, and in particular, Max Beckmann and Egon Schiele, Paul Klee, Cindy Sherman, Van Gogh, Durer, Modigliani, Edward Hopper, Gauguin, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, Georgia O'Keefe, Rodin, Andrew Wyeth

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Just one?

Hmmm... I ate the most succulent, fresh, juicy cherries and drank cheap wine outside Venice while listening to the stories of a group of wandering Tunisian vagabonds on a beach along the Adriatic sea until sunrise. What a beautiful and memorable experience it was.

Once, I couch-surfed across British Columbia with my dad for 11 days! How cool is that?!

But wait, I also... explored the jungles and Mayan ruins of Belize and stayed in a jungle hut -- amazing!

And hey, I danced the nights away in Istanbul and sailed the azure waters of the Turquoise coast near Antalya in Turkey!

Next up... SE Asia!

visited 12 states (5.33%)Create your own visited map of The World or Brazil travel guide for Android

Teach, Learn, Share

t-e-a-c-h: I can teach you how to cook a tasty dish.

l-e-a-r-n: I want to learn Italian.

s-h-a-r-e: Tell me a good story!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belize, Canada, France, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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