CURRENT MISSION

surf around the world by couch

ABOUT ME

i'm an easy going, open minded small town boy turned big city dweller after a trip through europe. being the kind of guy that explores all that life has to offer, i prefer to do fun things but i can also have fun doing the boring things. i like to travel the world and i like to travel the isles of the supermarket. presently i've left the supermarkets of canada and i'm doing a slow trip around the world exploring supermarket aisles of the globe. i'm searching for good times, good chats and crazy people to share them with. really though, if i just had good chats with myself all the time then i'd be the crazy one.

PHILOSOPHY

every journey of a thousand steps starts with just one.

我为什么加入 Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

01/04 at the moment i'm giving the role of potential surfer a go as i'm on the road but i'd love to try some hosting when i'm back in my neck of the woods. luv to see you.

17/04 camped in elmas living room in KL malaysia.

graduated to surfer!

22/04 surfed ninja's floor in brisbane, australia. he fed me my first kangaroo. they are yummy.

01/05 surfed jacob's floor in nelson, nz. caught up on alot of cheese eating and wine drinking.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

you know it's funny when i first looked at this question my knee jerk answer was that since i'm new to the couchsurfing site i had no experience but that's not true. i don't know how i could forget but i've lived on a couch in england for a 3 months and when i returned home i lived on a friends couch for 14 months. eventually i graduated from couch surfer to couch renter but in retrospect it seems like a crazy amount of time to share a two bedroom floor of a house with a couple and one of my best friends. it was fun times living together but the fun times start from good people with easy going but responsible attitudes. wow, could mean that i am actually responsible? alright i'm quite responsible but i'm not too into responsibility at the moment.

兴趣

eating, cooking, riding, reading, breathing, stretching.

• dining
• cooking
• breakfast
• wine
• cheese
• running
• drinking
• reading
• traveling
• blues
• swimming
• business
• teaching
• geography
• rivers
• mountains

音乐、电影和书籍

Movies:
fight club, the matrix, requiem for a dream, waking life

Music:
the killers, the postal service, metric, peter bjorn and john

Books:
the kite runner, the life of pie, fear and loathing in las vegas, the glass palace, pulp, bluebeard, the mysterious case of the dog in the night

我做过的一件不可思议的事情

May 2007
Pua, North Thailand. life is different now. again.
i am now a teacher. i teach in a high school of 2100 pupils ranging from high school grade 1 through 6. i myself teach conversational english to matyom (high school) grades 3 and 4. a week and a half in, i now see 17 different classes a week of 14 and 15 year olds that i am to teach spoken english to. my class size ranges from 40 to 50 and i find it difficult to remember the 750 or so names of totally different sounds but i am giving it the old college try. i teach 3 or four classes a day to students of rambunctiously respectful demeanor but some of various teenage angst. it's challenging to find ways to engage them but it is rewarding work and as the teachers have given me much creative leeway, i am enjoying the task at hand. each small step i make connecting with the students pays for the frustrating times racking my brain. it is trippy. i'm a high school teacher. who would have thought.
it's tough being a pillar of the community. in the kingdom of thailand, the priority of respect is: buddha, the monks, the king, and then the teachers. it's a bit of a burden to be just under the king in the hierarchy of respectable individuals but i'm trying my best. it's strange to have so many people (mostly the students) bowing to me from day to day. i pray that if i do anything that may be anything close to disgraceful i do it in another town. i don't even smoke in public here in pua, it's a pretty small place.
it's raining again. it's beautiful when it rains. the storms are so mercilessly magnificent. it was sunny today so we were out swimming at the waterfalls. now, outside the night skies have unleashed a mighty barrage of water and the house is being loudly pounded by the kind of rain i have only seen the likes of in the prairies when your windshield looks like you’ve taken a right turn into the milk river and you’ve got pull over to listen to it or crash. i share a rather large two bedroom house with a 19 year old guy from portland and a squad of really large cockroaches that we have ceded the domain of one of the bathrooms to. they are scary at night when we have to make our sleepy deposits as they scurry from the light in their creepy cockroach ways. we are choosing our moment to strike open war on them but for now we are biding our time and grudgingly sharing the domain.
pua is a cozy of a gem village nestled in the bosom of lush hills. it's got a few roads with shops on them, but it's otherwise just scattered farms and households with lots of small roads interconnecting the lands. i guess it's about the size of lumby if you know your okanagan geography. i am in town with another canadian guy from edmonton and together we are three foreign boys in a faraway place. we are enjoying our time here smoking in the carport, playing our guitars, drumming on pails and exploring the country sides by motorbike. i have purchased a used 100cc two stroke yamaha mate and i we spend much time riding through the lands surrounding pua taking in the green glory of farmlands nestled at the foot of jungled mountains. there are many small towns near us and we are slowly checking them out as well as the natural attractions of waterfalls, rivers and rapids.
the food is good. the people are friendly beyond belief. i have many moments of happiness.

教，学，和分享

june 2007
The passport blues
bangkok. y'know through my travels i've often been on the viewers side of the passport blues but now being a full participant i feel like i've hit a milestone. once the initial panic and mass frustration part of the experience has been squashed i can truly reflect on the importance of and good feelingness of being of passport.
the short story is that i forgot to take my security stuff with me when i left my hotel room for breakfast and now i am without. in thailand it telecommucations is a tough thing and i would say that the worst part of the experience is frantically trying to cancel all the credit that i'm responsible for but not able to get through no matter what numbers you use. that and the thrill of constantly running out of coins for the payphone when you are actually hooked up but navigating the voicemail run around. meanwhile you're just imagining that somewhere out there there is a l'il thai dude or dudette (one must not be sexist even for the most trying of situations) may be spending like crazy on your credit cards. alas after much agonizing and hair pulling i've sweated it out to a manageable level and things are now in order after the reapplication of my passport. now i can actually go home and work again after having to take a day off to sort my business hour kinda stuff with the governments.
exciting. expensive. sickening at times but not altogether unpleasant of an experience. i've managed blow near my entires month pay but i will have enough to live on this month (i think) and i managed to purchase a decent camera. now i can once again take pictures. yay!

我游览过的国家

Austria, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

我居住过的国家

Canada

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