CURRENT MISSION

To seek and share my namesake!

ABOUT ME

I'm a kiwi with a strange accent, I'm always up for an adventure; I've had two passports, 'will travel', since before I could crawl. Wine is a whole world for me, which is why a lot of people call me 'Zinnie' (short for Zinfandel). I like quadratic equations and learning other languages, but most of all I'm happiest submerged in words, music, people, wine, other cultures and science. I love brain explosions of the figurative kind, I constantly seek the new and discomfiting. I like to reverse engineer things, and may often ask variances of "how does that work?", "why did that happen?", "What is that?", "where does that go?", "who invented that?", even if there's nobody around to answer. The master distiller of Angostura taught me that it's a good question, not a good answer, which teaches us the most. Seeing as he makes really good rum, I'm inclined to believe him.

PHILOSOPHY

Hunt, and you shall have dinner. Wait, and you shall be dinner. - Klingon proverb

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've got an open pair of hands, heart, and mind. And I can be counted on to bring wine.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Oh, my gosh. So many good memories from CS. The most recent was watching Thailand's best firethrower perform at a secret bar on Koh Tao. Or eating homemade french cheesecake in a kitchen in Sydney, drinking real Mudgee wine. Or dumpster diving for food and BIJA dancing with a Burner Boulder Coloradoan. My experiences couchsurfing are among the best, the craziest, the most humbling in my life.

Interests

Reading, writing, playing piano/saxophone/guitar, composing music, listening to music, windsurfing, chess, Vipassana meditation, painting, drawing, poetry, languages, watching/making movies, discovering local music, open mic nights, guerilla poetry, dreams, quadratic equations, computers and programming, quantum physics, plasma physics, theology, ideas, directions, human condition, insane discussions about all these things, Star Trek, swimming, hiking, horse riding, tea drinking, birds, astronomy, experimental cooking & baking, crafty things, pranking, leaving random 'breadcrumbs' in the world, writing secret messages in books, making up codes, 'swap stealing' small insignificant objects, keeping boarding passes and writing stories on them, finding notes people leave around, passport stamps, camping, laughing, exploring, traveling, viticulture, epicurism, remembering small but important facts about people, FUN FACTS to randomly insert in conversation, writing funny quotes down, magnetic poetry, dumpster diving, changing my handwriting, writing in notebooks, writing all over the place, being specific about which pens I like to write with, art supplies shops (they smell like possibilities), traveling (ha!), going for drinks after you arrive, the feeling after you leave your backpack in the hostel and have the whole world open up, random encounters, growing things, good beer, much better wine, cheeses, discussions about the previous three things, 'missions', ninja moves, martial arts, sailing, night hikes, skiing, phosphorescence, stargazing, anthropology, old movies, foreign movies, skinny dipping, hot springs, hijacking things (but not in any serious manner), the morning 'after'. Name it. I probably love it

• birds
• arts
• writing
• books
• poetry
• performing arts
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• baking
• meditation
• drinking
• movies
• chess
• reading
• traveling
• dumpster diving
• painting
• drawing
• bouldering
• stamps
• music
• guitar
• piano
• hiking
• backpacking
• windsurfing
• camping
• scuba diving
• sailing
• skiing
• martial arts
• swimming
• anthropology
• astronomy
• divinity
• engineering
• languages
• physics
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

A lot. Just finished "Hokkaido Highway Blues" on the plane to Japan...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I moved from the UK to Italy to live and serve in a meditation centre, with 43 euros to my name and not one word of Italian in my vocabulary. There are loads of things I've seen that I want to share but more things I haven't that I want to be shared with me. I did a bungy jump at Kawarau Gorge for my 20th birthday, that was a lesson in self.

Teach, Learn, Share

I know how to hula hoop, braid hair, make a mean guacamole, and I may also be predisposed to random musical outbursts.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Fiji, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States

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