I'm an athletic nerd with a propensity to run off and see what's out there. My main travel rules are: Eat everything (llama, guinea pig, yak!), always say yes, and plan as little as possible.

Also, I'm thinking of starting a website called Handstands Around the World...

When I'm not galavanting around the world or hiking mountains, I'm a perpetual student attending both medical school and graduate school in Denver-ish. I'm going to become a physician-scientist and make our world a healthier, happier place.

Always remember: Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is the BEST way to experience a city. After a month of traveling alone and staying in hostels in China, I was a little tired of that same intro conversation of "where are you from, where have you been, where are you going?" and everyone trying to out-epic each other with experiences and lengths of travels. I found that with couchsurfing, my hosts and I delved into real conversations, often talking for hours. Instead of being a tourist, I feel like I'm visiting old friends.

Now that I have to buckle down for graduate school, I'm looking forward to hosting in Denver. Come have some delicious Ethiopian food, go rock climbing or biking, and enjoy a few of the 300 days of sunshine or a few beers from one of the infinity local breweries.

Experience:
8 hosts, 6 countries, 3 continents! Since first getting started with CS in the summer of 2011, I've couchsurfed in Beijing, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Copenhagen, Sweden, and Chile and had nothing but amazing experiences in every place.

I have a knack for accidentally bumping into couchsurfers while traveling, including my very first couchsurfing host (Duncan, Beijing!) who I talked to for over an hour before we realized I'd sent him a request that morning. CSers have a common mentality than connects us: an openness to other cultures and experiences and a belief that people are inherently good.

Interests

Traveling, hiking, biking, rock climbing, running, reading, singing (poorly), cooking, having multi-hour conversations with strangers; almost-but-not-quite dying

• singing
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• running
• reading
• traveling
• juggling
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• rock climbing
• computer science
• medicine
• science
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Indie, rock, rap, electronic, classical, country, pop, foreign language, hip-hop, jazz... I'll listen to anything. I'm kind of an album person, and some of my recent favorites are: Bon Iver "Bon Iver," Buke and Gass "Riposte," Arcade Fire "Funeral," Kanye West "My Dark and Twisted Fantasy," The Mountain Goats "The Sunset Tree," The National "Boxer," and Zoe Keating "Natoma."

Movies: Cannot watch scary movies, period. Sappy romantic comedies (When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall (anything Woody Allen, really); compelling documentaries; intellectually interesting movies, specifically those involving manipulations of time (Memento, Donnie Darko, Eternal Sunshine, and Vanilla Sky, for instance)

Books: Fiction with intricate portrayal of the complexities of humanity. Dostoevsky, Murakami, and Franzen are some of my favorite authors.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I taught computer science for 5 weeks to a class that was half Israeli and half Palestinian. Against the odds, they became friends.

Teach, Learn, Share

Skills I can (try?!) to teach you: Rock climbing, Juggling, Unicycling, Handstands. English

I can also give you travel tips about hiking the Inca Trail/Machu Picchu; hiking/camping an untouristy section of the Great Wall of China; taking the Trans-Siberian Railroad; rock climbing in Vietnam, China, Russia, Germany, and US; plus tidbits and various other places/cultures. (I'm actually pretty bad at story telling, and would rather ask questions and find out about other people.)

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Israel, United States