I love learning, exploring new cultures, and living in the moment. I quit my programming job in San Francisco to travel the world solo in May 2017. So far this trip I've been to US, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, Greece, Bulgaria, France, Morocco, Egypt, and Ethiopia. This is just the beginning for me, as there are still so many places to see and people to meet. My latest adventure was a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat, which taught me to slow down and enjoy the moment instead of trying to cram in as many experiences and photo-ops as possible. I was inspired to travel by the book Vagabonding by Rolf Pots. I highly recommend it to anyone. I love to have long discussions on any topic of interest, as long as it remains civil and no one gets upset :). My friends would say I'm a pretty easy going guy that can get along with anyone. I love to meet new people, especially if they're very different from me. Travel for me is absolute freedom and discovery. It's like being a kid again, where everything is new and exciting. Happiness is often better when it's shared. So, let's meet up! I want to hear your story.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet interesting people and better understand the culture of where I visit from the inside. Usually locals have a lot of insider knowledge of a place that you can't find in guidebooks and make the experience of travel richer and more exciting.

Interests

• culture
• cooking
• partying
• motorcycles
• drones
• technology
• reading
• music
• live music
• guitar
• hiking
• camping
• skiing
• snowboarding
• languages
• neuroscience
• philosophy
• psychology
• religion
• science
• solo travel
• adventure travel
• beaches
• travel
• food
• cultures
• buddhism
• beach volleyball
• sexuality
• math
• paddleboarding
• neurosciences
• flyboard

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: Vagabonding, The Art of Loving, Stumbling on Happiness, On Intelligence, Does the Center Hold, This is Your Brian on Music, 48 Laws of Power, How to Argue and Win Every Time, Good to Great, Made to Stick, Outliers, Fight Club, Choke, Flatland, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Emotions Revealed, Liar's Poker.

Movies: Inception, Interstellar, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Kill Bill, Requiem for a Dream, Donnie Darko, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, American Beauty, The Dreamers, Crank, Spun, Snatch, Sita Sings the Blues, Avatar, Italian Job, Clockwork Orange, The Shining, The Wall, City of God, Shawshank Redemption, Iron Man, Black Snake Moan, Crossroads (1986), Wild Wild West, Men In Black, The Gods Must Be Crazy 1 and 2.

Music: The Doors, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, R. L. Burnside, B.B. King, John Mayall, Nine Inch Nails, System of a Down, Buckethead, Flaming Lips, AC/DC, Gnarls Barkley (Cee Lo Green), AKON, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, AIR, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Massive Attack, Particle, Rage Against the Machine, The Black Keys, Beastie Boys, Lo Fidelity All Stars, Infected Mushroom, Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5,

TV Shows: Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Vikings, Rick and Morty, South Park

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I managed to overcome greed and escape the corporate world :). For a while, anyway...

Teach, Learn, Share

"Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not detain’d!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"
- Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road

"Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a 'standing in,' not a 'falling for.' In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving. [...] What does one person give to another? He gives of himself, of the most precious he has, he gives of his life. This does not necessarily mean that he sacrifices his life for the other—but that he gives him of that which is alive in him; he gives him of his joy, of his interest, of his understanding, of his knowledge, of his humor, of his sadness—of all expressions and manifestations of that which is alive in him."
—Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

"A third way of attaining union lies in creative activity, be it that of the artist, or of the artisan. In any kind of creative work the creating person unites himself with his material, which represents the world outside of himself. Whether a carpenter makes a table, or a goldsmith a piece of jewelry, whether the peasant grows his corn or the painter paints a picture, in all types of creative work the worker and his object become one, man unites himself with the world in the process of creation. This however holds true only for productive work, for work in which *I* plan, produce, see the results of my work. In the modern work process of a clerk, the worker in the endless belt, little is left of this uniting quality of work. The worker becomes an appendix to the machine or to the bureaucratic organization. He has ceased to be he—hence no union takes place beyond that of conformity."
—Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

Don't limit yourself. Don't wait for an invitation.

"Knowledge begins with wonder."
― Socrates

“Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.”
― Richard Feynman

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."
- Ira Glass

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bulgaria, France, United States