CURRENT MISSION

to fill up my passport with stamps/visas and have to get new pages added!

ABOUT ME

I'm working in DC and it's unlikely I can host but I'm free to meet up on a weekend and show you around, or get together after work for one of DC's famous happy hours.

PHILOSOPHY

Experience as many new things as possible. (Traveling is a great way to do this!) Try everything once, and maybe twice.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I started surfing in summer 2008 around the Balkans and loved it. To be honest, I initially joined because I'd heard it was a way to get free accomodation, but that is NOT why I am a Couchsurfer - I love that it's a way to connect to people and experience their lives in their cities/towns/countries, to learn more about the place and its people, to have a fun night out or get a tip on the best restaurant, to have an instant group of friends, to get great travel advice, to have an amazing conversation with someone I otherwise never would have met...these days, even if I've got my own accomodation for whatever reasons, I still make it a priority to meet up with CSers when I travel and it is always rewarding and enhances the travel experience. I can't imagine travel without CS! I've continued to surf when I've traveled and go to meetups where I've lived. I hosted people when I was living in Rwanda, and gave tours. It was a blast and I got to hear about my surfers' various adventures in other parts of Africa (living vicariously, one might say). I look forward to hosting again when I have a more stable living situation.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've really enjoyed all of my couch surfing experiences and each one has given me insight into the local culture/politics/people/whatever that I otherwise would have missed. Hosting is always fun and I love meeting new people. And I've made some great friends!

Interests

I like to try new food, travel, talk (especially about politics and worldviews), and meet new people. I enjoy cooking, reading, taking pictures, watching movies/tv, watching sports, swimming, art and history museums, drinking/dancing/partying, and pretty much anything.I am proud to be from Boston and I'm a huge baseball fan (go Red Sox) and a Patriots fan as well. And now a Liverpool fan thanks in part to a CS experience!I am absolutely insane for U2 and followed them around on tour for a bit.

• arts
• culture
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• coach
• partying
• drinking
• happy hour
• politics
• movies
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• watching sports
• crochet
• stamps
• surfing
• skiing
• sports
• baseball
• swimming
• history
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Bull Durham, Enemy at the Gates, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lost in Translation, Finding Neverland, Love Actually, The Departed, The Battle of Algiers, The Shawshank Redemption, Munich, The Pianist, Big Fish, Memento, The Illusionist, American History X, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, Goodfellas, The Secret Life of Bees, Gran Torino, 50/50, 2004 World Series DVD, U23D

Music: U2, Muse, Snow Patrol, Ani Difranco, Tracy Chapman, Appleseed Cast, Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Ros, Billy Joel, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, in general either rock or something I can dance to.

Books: W.P. Kinsella, e e cummings, Dickens, Orwell, The Southpaw series, Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Johnny Got His Gun, Harry Potter, Little Bee, Bridge over the Drina

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'm not so good at one...here's a list!Transdniestr, Moldova with a bunch of Couchsurfers. Skiing a glacier in the Austrian Alps. Seeing the milky way in the company of a hippo in Uganda (I later realized how dangerous this was). Standing atop the third and final peak of a volcano where DRC, Rwanda and Congo come together, having gotten there using a system of crude, possibly unsafe ladders. Following U2 around. The Taj Mahal. Hopefully lots more to come!

Teach, Learn, Share

My degree is in politics, and my academic/career interests are international politics, development, conflict and post-conflict and refugee issues, gender issues within this, public health, and African politics and development. On a more exciting front, I like to learn to cook new dishes, especially ones from interesting places. I can teach crochet, cooking, coach English, practice my mediocre French....whatever else!

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Rwanda, Switzerland, Uganda, United States

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