CURRENT MISSION

figure out why my profile's location got changed- sorry all, I am in Muscat, Oman NOT Philly!

ABOUT ME

Raised in the south (Americans will know what that means), managed to become more than what was expected. Too much reading, I suppose. And I stopped going to school, eating meat, and watching TV when I was a teenager. These are probably the three best decisions I ever made in my life.

I am somehow really traditionally female (think: I love domesticity, sewing, cats, and plants, cleaning and cooking) but also a fierce badass take-no-shit kind of human. Both ancient and modern. Oh thank you, feminist theory.

I like Japanese, obscure music, and ancient and traditional forms of textiles. I know how to keep abandoned kittens alive. I read more than anyone else I know.

I'm awesome.

I am a nerd for the history of tea.

I think equal access to education is pretty much the most important thing in the entire world.

And if I see one thing change about American society in my lifetime, I want us to have a national discussion about race and racism and get over the last 400 years and move on, multicultural, equal, and strong.

PHILOSOPHY

I love trash-picking and finding things for free, making do and reusing, being creative and being as conscientious as I can about how many resources I use in my daily life. I am all about personal growth, creating your own fun, creating fun from the thrown-out fun of others, cooking as much as possible, writing long letters, reading everything, listening to old mix tapes from when i was a teenager, riding my bike, sewing, altering, and whatever else. Gotta say I'm punk because that's where my ethics and morals, aesthetic sense and musical tastes come from...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Couchsurfing is a brilliant idea. I think that hostels and such exist for a reason, but mostly I like the reciprocity- I myself started to host when I was a contracted English teacher living the lonliest, most miserable existence in a concrete box ugly apartment in Okinawa, and the people that came into my life certainly made it more interesting- there was the Polish/Italian hitchhiking superduo, the Dutch guy that stayed for 1 night and disappeared, great ol' Scott who broadened my horizons with the longest ever couchstay and the best conversation on earth... Then I went to Europe and had 3 great experiences... Imagine a life without hotels!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have traveled all over the U.S., always staying with friends or friends of friends and love to do that. I have stayed at hotels and hostels but always as a last resort and now that I am getting a bit older, I am trying to branch out and meet people I never would otherwise. There's no reason to isolate myself! I wouldn't trade the experiences I have had hosting or staying with people through this website- I have met some really great people!

Interests

gardening, squatting, animal rescue, cats, analog forms of music, women who make music, zines, punk/subculture, feminism, bicycling, Latin American culture and languages, sewing, ecology, recycling, quilting, finding things for free, trash digging/dumpster-diving, the 6 degrees of separation effect, lo-fi, no-fi, genderfuck, stencils, urban graffiti, Spanish, Japanese language, neurology, books, the gay, the queer, the kids, and envisioning a vegan planet.

• animals
• cats
• culture
• writing
• books
• festivals
• education
• womens rights
• dining
• cooking
• vegan
• walking
• drinking
• gardening
• politics
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• socializing
• dumpster diving
• music
• cycling
• backpacking
• ecology
• teaching
• history
• languages
• hitchhiking
• budget travel

Music, Movies, and Books

movies: The Chinese Botanist's Daughters, My Own Private Idaho, Kids, Gummo, Natural Born Killers, Lost in Translation, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Purple Rain, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, Bully, Wassup Rockers, You I Love, Bounce Ko Gals, Beyond the Screams Mas Alla De Los Gritos, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Ballad of Narayama, Woman in the Dunes, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Amores Perros, The Taqwacores, Russian Dolls, Vengeance Is Mine, Afro-punk, Pixote, Show Me Love, Watermelon woman, Go Fish, Happiness, Born into Brothels, Life and Debt, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator, Tokyo Sonata, West Side Story, Rent, Cabaret, 24 Hour Party People, Brokeback Mountain, Fear of a Black Hat, Hotel Rwanda, The Cats of Mirikitani, Don't Need You the Herstory of Riot Grrrl, Heavenly Creatures, Short Bus, The Celluloid Closet, Dark Days, Shinjuku Boys, Marie Antoinette, Parents, She's Real Worse Than Queer, Mommie Dearest, Firestarter, But I'm a Cheerleader, Bread and Roses, The Scent of Green Papaya, La Hija Del Puma, Boys Don't Cry, Rize, Grave of the Fireflies, Mystery Train, Memories of Underdevelopment, Whale Rider, Magdalene Sisters, Harold and Maude, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, DiG!, L'Auberge espagnole, El crimen del Padre Amaro, Where the Wild Things Are, Adventures in Babysitting
music:Stevie Wonder, Sun Ra, The Plastic People of the Universe, Bulgarian music, The Modern Lovers, Half Japanese, Daniel Johnston, Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Cypress Hill, Rihanna, The Buzzcocks, Witchknot, Pussycat Trash, Belle & Sebastian, Pansy Division, Pulp, Robyn Hitchcock, Kicking Giant, Moss Icon, The Magnetic Fields, Bob Marley, The Clash, The Ramones, Bad Brains, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Tender Forever, Crass, Huggy Bear, The Pogues, Sinéad O'Connor, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Japanther, Mika Miko, Madeline, Afrirampo, Lucinda Williams, Begin, Dead Prez, Chumbawamba, Spitboy, Shonen Knife, enka!, Juan Luis Guerra, Kate Bush, Dead Can Dance, Sun City Girls, KRS-One, Celia Cruz, Queen, The Yummy Fur, Mates of State, Taina Asili, Go Sailor, Excuse 17, Daft Punk, Limp Wrist, Big Star, Daddy Yankee, Lovers, Maple Rabbit, Yoko Ono
books: Starhawk!, Haruki Murakami, Judith Butler, Khaled Hosseini, Tom Robbins, Pearl S. Buck, Isabel Allende, Three Cups of Tea, Behind the Attic Wall, Pat the Bunny, The Big Orange Splot, bell hooks, Where the Wild Things Are, Where the Red Fern Grows, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Running with Scissors, Serve the People, Maus, Fruits, Memoir of a Race Traitor, Memoirs of a Geisha, Red Azalea, I Am Charlotte Simmons, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Barefoot Gen, Persepolis, Night, Bury Me Standing, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Breath, Eyes, Memory, Rigoberta Menchu, Strange Fruit, Down These Mean Streets, Giovanni's Room, Black Boy, Bastard Out of Carolina, Open Veins of Latin America, Daughter of Earth, Possessing the Secret of Joy, To Kill a Mockingbird, My Brother- Jamaica Kincaid

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Watching kids at the King Biscuit Blues festival do back flips down the levee for change.

Volcanic hot springs in Guatemala, very early in the morning.

Watching kittens being born.

Seeing Afrirampo tear a black hole in my universe in Japan.

Walking around Amsterdam and finding a tooth on the ground.

Stealing angel wings off a model and putting a case of some dum energy drink in my friend's backpack and getting a ride on the back of a bike, so drunk.

Hitchhiking to Nimis with Erin McWilliams!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach sewing, can talk your ear off about food politics, know more than your average about the pros and cons of the setup of the world's recycling systems, and I am making the world's weirdest quilt. Anything practical? Yeah, sewing, and I would really like to learn more practical gardening and compost skills, scamming, no-budget travel, and about dumpster diving in Japan and the rest of Asia.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahrain, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Iceland, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Mexico, Netherlands, Oman, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Guatemala, Japan, Oman, United States

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