I am an aspiring opera singer. I study the classics and philosophy at St. John's College, and I'll be graduating in May 2016.

I'm definitely a dog person, but I do love cats, too, and animals of all kinds. I'm a vegetarian and try to keep a mostly vegan diet.

Things I'm good at: languages, cooking, singing, puns, geography, calculus, biology, inventing games, using my internal compass

Things I'm bad at: drawing, sports, Risk, frisbee, mental math, working out, waking up on time, straightening crooked paintings, beer pong

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Mostly to find really awesome people all over the world. Travel is a beautiful thing, and I love meeting people on my travels--what better way to meet people than to live in their houses, or to put them up in your own home? To me, it hearkens back to the ancient Greek concept of philoxenia (love of strangers/guests), and that is a wonderful, beautiful, sacred bond.

Interests

Music, fine & performing arts, learning, poetry, philosophy, literature, film, cooking, history, geography, neuroscience, feminism, paleontology, archaeology, Egyptology, astronomy, higher mathematics, ethics, grammar, linguistics, travel

• animals
• cats
• dogs
• arts
• humanities
• literature
• poetry
• singing
• performing arts
• womens rights
• ethics
• cooking
• beer
• vegetarian
• vegan
• dieting
• working out
• traveling
• socializing
• drawing
• music
• jazz
• opera
• sports
• astronomy
• biology
• geography
• history
• languages
• mathematics
• neuroscience

Music, Movies, and Books

Classical Music: Bach's St. Matthew Passion is the single greatest piece of music I've ever heard. J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Händel, Rachmaninoff, Berg, Puccini, Palestrina, and Machaut are my favorite composers.

Modern Music: the Mountain Goats, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Atoms for Peace, The Shins, Beirut, Guster, Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds, Aphex Twin, Apparat, Kraftwerk, Gatekeeper, Grimes, Nick Drake, Morrissey, The Smiths, Simon & Garfunkel, Trampled by Turtles, Greensky Bluegrass, Pink Floyd, The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Movies: Psycho, The Graduate, This is Spinal Tap, There Will Be Blood, The Battleship Potemkin, Nosferatu, The White Ribbon, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Land of Silence and Darkness, The Bicycle Thieves, La Strada, Breathless, Nebraska

Books: Calvin and Hobbes, Asterix, Tintin, Maus, Anna Karenina, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, Timaeus, Symposium, Gorgias, Phaedo, Republic, Critique of Pure Reason, Euclid's Elements, Newton's Principia, Lord of the Flies, Flowers for Algernon, The Road, Everything is Illuminated, Dracula, Slaughterhouse-Five, Welcome to the Monkey House, The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, All Quiet on the Western Front, Breakfast on Pluto, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, The Broom of the System, Fight Club, The Boilerplate Rhino, Spillover, The Metamorphosis, Don Quixote, Julius Caesar, Othello, Pedro Páramo, The Iliad, Wolf in White Van

Somehow there was no "TV Shows" category on here, so I'll remedy that: Mad Men, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Office, MacGyver, Sherlock, Peep Show

As a bonus, favorite poets: ee cummings, Charles Bukowski, William Carlos Williams, Richard Brautigan, Robert Frost, Viggo Mortensen

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Sung in two operas in Viterbo, Italy.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm not actually sure what "teach, learn, share" means. Am I being asked what I can teach, learn, and share? Am I being asked what I would like someone to teach, learn, and share with me? Who's to say, really?

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can sing for you! Opera, jazz, whatever you'd like, really. I'm also rather proud of my cooking skills, and would happily cook a meal or several for you.

Countries I’ve Visited

Costa Rica, India, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States