CURRENT MISSION

Develop as a person by allowing new faces to enrich my life during my travels ^-^

ABOUT ME

...Hmmm, how do I start this haha? I am: a nerd, like to "yolo" things (jking sorta), and enjoy talking about anything and everything. I am Vietnamese American. I am currently in Ireland for an internship, and will be traveling by myself in the month of August after my internship ends. I have lived in California most of my life and recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Biology. In the future, I've been thinking of either entering academia via organic chemistry or entering the industry. First generation, I can speak Vietnamese and have yet to visit Vietnam. One of these days :D

I love meeting new people and familiarizing myself with a new place through the locals. No matter how different a new culture or environment may be, I simply want to feel at "home" wherever I am through the people I meet.

PHILOSOPHY

In times when I'm down, in retrospect I always remember: sometimes you have to lose yourself in order to regain yourself, to have any idea of who you are or your sense of self. So I try to be as optimistic as possible, or even the act of trying is just enough to boost yourself up sometimes.

Always try new things, better to experience and grow than to experience nothing at all.

Try to give people the benefit of the doubt, because it's always better to be disappointed every now and then, than to trust no one at all.

Never forget the joy of "learning," whether it be academia or people. :D

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I don't quite know what this category means by "How I participate" haha. But I just want to spend time and have my experiences be enriched by others.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've only ever informally hosted friends who've needed a place to stay. To me, what defines "home" is not the location you live, the buildings, or even sceneries. As much as nostalgia plays a large part in defining a "home," it's the people who always ultimately define your "home."

Living in Dublin over the summer, I hosted a couple, Amanda Burke and Nick. Amanda is super sweet and easy to talk to, although I originally was worried things may be awkward. But it was nice getting to know her, she's so friendly and is really good at drawing! And from this experience, I was sure my main goal as I travel, is to simply make each new location feel like "home" by meeting and getting to know people from each location.

Interests

I love exploring, seeing new things, and simply doing anything new. In Ireland, I've been finding new places to eat, trying to getting to know the locals more, and just trying to enrich my experiences through the company of new faces. It simply feels nice to connect with people who have lived and been cultured differently from you.

As for hobbies, I love rock climbing. I mainly boulder, but will learn how to top rope eventually so I can climb Yosemite! Climbing is just.....so refreshing. The feeling of climbing to the top, having tried so hard to pull yourself up, is just one of the most relieving feelings I have ever felt.

Food.....enough said haha.

I love organic chemistry! Essentially, you have a set of rules governing how these "odd" shapes interact, and it's just puzzles. So not only do you get to draw, but it gets you to think. (most people would not think of it in such a fond way I might add haha) But one day, I hope to become a professor one day. I am a definite born-breed nerd, so I love anything sciency.

Any animals are also another passion of mine. I worked in a marine invertebrate lab during my undergraduate years, working with octopus and stomatopods. If you don't know what a stomatopod is, you need to youtube that shit. They are better than pokemon, with an attack that has the acceleration of a small caliber bullet, capable of producing cavitation bubbles to stun prey if it's an indirect attack.

I did a bit of martial arts in high school, Aikido (a grappling martial arts). I may be small, but I never let anyone bother or harrass my friends, so I can be quite protective.

Also, I can save your life potentially because I have EMT training (people in ambulances) from the States. ;D

• animals
• arts
• culture
• environment
• dining
• traveling
• puzzles
• drawing
• bouldering
• martial arts
• rock climbing
• biology
• chemistry
• teaching
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies I like: All Miyazaki Movies, All Pixar Movies, 500 Days of Summer, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Bourne Ultimatum, Slumdog Millionaire, Zombieland, Warm Bodies, Ocean's Eleven, Zombie Movies in general, Korean Rom-com movies

Music: Macklemore, Corinne Bailey Rae, Adele, Jack Johnson, Epik High, Justin Timberlake, Craig Davis, Googoo Dolls, Maroon 5, Tamia, Usher, Neyo, Clazziquai

Books: I need to read more haha....the downside to having been a science major (no time to read)

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you: Vietnamese, how to rock climb, organic chemistry, Vietnamese/American customs and foods, some Irish customs (since I've been staying in Ireland haha), random science tidbits.