I am an economics Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University in the United States where I study financial and labor economics - my dissertation is on student loans. I grew up on a small farm in Southeast Ohio. We have cattle and chickens, and we used to raise Angora goats. In addition, we have peacocks - see George in my photos.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Exploring famous sites and buildings is interesting, but that is only a fraction of what a place has to offer. For me, meeting and connecting with locals is the best way to learn about a place. And instead of moving quickly from place to place trying to check off as many boxes as possible, I prefer to become more deeply familiar with fewer locations. Couchsurfing is the perfect platform to make these types of interactions possible.

My Guest List:
Having seen another host maintain a guest list, I like the idea of keeping to track of all the surfers I host to look back and remember the nice times we had.

001 - 002: Shawn and Walter - USA/Hong Kong - May 2016 (1d)

003: Laura - Russia - May 2016 (1d)

005: Priscila and Dario - Brazil/Colombia - May 2016 (2d)

Interests

Activities: I enjoy the outdoors - mountain biking, hiking, skiing. I used to play a lot of basketball and still enjoy playing it when I can. Cooking, especially Indian food. And traveling, of course.
Music: I particularly enjoy listening to electronic and folk music, and I dabble in audio production, keyboard, harmonica, banjo, and trumpet - although I am not particularly skilled at any of these.
Misc: I'm really good at unicycling and card tricks...

Music, Movies, and Books

I like non-fiction books on economics, psychology, and entrepreneurship and dystopian fiction books, but economics journal articles consumes most of my reading time these days :|

Teach, Learn, Share

I like universities because they allow me to experience other parts of the world even when I am not traveling. Some of my best friends are from India, China, Iran, Nepal, and Brazil, and I met most of them during my time in universities.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Card tricks, cooking, and travel stories (e.g., last summer I spent 10 days in an Indian hospital...).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Nepal, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Panama, Peru, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Ireland, Kenya, United States