After graduating from Vanderbilt in May '17 (B.S. in Neuroscience & Russian Language), I spent a disastrous summer trying to become a freelancer while working my way through the Balkans with what little money I had saved up during college. I ran out of money in Bucharest and made my way back to my hometown in Toledo, Ohio, USA, where I satisfied my inner masochist by simultaneously working in the food service and retail businesses. Thoroughly dissatisfied with my life, I decided to join the United States Army as a linguist, which was a great plan until I got injured in basic training and they sent me back home. Now that I have reached plan F or G with what to do with my life, I have decided to give travelling another go before applying to medical school. This summer, I will be participating a a couple of workaways (the first of which being in Warsaw, Poland) and, more generally, avoiding my responsibilities in the USA. From the very first time I left my country, I realized that travelling and foreign languages were my passion. I hope to be able to pursue these passions at least one more time before life catches up with me.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

When I travel, I make a conscious effort to discover what life is actually like in the city and country that I am visiting: throughout the 15 countries I have visited so far, I have learned that the most meaningful experiences and friendships happen not at the main tourist sites. They happen at the hostels, in the small cafes, in the quiet neighborhoods that you stumble into after wandering lost for several hours...
Meeting local people, integrating myself, even if only for a short time, into the community: these are the experiences that I carry with me, and, like an addiction, encourage me to spend every last penny I have (I mean this literally; last summer I came back to the USA with negative $20 in my bank account) in search of more like them.
Couchsurfing, then, is my opportunity to meet people and experience things that otherwise would have been impossible if I stuck to the itinerary of the average American.

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
-Beach House
-Wolf Parade
-The Strokes
-Toro y Moi
-Время и Стекло

Movies:
-Blue is the Warmest Color
-Akira
-True Grit
-Dr. Strangelove
-Manhattan

Books:
-The Grapes of Wrath
-One Hundred Years of Solitude
-A Prayer for Owen Meany
-The Master and Margarita
-Pale Fire

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In the summer of 2016, I was able to cross the border from Georgia into the unrecognized territory of Abkhazia, and - even though I was detained for two hours by Russian border guards who spoke no English - was able to enter. And five days later, after a local militia began making death threats against foreigners, I had to cross the border all over again.

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Russian Federation, United States