CURRENT MISSION
Enjoy myself

ABOUT ME

I live in Kelowna, B.C. but I'm originally from Toronto. I'm pretty well travelled and have lived in England, Japan, briefly in Germany, and in China. I'm pretty positive and an optimist, most of the time. I'm a very friendly person and I consider myself to be very resourceful. I always like helping people find stuff and I love connecting people with others. I'm very interested in food - I worked on 2 organic farms in the summer of 2006 in Canada and on another organic farm in the summer of 2009 in Hokkaido, Japan. I love cooking, baking, and eating food, and am mostly vegetarian. I do a lot of arty things - sing, dance, write poetry. I'm also queer.

I've had the fortune to travel and live abroad and I'm happy now to be a bit more settled. I hope to host couchsurfers once my place is better set up for it.

PHILOSOPHY

Wow - this is a tough one. I believe that all human beings are connected in some way or another - call it a life force if you will. I believe that the Earth is not to be trashed and that if we keep trashing it, we'll inevitably trash ourselves. I'm a fairly strong feminist.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've now been a member for about 11 years (I signed up January 2007). I hosted a ton when I lived in Tokyo from 2008-2010 and since then, have mainly been a surfer around the world. I enjoy both hosting and surfing and I appreciate the responsibility involved in both. I have to say that I like surfing more because I like seeing how others live. I consider myself to be a good house guest and when possible, I like spending time with my hosts. I'm also pretty independent.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

With the help of CS, I feel like I can understand cultures and I have become more interested in how people around the world live. When I lived in England, I found out about CS and when I moved to Japan, I immediately had CS friends. I hosted a lot in Tokyo from August 2008-August 2010 when I lived there. From May-August 2011, I lived in Germany. I couchsurfed all over Germany as well as Istanbul. I'm very thankful to all my hosts and surfers all over the world. I also surfed in several American cities in 2013 and again in 2015 in Asia when I was living in China.

Interests

Lots of interests: I like the arts; I sing and dance and write poetry. I've studied the California electricity crisis in university and studied quite a bit about wind energy and environmental policy. For my first Master's, I studied the German anti-nuclear movement and why people become involved in protest. I'm also a cycling maniac! Finally, I'm really interested in relationships - I have a blog where I give relationship advice. I'd like to become a therapist/counsellor and help couples improve their relationships. I also want to help people who want to become non-monogamous. To those ends, I'm doing a Master's in Social Work now.

• writing
• poetry
• singing
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• reading
• traveling
• blogging
• cycling
• languages
• polyamory

Music, Movies, and Books

Favourite movies: When Harry Met Sally, American Beauty, Before Sunrise, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Favourite Books: The Witches by Roald Dahl, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Nifenegger, Beach Music by Pat Conroy, Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber. I read quite a bit though so I'm always finding new favourites.

Music: I like mostly female singer-songwriters like Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Slean, who are both Canadian. I also like alternative rock, jazz, Spanish guitar, and some pop. There are many great Canadian musicians I like including Jesse Cook, Stars, Our Lady Peace, etc. I love Angela Aki, who's half Japanese, half American. I'm not too picky about music in general and I love dancing, so whatever inspires dance is great- that can be a lot of things...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One amazing thing I've seen and done was climb to the top of Masada in Israel and watch the sunrise - it was beautiful. I also climbed to the top of Tiger Cave Temple near Krabi, Thailand and saw an amazing view of palm trees and the ocean. I got the chance to touch wild monkeys there as well. And of course (well maybe it sounds cheesy), falling in love. I also climbed to the top of Mount Fuji and the sunrise was pretty beautiful.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: wind energy, environmental issues, cooking, Japanese, German, and English, and relationship advice

Learn: I want to learn piano.

Here is a quote from Al Gore that I really like- "We should tax what we burn, not what we earn." And a quote from an OPEC oil minister- "The Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones."

Barack Obama:"We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist" and "Let it be told to future world that in the depth of winter when nothing but hope and virtue could survive that the city and country alarmed to one common danger came forth to meet it."

Albert Einstein: We exist for other people first of all, for whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends

What I Can Share with Hosts

Good conversation, good food that I'm happy to cook, and good times :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, China, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom

• 

•