I really enjoy meeting new people- especially in new places! That said, I'm rather flexible- so spending several hours (or even longer) exploring on my own can give me an equal sense of fulfillment :)

A very important interest of mine is self-improvement, primarily by pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone. I've replaced TV with books, soda with water and am trying my best to positively contribute to society (though it's a neverending struggle to be better)! In an effort to obliterate that dastardly comfort zone- I'm ALWAYS open to trying things new

AIRBNB:

My profile on Airbnb can be found on this page www.airbnb.com/users/show/49859659. The current reviews are both after one month stays with excellent hosts!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I fell in love with travel after traveling Asia for five months in 2016; after using Airbnb for a month, I started to become jealous of the good experiences I'd heard so much of from the CSing community. Even though I was aware of Couchsurfing for some time, it was unfamiliar territory and I put off joining for a little while.

Eventually I took the leap and I can't emphasize enough how transformative and amazing Couchsurfing has been for me. After meeting turning so many amazing people into friends and sharing so many novel experiences, I can't imagine a better way to travel. After traveling through Asia for several months, I ended up moving to Vietnam soon after returning to the US and have now lived here for one year.

It's been a while since I traveled, hosted or even met up since I've been working on settling into life here. Though I plan to start giving back to this great community in the very near future.

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Update (December 2022)

A lot happened over the course of my six years in Vietnam. Most importantly, I met and married (November of last year) my amazing wife, Thao! I also changed my career and worked into education management (when I moved to Vietnam) before teaching myself software engineering and transitioning into IT as an engineer (close to two years ago). It's been an eventful six year departure from Couchsurfing, but I've again caught the travel bug

Interests

• Physical exercise through weightlifting, biking, trekking, surfing and almost anything else.

• Mental exercise through reading, good conversation and the occasional interesting film.

• Most importantly: exercising my world view by meeting new people, visiting new places, eating new foods and experiencing new things.

• books
• cooking
• exercise
• meditation
• reading
• traveling
• surfing

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC:

It's a wide range, but some notable artists are Frederic Chopin, Rage Against the Machine and Death Cab for Cutie... quite the variety ;)

MOVIES:

2001: A Space Odyssey, Jiro Dreams of Sushi and the show Serial Experiments: Lain (don't let the animation fool you- this is a philisophical masterpiece) are all phenomenal.

BOOKS:

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien and I just finished re-reading Clean Code by Robert C Martin

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A one-day meditation retreat.

High school teachers couldn't get me to sit down or shut up, so the fact that I did just that on my own for 7 hours with minimal thought blows my mind.

It was an incredible experience!

Teach, Learn, Share

The universe is big... REAL big.

How big is big?

The closest star is Proxima Centari, which is roughly 4 light years away. One light year is about 6 TRILLION miles, so that means it's about 24,000,000,000,000 miles away. The fastest humans have traveled is about 25,000 mph; if we traveled one HUNDRED times that speed the entire way, it would take 9,600,000 years to arrive. That's the closest star, but the most distant thing we can see is 13 billion LIGHT YEARS away.

The universe is BIG.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Good vibes and interesting conversation!

More practically: I can hold my own cooking breakfast if you're ever interested, I can help around the house... and I'm good with my hands (I used to work as a professional finish carpenter).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States, Viet Nam