CURRENT MISSION

If the world is my home, why go through life without opening all of its doors?

From August 1, 2015 to August 1, 2016, I am pursuing a Watson Fellowship—basically an independent study travel scholarship. My project concerns sustainable design (including architecture, urban planning, consumer products, and electricity distribution) and how it learns from and affects a sense of community in a place. Over the course of that year, I'll be traveling to Chile, Sweden, Ghana, India, Japan, and Korea (and perhaps some other countries as well). If you want to learn more, I have a blog! www.zabadesigns.com/watson

ABOUT ME

I was born in Madison, WI but moved to Knoxville, TN after a year, where I stayed for a good 18 years before going off to college in Houston, TX. Since then, I have come to love travelling, and am determined to become bilingual in Spanish (at the least), and also live a good portion of my life out of the US.

I studied mechanical engineering at Rice University, focusing in environmental sustainability. I hope to one day combine these, somehow, into a life of engineering sustainability for the world. Otherwise, another dream job would be to become a Walt Disney Imagineer. Making kids smile all day, who wouldn't want to do that?

I also love music: I play piano, sing in an a cappella group, and have performed in all sorts of musical theatre shows. I also love design: interior, web, graphic, film... just about anything there is to design, I love it. Digital design is my primary focus at the present, and I have a website of portfolio-ish type stuff. www.zabadesigns.com

Beyond all that, as a person, I simply love adventure, taking risks, learning something new, living genuinely, and having a good time.

PHILOSOPHY

Take risks. If not now, when?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Still don't have a place to myself, so for now only using CS as a traveler. But as soon as a settle down, my doors will be wide open!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfed
• Knoxville, Tennessee, USA (my first CS experience, so I stayed on the other side of town)
• Sydney, Australia
• A couple hosts in Santiago, Chile
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Kiruna, Sweden (past the Arctic Circle)
• Samsø, Denmark
• Bethlehem, West Bank

Interests

If my 'About' section didn't suffice:

- Sustainable design (architecture, urban planning, transportation, etc)
- Breaking things (maybe making them again afterwards)
- Music (singin' and playin')
- Theater (both back and front stage)
- Design (web, graphic, film, interior)
- Learning new thangs
- Getting outside!
- Adventure sports

• singing
• theater
• architecture
• design
• digital design
• traveling
• blogging
• music
• piano
• a cappella
• surfing
• sports
• engineering

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: The Fall, The Illusionist, Life of Pi

Music: any song, any genre, any artist. To me, music is music.

Books: Chinese Rules, Tuesdays with Morrie

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Traveled to Costa Rica by myself with only one year of Spanish classes to support me. Still don't know how I survived.

Climbed up the back of the Cola Cola electronic billboard in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Ain't it fun when people forget to lock doors behind them?

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Palestine, Qatar, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China, United States