CURRENT MISSION

To discover my place in this infinite universe; to be the very best version of myself

ABOUT ME

I love travel and exploration. I love yoga and acrobatics and learning to bend my being into new shapes I never knew possible. I love bouquets of marine plants. I love working on my house. I love music and dance. I love to combine activities: hula hooping while playing flute, fire dancing while roller blading, acrobating underwater, for example.

PHILOSOPHY

The only way for one to truly understand their place in the world is to step outside of their comfort bubble. How else can you escape the ignorance of a sessile lifestyle and learn what you are made of?

Travelling is the fountain of youth.

Go ahead, try to reach your limits, you may be surprised that you never find them.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

When I have a bit of free time, I really enjoy hosting people. If I am really busy and cannot host, I will always make time to meet up with couch surfers for an adventure or two ;)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I love this site. The friends I have made I still keep in contact with. I have met ppl in Hawaii from the town I'm from in Ohio. I helped choose a hawaiian name for a first born baby of a couple who stayed with me here. I've met up with the same couch surfers in multiple countries over the years. I have met with groups of local couchsurfers who are still today some of my closest friends. I have couch surfed in places such as forest bungalow, a yurt, and a yaht. I love hearing from old acquantances and meeting the new. Whenever I meet a couchsurfer, my addiction for travel is renewed.

Interests

Travelling, of course. Hiking, scuba diving, tennis, mountain/road biking, fire dancing, hula hooping, tree climbing, aerial silks, acro yoga, snorkeling, kayaking, learning and adventuring. I became a self-declared vegetarian when I was 4.

• animals
• pets
• wildlife
• fish
• aquaria
• fashion
• dancing
• vegetarian
• yoga
• walking
• gardening
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• fishing
• hiking
• kayaking
• scuba diving
• snorkeling
• sailing
• skateboarding
• rock climbing
• tennis
• swimming
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Fav Movie: Amelie, Zoolander, Life Aquatic
Fav Music: Buddha Bar, Royksopp, Lindsey Stirling, Ellie Goulding, MGMT, Daft Punk, Vampire Weekend, Streetlight Cadence, Shrift, Blackmill, Gigi D'Agostino, the Glenn Miller Orchestra
Fav Book: Fingerprints of the Gods

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Scuba diving for me is the equivalent of what it would be like to walk on the moon. It is a completely different world from the terrestrial norm, but not at all separate. Coral reefs are the rainforests of the ocean.

I was diving for work in the Northern Marianas and experienced an underwater volcano erupting. It vibrated through my body and made a deep rumbling sound and it felt like the earth was going to open up and swallow me whole.

I was diving in Borneo with my sister, and at 85 ft deep a juvenile whale shark cruised by. I've had several dreams about them, but this was my first time seeing one in person, and it was monumental to see it in a place where it is rare and overhunted, a place where we didn't seek it out, it sought us.

Petting a white tip reef shark all the way down his body as he swam by too close, watching us watch the other inhabitants of a secret Hawaiian pinnacle: a school of baby gray reef sharks, massive schools of reef fish, rare Apolemichthys swimming in abundance around my face, black corals, a monk seal, tinkers, cowries and a thousand crocodile fish.

Diving Palau and feeling like my heart might explode into tiny bubbles of pure happiness for the sake of the abundance of life I was privileged to witness.

Watching a walking basket sea star dance and undulate in a rhythmic feeding pattern across the reef at night at Apo reef in the Philippines.

Seeing a pod of killer whales in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, I thought they were only temperate species, I learned that they are the most wide-spread mammal in the world. Hard to imagine a world traveler in a tiny Seaworld aquarium, no?

Conducting mesopelagic midwater trawls in the middle of the Pacific, seeing animals with glowing photophores from 600 ft deep, and posing them in epic battle scenes while no one was watching before completing fish processing.

Going on a dive specifically to watch tiger sharks swim in and out of a harbor to feed on fishermen's scraps.

Sat on a rock on a reef for an entire hour while 13 squid danced around me, pairing up and mimicking each other's dance, patterns and colors. They were aware of me, but became comfortable after a while and swam around me just feet away. By the end, they had lined up around me in a perfect linear fashion, staring me down as if to ambush. I'd never realized what a brilliant, mesmerizing, coordinated creature squid are....

Working on characterizing the benthos on an underwater transect in Guam, I became aware that an octopus stood on all 8 legs watching me. After my work was done I came back to inspect him. Usually octopi hide as soon as you approach them, this one held his ground. He let me pet him between the eyes and then wrapped one of his arms around mine. Not expecting the wildlife to touch back, I freaked. But still, a touching moment.

Attending an Indian wedding: vibrant, expressive, beautiful, smiles, customs, henna, saris, jewels, dancing, sweet memories

Teach, Learn, Share

I try to share whenever I can my passion for conservation and the ocean world, and to share my hobbies.

What do I want to learn? I would like to play music once again, learn languages, learn to skateboard, learn more acrobatics, learn to slack line, learn to garden, learn carpentry and car mechanics, learn to read fast, learn to improve my memory, learn to sail, learn to enjoy the present moment to its fullest, learn to be the very best version of myself...

Countries I’ve Visited

American Samoa, Argentina, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, France, Greece, Guam, India, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Micronesia, Federated States of, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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