CURRENT MISSION

To Explore and be Free

ABOUT ME

I am an easygoing world traveler/artist/rock climber who never wants to stop learning. I think that meeting new people is a great way to keep the mind fresh and open to new ideas and experiences.

I am 32 and have been living in Chicago for a total of about 10 years. It's a wonderful city, but I had to get out for a while, so in 2013 I sold all my belongings, packed a backpack and set out to travel the world with my boyfriend. We traveled for a year in South America and about 6 months in SE Asia before we broke up and went our separate ways, taking him to China and me to India, Nepal, Myanmar, Europe, and Scandinavia. I traveled for another year on my own before settling back in Chicago, where I have been for a little over 2 years now. I love it here, but I'm feeling the itch, BAD!

PHILOSOPHY

Live for today! Unless you just feel like bumming out on the couch for a day...those days are important too.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am an eager traveler as well as an enthusiast of my own Windy City, Chicago. I've enjoyed hosting and showing people what I and my city have to offer, and love the truly local experiences and great people that couchsurfing allows me to experience.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

From my introduction to couchsurfing at an anniversary party in Barcelona, to signing up in June of 2009 and making a ton of good friends hosting, CS has been amazing. Hosting people provides the opportunity to be a traveler in my own city and in many ways to see it with fresh eyes. And traveling is amazing, but made even better with the locals to show me a good time and have good conversations with!

Interests

I am an artist (you can check out my website abbymansell.com) and a teacher at heart, though right now I am a server at an Italian restaurant and I also work at a rock climbing gym. Most of my trips lately have been to awesome rock climbing destinations within the US, but also include the Swiss Alps, Thailand, and Puerto Rico. I also love kayaking, hiking, exploring cities, hanging out at the beach, drinking, dancing, and meeting new people. I am a very social person who likes to go out and have fun, but I also really enjoy hanging out on the couch and having good conversations. I like to cook (and be cooked for!), and love incorporating my Indian or Thai spices into my dishes at home. I am not vegetarian, though most of the meals I cook at home are vegan or veggie, cuz they just taste so good that meat isn't necessary (also I just don't want to contribute to the meat industry).

• dancing
• cooking
• beer
• partying
• drinking
• movies
• traveling
• music
• live music
• hiking
• kayaking
• camping
• rock climbing
• paragliding
• teaching
• languages
• slacklining

Music, Movies, and Books

I love most music. Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Muse, Bob Dylan, Beck, Nine Inch Nails, The White Stripes, The Mars Volta, Marilyn Manson, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, I could go on forever (basically anything but country and r&b).
Movies and Shows? Game of Thrones, Shameless, Dexter, Breaking Bad, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Arrested Development. Donnie Darko, Dazed and Confused, Super Troopers, Snatch, Amelie, The Royal Tennenbaums, Anchorman, Half Baked, Predator, The Big Lebowski, Stepbrothers, Pulp Fiction, anything Tim Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, or Akira Kurosawa.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Left my home and my 4 jobs that I loved to backpack around the world for 2.5 years
Paragliding over the sacred valley in Peru
Travelled by riverboat down the Amazon for a couple weeks in a hammock
Volunteered on Monkey Island in the Amazon
Climbed one of the 6 great north faces of the Alps, Piz Badile
Climbed Huayna Potosi in Bolivia, 6,088m (19,974ft)
Witnessed sunrise over Borobodur in Indonesia
so many more....just ask! ;)

Teach, Learn, Share

I love languages and have become quite rusty on all of them. I'd love to speak with you!
I have a lot of experience traveling, and love when my friends and strangers reach out to me for advice!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

Thailand, United States

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