For the last few years I've been zig-zagging between SE Asia and the West Coast of the US. I have lots of personal, professional, and academic experience with SE Asia, particularly Myanmar. Wherever I go, I keep an eye out to learn more about the intersections between culture/society and nature, art and society, politics and the marginalized.

I love traveling, and am really grateful that I've built a network of contacts and friends in various places - I love coming back to SE Asia and continuing to expand my perspective on the region. Still, there are tons of countries I would love to visit someday! Traveling brings me close to the sights, the aromas, the cuisine, and the diverse people that give a place its own unique character. I'm always grateful to the 'guardian angels' that have graced my path while venturing about - often a stranger saves your life or leads you down a new path when you least expect it : )

Otherwise I am very interested in self-development, enhancing my compassion and integrity as a person~ I like to let loose and live like a footloose goofball too, haha! I love movies, music, dance, cooking, art, community building, 'radical' and indigenous perspectives of life and nature ~

Soon I will be attending graduate school to get two Master's degrees, in Journalism and Geography!

Here's to mapping the story! ; j
Looking forward to uncharted experiences! : D

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To socialize with intriguing, diverse, and genuine people whom I likely wouldn't meet otherwise ~ To nurture our collective humanity

Interests

I like to be outside, in nature, on a board, climbing a tree, building a fort, reading on a patio, riding my bike, dancing in the rain, capturing a moment, picnicking on a sunny day, caking myself and others with mud :). Photography, Buddhism, astronomy, architecture, art, music, movies, poetry, alternative medicine, other countries and cultures, what makes people tick, psychology, philosophy, zoology, national geographic, good conversations, history and its famous figures, and of course, traveling.

• arts
• poetry
• architecture
• photography
• dancing
• cooking
• meditation
• boating
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• surfing
• sailing
• rock climbing
• anthropology
• astronomy
• history
• medicine
• psychology
• mountains
• buddhism
• health
• ceramics
• foraging
• history and culture

Music, Movies, and Books

Music adjectives: Dark, stomping, rocking, rhythmic, twangy, surf, rock 'n roll. I love house shows!

Also love intelligent underground rappers ~ Del, Living Legends, Tribe Called Quest, etc ~ and some electronica, then lo-fi, mellow, indie, ya know.

Movies:
Last Emperor, Pulp Fiction, Scarface, The Killing Fields, The Big Lebowski, Patton, Resevoir Dogs, Hotel Rwanda, Salvador, Nowhere in Africa, Divided We Fall, City of God, Buffalo 66, American History X, Fargo, Without Limits, The Godfather, Cool Hand Luke, Memoirs of a Geisha, Forrest Gump, Passion in the Desert, Beneath the Sheltering Sky, The World's Fastest Indian, Apocalypse Now, Wonderland, An Inconvenient Truth, Dances with Wolves, Idiocracy, Winged Migration, Harsh Times, The Squid and the Whale, ...any Woody Allen movie..., Blood Diamond, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Constant Gardener, The Endless Summer, The Endless Summer 2, Sicko, Stand By Me, The Royal Tenenbaums, A Clockwork Orange, Igby Goes Down, The Deer Hunter, Running With Scissors, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Two Headed Cow, Natural Born Killers, Rescue Dawn, Mighty Aphrodite, Y Tu Mama Tambien, L'Auberge Espagnole, Life is Beautiful, The Pixies: Gouge, Johnny Berlin, Cinderella Man, My Best Friend, The Painted Veil, 3:10 To Yuma, Stand By Me, The Same River Twice, Assassination Tango, No Country For Old Men, Atonement, Pineapple Express, Burn After Reading, Le Grand Voyage, Things We Lost In The Fire, Gran Torino, Taken, Revolutionary Road, There Will be Blood, Vertigo

Books:
Night, Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Things They Carried, The Glass Castle, A Rumor of War, All Quiet on the Western Front, Water for Elephants, The Last Confession of Mabel Stark, Metamorphisis, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, The Mushroom at the End of the World, Braiding Sweetgrass, Buddhist and Zen books, Shogun, The Shaman's Apprentice, Tomorrow You Go Home, Tropic of Cancer, Dharma Bums, In the Realm of the Diamond Queen, In the Shadows of the State, NARCISSUS AND GOLDMUND, Looking for Hogeye...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

~~~~~~~
Spent a summer helping a friend build a boat from scavenged materials in Portland, for a multi-day voyage downriver to the ocean
~~~~~~~

Teach, Learn, Share

Be genuine with everyone you meet and know - make a connection, it may be the last moment you're able to do so!

Listen to your senses, get into your body ~ the mind and body are not separate, but are co-continuous, connected, intwined ~

"Follow the money," as journalists say - this will highlight many of the insincere, corrupt practices of our governments.

Try to see people as "good-ish," rather than "good" or "bad," because we are all damaged goods.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Stories and photographs of living without electricity and in solitude in the remote corners of northern California!

Sense of curiosity, an eagerness to learn local tastes and outlooks.

A hand in the kitchen - let's 'break bread' and bond over delicious cuisine!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Laos, Myanmar, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Singapore, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam