CURRENT MISSION

Nurturing a sense of joy!!!!

ABOUT ME

I studied Spanish and Russian at uni and am still a real language geek if truth be told! I recently took an evening class in Turkish as I've spent some stunning times travelling in Turkey in recent years and it's somewhere I hope to return to again and again. While I was at uni though I was only ever quite a flakey linguist really! I loved all the exposure to world literature and cinema more than anything else and put much of my energy into developing my passion for the theatre. After uni I had the chance to go to a really interesting college called Drama Centre in London, which was set up in the '60s to combine a 'Method'-based approach to acting with the European classical tradition. A really intense, unusual place. Since I finished that 2 years ago I got into doing lots of children's theatre, and more recently I've started working as a teaching assistant in primary schools, and I hope to start teacher training over the next year. I feel really lucky to have had the chance to pursue what I was passionate about and get a really broad education, and now I hope to give some of that back!

PHILOSOPHY

Being open to what's around you and being willing to nurture a sense of joy in yourself and others is what I most hope to pass on when I teach. Is that a philosophy?!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I only heard about the site very recently - a friend suggested I check it out as I am shortly moving to New York for 3 months and it would be a great way to kick-start my time there while I look for a place to live. When I'm back in London at the end of the year I hope I can return the favour to people from all over.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None just yet - I'm an open book!

Interests

All kinds of drama - acting and watching! Classical theatre is my favourite thing. Learning languages - I hope to learn loads over the years! Yoga, running. I love working with young people - tutoring, teaching drama, summer camps. I can devour box sets of good TV drama! Voluntary work with kids and with refugees / asylum-seekers. I'll travel a long way for a good music festival! I love hanging out in markets - I've had a lovely extra casual job the past couple of years on a great little stall at a beautiful farmers' market in London.

• books
• literature
• folklore
• acting
• festivals
• education
• farmers' market
• yoga
• running
• movies
• tv
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• boxing
• teaching
• languages
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Right now my favourite book of all time is 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay', by Michael Chabon. I was completely bowled over by the imaginative scope of that story, and by the intensity and depth of feeling in the book, and it was damn funny too. Other books I've enjoyed immensely recently are 'Middlemarch', 'Everything Is Illuminated' and 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.' And my favourite thing in the world is working on a piece of Shakespeare text.

There's a big world music festival called WOMAD which always used to be held in Reading, near where I grew up and I've always loved going to that because you're constantly discovering new music and being surprised by artists you've never heard of and getting a whole mesh of musical sensations from all over the world.

I studied Almodovar at uni a lot and I've always loved the zany humour and tenderness of his films and the way they depict lives lived on the edge. Some other films I found really graceful recently were 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'The New World'. And I loved Mad Men. And Six Feet Under coz I think it's really soulful and funny!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hitch-hiking from England to Morocco was pretty memorable. We got through France in a day but then it took forever to meander through Spain - people were so kind to us. I'll always remember the elderly couple who put us up and got up at 5am to bake us biscuits for our journey!

Acting in 'Richard III' was incredible because the cast were amazing - everyone kept raising the bar higher and higher and I couldn't wait for the audience to see it ( I only had a small part so I feel I can say it really was good!)

Teach, Learn, Share

I am always up for learning words and phrases from other languages. And am very willing to pass on whatever I can.

Countries I’ve Visited

Ecuador, Morocco, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Spain, United Kingdom

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