CURRENT MISSION

Meeting the world's peoples in the places where they live. And experiencing my own personal growth in the process.

ABOUT ME

I love to soak for a time in another person's full-time reality, and then participate fully in the new culture. I am repectful and seek to be of little trouble. I travel with a small pack, my "groovy blue bag," and try to leave as small a footprint as possible. I like to travel overland in 2nd class and share space with the non-travelers.

As hard as it is to admit these days, I am an Amercian. Thus, as is embarrassingly typical, I am not fluent in another language other than my native English. However, I am trying to teach myself French and Spanish.

PHILOSOPHY

One rarely regrets the things one has done; one regrets what one could have done but did not.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I joined the CS2 Project in August 2007, and have been traveling pretty much since then. Thus I have participated mostly as a traveler. I definitely try to always be a good ambassador for CSing in general, for myself in particular, and for all the Americans who have been embarrassed by their nation's behavior in the world. Can the US ever be as good a neighbor as my CSing hosts? I hope someday it can.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I joined the CS2 Project in August 2007, and then surfed with some wonderful people in Eastern Europe during the autumn. I even had a reunion with one memorable couple in Canada in January 2008, and I have the prospect of another in September. The CS concept is wonderful! I travel alone (couch-surfing and hostels) so a personal entré into other societies is always welcome. And I love the way a few formal rules can preserve the informal relationships that develop between like-minded people. Great!

Interests

Travel, of course
Music
Singing (a cappella, solo and choral)
Reading (literature and history mostly)
History
Cooking
Eating new foods, having new experiences, and daring myself to be 25 again.

• culture
• literature
• singing
• cooking
• running
• reading
• traveling
• music
• a cappella
• surfing
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Marel Proust's Recherche des Temps Perdu has left a lasting impression on me, as has Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I enjoy live jazz.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've stayed in the Hotel de Glace (Ice Hotel) in Quebec, Canada, seen the calving of the Moreno Glacier in Argentina, and ridden an olympic bobsled run in Lake Placid, New York. I have taken an old school bus a mile down into the Copper Canyon in Mexico, had tea in the High Atlas, and have visited the Crimea. The best is yet to come.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach music
I would love to learn local customs

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belarus, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, United States

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