CURRENT MISSION

To do the best job I can helping my son to become an excellent person, to keep all of my relationships nuturing and sparkling, and to discover myself in the process.

ABOUT ME

I've now spent most of my life living in cultures other than the one I grew up in, which means there's a bit of everywhere I've been in me. Seeing the world from different viewpoints sometimes makes it hard to have a definite opinion about anything.
I've had lots of interesting jobs: worked in a warehouse moving lightbulbs back and forth, gave facial massages at Bloomingdale's, drew maps at a weather station, taught English for the Japanese education ministry and at a Tibetan monastary, taught special education students in New York City, as well as a lot of university level and corporate training in Germany. I still do some training, but mostly do system testing and quality control of translations for a large German electronics company.

PHILOSOPHY

What am I using my life for? Right now it's a combination of rasing my son and meeting as many interesting people as I can!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I participate by doing everything I can to support intercultural understanding by using my experience sidestep misunderstandings and value statements.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've just started with CouchSurfing, but I've travelled the world staying with friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends, and always had a great time. More important than seeing the sites of a city/country, the people are the key. That's why I'm excited about CS, it promises to be a great way to get in touch with people I might not meet any other way.

Interests

Dancing Tango Argentino, Sailing (Long Island Sound, North Sea, Med. Sea, Sea of Japan, Baltic, Aegean), Music of all types, from Thai funeral music to John Zorn there's hardly anything I won't listen to, Film, Art (classic, conceptual, modern, painting, scuplture...), play the clarinet, paint, write poetry, photography, watching people, food...

• arts
• poetry
• photography
• dancing
• tango
• education
• dining
• electronics
• traveling
• painting
• music
• sailing
• cartography
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Diva, To Sir With Love, Harold and Maude, Network.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Anything by Don Delilo, Tom Robbins, Umberto Eco, William Brautigan, Tom Wolfe, Douglas Adams, Howard Zinn, Charles Bukowski, Bill Bryson, Louis-Ferdinand Céline

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The most amazing thing I've ever seen is the full moon rising behind the Taj Mahal, turning it into a pale ghost of its daylight self. I also won a blue ribbon at the watermelon seed spitting contest at the Indiana State Fair!

Teach, Learn, Share

I've seen so many amazing things and learned so much while traveling, the only point of which is to pass on as much of it on as possible!

Countries I’ve Visited

China, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

• 

•