CURRENT MISSION

"The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences." -Christopher McCandless

ABOUT ME

One sticky July Texas morning, 23 years ago, a little girl's strange life began when her momma popped her out in a tea-filled bathtub. Accepting it as a sign she wasn't destined to be normal, she's taken off down the slightly crazier path of life...

PHILOSOPHY

"Come to the edge, Life said. They said: We are afraid.Come to the edge, Life said. They came.Life pushed them... and they flew."-Guillaume ApollinaireExplore nature. There's nothing like a big tree, or an iceburg, or a mountain to make you realize how small you are.

Cultivate inner peace. You cannot find happiness, only create it from within.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Hosted many lovely French people, a barrage of Belgiums, a Canadian travelling through on his way to Mexico, English girls who became more than surfers and in fact good friends, and many others who passed through my place in Los Angeles. Surfed through NZ and Asia, and was amazed by the hospitality I run into while surfing from Sulawesi to the South Island in New Zealand. Now time to give back some more karma at my place in Melbourne.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

From the many times I've been invited into houses of kind strangers in foreign countries, to bringing new friends I met at the airport when they were stranded for the night, offical and unofficial couchsurfing is something that has always played a role in my travels. It's amazing to have a site that breaks down the barriers between strangers, if you are willing to jump over that initial barrier of fear. We need more venues in life to create community and link us fellow humans together :)

Interests

Hiking, sailing & biking around the world while adding to my around-the-world cookbook, finally settling down somewhere and starting an urban permaculture oasis.. Anything sustainable is a huge interest of mine. It's scary and sometimes overwhelming to think about the path our [global] society is on and it's a mission of mine to contribute to the positive energy that's involved in creating change in whatever ways we can.

I just got back from a trip around Thailand on a folding bicycle, working with various sustainable-related projects: putting in a water system for a village on the Burmese border using biochar, which filters out pesticides and even heavy metals; learning to build with adobe and seeing the earthen building movement that's going on in Thailand (who knew? http://www.motherearthnews.com/hands-on-how-to/earth-building-in-thailand.aspx), helping to plant a food forest and lots of other things that get me excited!

I'd love to chat with you about all of this and a million other things...

• dining
• beer
• running
• gardening
• boating
• technology
• traveling
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• sailing
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

My Shantaram book by Gregory David Roberts continues to be passed along my friends since I handed it on it on 2 years ago- a definite must-read!Currently reading: 100 Years of Solitude
Fabric of the Cosmos

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Watching my students in Africa blow soap bubbles for the first time. Teaching kids about things they had never heard of like dinosaurs and the ocean. Chasing monkeys and being chased by storms in the rainforest. Hiking to the top of the hardest mountain of my life in the Andes. Jumping out of a plane in Argentina. Strolling through forests at the end of the world, Ushuaia, exploring the mountains of Yosemite and spending a month hiking around New Zealand. Touching an iceberg, watching sea lions, whales, glaciers and jellyfish on breaks from work on a boat in Alaska. Waking up at Burning Man to dozens of hot air ballons floating over my tent and wandering through the most bizzare and inspiring creations I've ever seen.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to open a beer bottle cap with your teeth. Just don't let my mother know I taught you.

Things I'd like to learn: hooping, aerial silks, welding, building, more about gardening, beekeeping, green technology. Oh and I need someone to help me keep up with my rusty Spanish!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Barbados, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Poland, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, United States

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