Not Verified
Lagunitas-Forest Knolls, California, United States
@RAENFOREST
Member since 2008
CURRENT MISSION 1. Nomadic adventures in wilderness areas and non-western countries. Bringing others into the wilderness, out of the states, and out of their comfort zone, for eco education and widening perspectives 2. Queer social change for LGBT, Leather & poly folks. ABOUT ME I'm a behavioral ecology grad student, trying to decide whether to pursue an academic life. I'm a wilderness enthusiast. I used to run outdoors programs - college freshman pre-orientation outdoors trips, college outdoors club, outdoorsy international travel, and, most recently, leadership training through challenging mountain biking expeditions. I keep thinking of starting my own program - mixing education, leadership, wilderness, and international travel. I lived in Costa Rica and try to get out of the country often, to remind myself that the US perspective isn't the only or best one. I'm queer, genderqueer, Leather/ SM, and non-monogamous. I'm the Volunteer Coordinator for International Ms Leather (www.imsl.org), a board associate with Folsom (www.folsomstreetfair.org) and am curating an exhibit at the LGBT Historical Society about the 25 years of the Folsom Street Fair's history. I teach at a variety of Leather conferences, and some of my domestic travel is linked to that. I'm an avid traveler. I love being on the road and exploring. I like going to places that aren't so westernized and expensive, and I do my best to disregard warnings about where it isn't safe for women to travel - I don't want to be unduly restricted by fear. I like to hike and to wander through cities. I like to stay in one place long enough to get to know it, but I also like bouncing from place to place every night or two. I'm a good and well-practiced houseguest - I clean up after myself, leave it better than I found it, pitch in where I can.
Interested in Adventure Sports
Interested in Art
Fluent in English
Learning Spanish
Why I'm on Couchsurfing
HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING Just getting started. Definitely up for coffee and touring around -or taking you hiking if that's more your style. I'm interested in offering a couch or even a guestroom. And I'm definitely looking for couches to crash on, especially internationally. COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE I graduated college in 2004 and spent about 4 months living by couchsurfing - bouncing between various friends' places. My "permanent" residence was in a van, but I never stayed there. I've road tripped cross country 5 times, staying with friends where I could and camping or hostelling the rest. One of the best was staying with a friend's cousins - I happened to show up in their very small town on the town's 100th anniversary, so there were BBQs going on all over. I spent 2 days there, enjoying small town life - learning how one distant cousin made mini "teardrop" trailer-campers and being toured around his workshop and hearing the old folks' stories about how they used to fit a family of 12 in a 400 sq ft house when the town was young - they spread out mattresses on the floor at night and pulled them up in the morning, because they needed every inch of floor space to sleep that many people. When I left, they gave me an atlas to help me on my travels the rest of the way. I go to LA 4-12 times a year and live on couches for a weekend or a week each time. I couch-surfed in Brisbane, Australia for 6 weeks and for a few days in Sydney.
Music, Movies, and Books
Books - Poisonwood bible. Last Child in the Woods. Tales of a Female Nomad. And many, many more. Movies - Across the Universe. (TV - West Wing) Theatre - Spring Awakening Music - La Ley, Matchbox 20, Greenday, Tracy Chapman, Jill Sobule, Blues Traveler, Jason Webley, and so many more.
One Amazing Thing I've Done
Held a wild sloth that had just been plucked out of its tree. Kayaked in the amazon. Hiked in the cloud forest in Monteverde. Held a 10g wild bird. Researched poison dart frogs. Climbed (using a rope and ascenders) to the top of the rainforest canopy.
Teach, Learn, Share
I could teach/ talk about - Leather culture, skills, and history. Non-monogamous lifestyles. Intergenerational relationships. Queer culture. Gender exploration and biology of gender variance. Wilderness related skills - technical gear information, wilderness medicine, general how-to. Leave no trace ethics. Info on places I've traveled. Rainforest biology. Behavioral ecology. Entomology. I could learn - Lots of things. Motorcycle repair and home repair skills. Languages. Info about countries I'd like to travel to. Cultures I'm not familiar with.
My Interests
Reading - literature. Classics and recent releases. Quality writing, not mysteries or other junk. Especially anything related to travel or adventure outside the US. Hiking. Rock climbing. Biking - road, commuter, and mountain. Anything else outdoors. Running. Vegetarian restaurants and farmers markets. Outdoor concerts, preferably free. Leather culture. Queer culture. Gender exploration and adventure. Left-wing politics (I worked on a congressional campaign as the field coordinator - it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.) Rainforests. Frogs. Birds. Bugs. Swimming. Waterfalls. Places that are just crawling with life. Museums - science museums, history museums, funky museums, a few select art museums, aquariums, zoos. Neighborhoods - cities with personality. Theatre - thought-provoking rather than showy. Indie movies. Rock - latin rock, alternative, classic rock. Some folk music. And anything that I can dance to. Clubs, dancing, spinning flags. Synchronized swimming. Motorcycles. Road trips by car or motorcycle. Epic journeys. Hiking the Appalachian trail. Bicycling cross country. Round-the-world trips. NPR. Not watching TV. Living simply.
