CURRENT MISSION

Aren't we all just trying to do the best we can?

ABOUT ME

I live in Berkeley, California where I'm a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley. I spend a lot of time in Puerto Rico and the Brazilian Amazon doing research on climate change, deforestation and forests, and while I'm there I get to see lots of cool animals. Previously, I lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota while getting my PhD, went to college in California and lived for two years in Brooklyn where I taught high school biology at an urban public school. Huzzah!

Otherwise, I spend much of my free time outside with my dog, cooking enthusiastically but somewhat poorly, marveling at the mysteries of dinosaurs and Mr. Potato Heads, and rocking out.

PHILOSOPHY

I want to feel things. Tennessee Williams had it right: "What on earth can you do on this earth but catch at whatever comes near you, with both your fingers, until your fingers are broken?"

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I heard about CS from a friend who's had a bunch of great experiences. I'm always down to meet cool people, and figured that signing up would be swell.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None yet, officially - but I've done my fair share of bumming around on friends' couches in my day!

Interests

To generalize dramatically, I'm into music, the outdoors, soup spoons, the blood-brain barrier, nerd-ery, art and whatnot, comic books, the 1980s, photography, bikes and dinosaurs. Woot woot!

• animals
• arts
• books
• photography
• cooking
• music
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• biology
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Books are neat! Authors I dig include Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, Shakespeare, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, David Sedaris, Jonathan Safran Foer, a bunch of comic book writers, and I adore Harry Potter (let's not even lie about it).

Love music... the Beatles, Elvis Costello, the Clash and the Talking Heads are amazing, as are the Dismemberment Plan, A Tribe Called Quest, the Arcade Fire, Blackalicious, Built to Spill, Wolf Parade, the Hold Steady, Jay-Z, Madlib, Buena Vista Social Club, Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Joy Division, Ted Leo, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, TV on the Radio, the National, RJD2, the Replacements, Television, the Buzzcocks, Spoon, Busdriver, Four Tet, Ryan Adams and Clipse.

Movies/TV: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Peter Pan, anything Hitchcock or Truffaut, Memento, the Graduate, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and I have an unhealthy obsession with House, MD and the Bluth family.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've slept alongside a sea turtle digging its nest on an island in the Great Barrier Reef. Funded by science! Best job in the world.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love hiking in the East Bay and would love to show you all my favorite trails.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belize, Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Brazil, Tanzania, United States