ABOUT ME

Hey!  I am a JD/MBA Student in Richmond, Virginia who loves  to travel and hear other people's stories.  If you are visiting Richmond, I would love to meet up, show you around, buy you a cup of coffee, and fill you in on the must see spots in Virginia.  I am a marathon runner, and I love to go on runs with any level of runner, so if you are in need of a running buddy I am always up for a run!  I also enjoy rock climbing, hiking, camping, and cooking, as well as reading and writing, so feel free to contact me if you want to go on an adventure somewhere in Virginia!

PHILOSOPHY

I love to help people in any way I can, and dedicate as much of my time to serving others.  I also love to learn - languages, history, law, business...anything?  I love to tell and listen to stories and I think that the more I learn about other people's experiences, the more I learn about myself.  I also believe in throwing my energy into whatever I do, and having my hands in as many activities as I can at once.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am unfortunately lacking an available couch right now (I have a roommate who's a little skittish around strangers - and yes she's a person not a pet).  But I love introducing people to the great coffee shops, book stores, bars, and sites around Richmond, and I am available for a chat or an adventure!  Also feel free to ask me any questions about visiting Virginia!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am new to couchsurfing, although I've known the website for a while, and I am excited to make new connections and great friendships!

Interests

I love running half and full marathons, rock climbing, hiking, camping, reading, writing, watching movies, drinking coffee, and travelling of course!  I have two big adventures planned for this year - going to Washington State in March and Iceland in August, so if anyone wants to come along let me know!

• pets
• writing
• books
• singing
• architecture
• dining
• cooking
• breakfast
• beer
• coffee
• marathon
• running
• walking
• drinking
• boating
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• cars
• music
• hiking
• camping
• hunting
• sailing
• rock climbing
• olympics
• business
• history
• languages
• law
• sightseeing

Music, Movies, and Books

Right now, I am reading the Atlantic by Simon Winchester, listening to John Mayer, Adele, and Regina Spektor, and I just watched Tintin, Sherlock Holmes 2, the Help, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and I Am Love.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A couple of friends and I decided that we wanted to go to the port city of Qingdao for the weekend. We planned to take the overnight train there on Friday night, and a fast train back Sunday afternoon. Naturally, I planned the trip (ensuring that I wouldn't pay too much money) and I set out on Friday morning in my running outfit to go get the train tickets.I finally arrived at the train station and stood outside in the cold for 15 minutes in line for my tickets. When I got to the front of the line, I tried to order three sleepers (bunks) on the overnight train to Qingdao. The woman told me they only had two sleepers and they wouldn't sell me another ticket. I tried to argue with her, saying I didn't care what the third ticket was, I just needed three tickets to Qingdao. She sent me to another line, and I went through the whole process again. And finally, once I got through the third line, the man sold me the two sleeper tickets - the only two tickets left on the train, and a "no seat" ticket. This meant that while my friends Molly and Cara would have sleepers, I would be sitting in the mysterious "no seat" section of the train.That night, I gave my bag to Molly and Cara to protect in car 15, where their sleeper bunks were. Molly offered to help me sneak into their car. She promised me that she "would be little spoon" and we would get to share the bunk, and no one would notice. At that point, the idea of sneaking to their car sounded pretty good to me, but when I arrived way back at Car 6, was unceremoniously shoved by the train attendant into the car, and found myself standing in the middle of 150 other Chinese passengers, I realized that sneaking all the way back up to Car 15 would not be an option.It was hot and crowded, and standing room only. The car is actually a hard seat section, and has three seats on either side of the aisle for people who have "hard seat" tickets, but us unlucky ones who have "no seat" tickets, have to stand in the aisle and wherever we can get a space. I thought to myself that there was absolutely no way I would be able to stand for 9 hours overnight, so as the train attendants managed to weed out a lot of the people without train tickets, I sat down. I put my back up against one row of seats, and my feet under the other row across the aisle. It was cooler, and I didn't take up too much space, so people could just step over my legs if they needed to get somewhere. I sat like that for four hours, and as time went by the men stayed standing and the women found corners of seats and floor spaces to sit on. The old man sitting next to me on his sack of grain finally reached his stop and hoisted the grain over his head and got off.An old woman sitting a few seats down from me was staring at me intently. It didn't surprise me too much because I was the only white person on the train. She had been listening to music for most of the train ride, and was singing and slapping her knee all by herself. But now she was just staring at me. She yelled out to me and asked what my stop was, which I didn't understand. The girl sitting on the edge of a seat next to me took my ticket and told the old woman I was going to Qingdao, and the woman just nodded her head and smiled at me with her mahogany colored teeth.Then, a few minutes later, the man sitting next to the woman got up at the stop and left the train. The old woman immediately spread out over the two seats and called out to me "Come over here." Two men standing beside me hoisted me up from the train floor, and I was led by my jacket sleeve through the throngs of people to the open seat the woman had saved for me. As I sat down, baffled, she patted my back and continued listening to her music. I was amazed that everyone else on the train just let me take the seat - no one else even tried to sit down there. I guess they just didn't want to mess with that old woman. About twenty minutes later, she handed me one of the earbuds from her own ear and told me to listen to the music. I listened to weird Chinese music, that she went through and hand picked, for THREE hours. Every time I tried to return her headphones to her, she wouldn't take them, and demanded that I keep listening.I dozed a little bit, but I didn't really sleep at all that night. There were some men who stood standing the whole nine hours. One man even fell asleep, standing, with his briefcase as his pillow. When the train finally arrived at Qingdao I was so tired that I didn't think I'd be able to fall asleep at the hostel when we got there. Molly and Cara walked over with concern and hesitation as to my potential grumpiness, but I was so happy to be there that I just smiled and gave them hugs, and of course told them about the old woman.The man from the hostel was standing at the train station with my name on a sign, waiting to drive us up to the hostel. On the way there, we were stopped in the road by a Chinese man and Chinese woman have a huge fight about their cars in the middle of the street. Molly, Cara, and especially I were so tired that we just dumbly watched the fight continue and the yelling get louder. Finally our driver, who was just as engaged in watching the fight, honked his horn and got the two drivers out of the way.The hostel was amazing. It was China's first modern observatory, and had been abandoned until they bought it and renovated it. The showers are modern and private, the bathrooms are western style and clean, and the beds and linens were very soft and clean. We dropped off our stuff in lockers, and went upstairs. There is a restaurant on top of the hostel, and right beside the dome of the observatory. They made us western style breakfast with fried eggs, warm toast, and sausage. It was wonderful. And the best part for me was the hot, freshly brewed coffee - it was certainly going to get me through the day.After breakfast we headed out with a map and directions from the people at the hostel. We first walked down to the ocean. The air was warm but the wind from the ocean was really cold and very powerful. It was hard to walk out on the Zhanqiao pier toward the temple at the very end. The water was beautiful, and we could see where the boat races and sailing events from the Olympics were held. Because the tide was out, there were people hunting for oysters on the rocks by the pier.On the way back, something totally unexpected happened. I saw a woman I recognized walking on the pier with her family. As we passed each other, we kept looking back to see if we really did recognize each other in a city of several million people. It was the crazy old lady from the train!!! I immediately ran back and told her I wanted a picture with her. Cara took a picture with my camera, and all of the woman's family members had their cameras out snapping shots of the two of us. We were hugging and smiling at each other, so amazed that we saw each other again. It was really an amazing experience.After the pier and walking around the city, admiring the German architecture and eating lunch, we headed back to the hostel so Cara could take a shower and Molly and I could take a nap. Our next stop was the Tsingtao Beer museum and brewery. Tsingtao was founded in Qingdao in the 1900's, when the Germans took over the town as their colonial outpost in China. The history of the brewery follows the history of Qingdao quite well, as the brewery was taken over by the Japanese when they invaded in the 1930's and 1940's, and finally returned to the Chinese after the liberation movement in 1949. The museum was pretty tame, but watching and learning how beer is made is actually pretty interesting. Through the museum they gave us small glasses of raw beer (German style) which tasted pretty yeasty and...interesting. After the whole tour, we were also given freshly brewed Tsingtao beer, which was okay, and definitely part of the experience. The only thing that kind of bothered me was that a couple small children were running around the museum, and each of them got a whole glass of raw beer and a whole glass of regular Tsingtao just like their parents. Starting them young I guess.After the Tsingtao museum we were all pretty tired, and we headed back to the hostel for dinner and bed. We ate dinner early, and the restaurant on top of the hostel made us Western style chicken and beefsteak sandwiches, which was also very refreshing. Molly couldn't get over how much she had missed mayonnaise and Cara didn't talk much while she devoured her french fries. We relaxed on the roof for a while, looking at the city, checked our email, and went to bed.On Sunday morning we got up, got dressed, and headed out towards the Guest House. It's official name is the Yingbin hotel, and it was originally the home of the German Governor General, and Mao Zedong and Yuan Shikai have both stayed here in their time.After the Guest House, we hiked up a hill to the lookout towers that overlook Qingdao on Signal Hill. The views were really beautiful, and the main lookout tower rotates so you can see the whole tower just by sitting in one spot.After the last of our sightseeing we headed back to the train station and took a fast train back to Beijing. We felt kind of relaxed and rejuvenated just from being on our own, doing things at our own pace, and just enjoying the warmer weather and different scenery. It was a really great trip.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can tell stories and give amateur legal advice, decent travel advice, and tell them how to order food in Chinese.  I hope to learn about the great experiences other people have had, and learn some life lessons and tips in the process.