CURRENT MISSION

Travelling in SE Asia for six months

ABOUT ME

Don't know where to start! I have always loved travelling, believe it to be the best kind of education if you keep your eyes and ears open and have a curious disposition and an eagerness to learn about the various ways that people live.

My personal history is long and tortuous, but basically, after having wanted to be a doctor all my life and having been discouraged, I finally decided to take the plunge, left Paris (where I had been living for 6 years) and went back to NY to see if I could even get through the pre-med requisites - my prior degrees were in the Arts, not tremendously useful as a background for medicine. Somehow I got through the gruelling two years of calculus and other motley sciences, and got accepted at med school. Qualified in 2004, did ER training in Queens, NY for3 years and then got a job in downtown Manhattan. After a year working there, I found myself feeling very disillusioned with medicine as practised in America, and I was less than entranced with the political situation in the US, so I decided to just stop and take stock. Realised that I was getting on in years, even if I still felt ridiculously young in my head, if you know what I mean, so I decided to throw everything up in the air, quit my job, take six months to travel and then...... who knows? I have no idea. May not even go back to medicine!

So that's the recent past. Other than that, I speak four languages (French, Spanish, Italian and - you guessed it - English) and have travelled a lot. It's in the genes; my grandfather was in Shanghai in 1923!! I caught up with his ghost there on this trip. But other than that I've been to West Africa (as a child), South America, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Romania and an awful lot of western Europe. I did a great big trip to SE Asia in 1990 which took in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, so this time I'm trying to visit the countries that I couldn't make it to last time.

As for my personal virtues and vices - well, I try to be considerate of others, have been told that I am a good house guest and I don't need my hand held, although I always welcome any advice or suggestions that people may have. I love dogs, am not allergic to cats and don't smoke. Oh, and unless I'm very hungry, I have a good sense of humour!

That's it in a nutshell, if a rather large one.

PHILOSOPHY

Three main themes: treat others as you would like to be treated; if something's worth doing, then it's worth doing well: keep an open mind always.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Have only just heard about this, so as yet I don't participate.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None as yet

Interests

Reading, languages, movies, theatre, opera, walking, travelling, learning about anything new

• cats
• dogs
• arts
• education
• walking
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• opera
• teaching
• history
• languages
• medicine

Music, Movies, and Books

Can never remember specifics when I'm put on the spot like this, but I have pretty eclectic tastes, am always reading a book, like rock to opera but interestingly don't like jazz (sorry!!!) and prefer movies that rely on story rather than special effects (think Full Monty rather than Terminator)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Too many to mention - and anyway, how does one define amazing?

Teach, Learn, Share

Can teach languages, English and French
Have medical skills