CURRENT MISSION

Searching for home by getting as far away from it as possible.

ABOUT ME

I've been a dabbler my whole life. There are so many things to learn and things to do that have interested me, that I have a hard time just choosing one. I wrote short stories in high school, and have played piano since I was 7 years old. When I got to university I was studying equal parts French and Math, but couldn't commit to either of them and so started taking Music classes, Psychology classes, Shakespeare classes, Linguistic classes, and so on. I also got heavily involved in competitive road cycling and it became a second life to me.

After 4 years of this and that at university, I'm sort of at odds with the next step I am to take. So I jumped ship, and bought a ticket to Spain for just a few months where a good friend of mine had recently moved. It has been my dream to come to Europe since I was 15 years old, but the trip never seemed to work out. Now I feel like it might be the key to understanding what to do next in life.

PHILOSOPHY

Of all the things one can do to spend a lifetime, the only time that I know for certain that I'm living it right is when I am spending time with the people I am lucky enough to be able to call my friends or any of the amazing and sincere people that I've had the chance to cross paths with.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Currently I am abroad, so I'm hoping to find some couches to crash on while I'm away!

I'm super excited to return the favor when I get back to Portland, Oregon in the US. Nothing like meeting people who are stoked to be in a new place.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

OnIy good things, I hope!

Interests

Piano, jokes, new sounds, odd food, stories, parks, things that people insist that you must do or see, funny little things like that.

• dogs
• fish
• dining
• running
• working out
• flying
• socializing
• music
• piano
• violin
• cycling
• fishing
• mathematics
• psychology
• parks
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Richard Brautigan and Chopin!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In February 2013, my friend and I went on a bike ride in the Cantabrian mountains in the North of Spain. We climbed above the snow line when a storm suddenly hit. When we got to the other side of the climb, the road was awash with snow and we had to turn back the way we came. I was colder than I had ever been, and I've been very cold! I was shivering so violently that I couldn't keep my bike in straight line and had to keep reminding myself where I was and what I was doing.

Halfway down the mountain, my friend got a flat tire, and we were still in the middle of nowhere. My leg muscles were seizing up and he told me to ride ahead while he fixed his wheel so that I could try to regain some warmth. Only a few minutes later I could not will my legs to turn the pedals over anymore and I stopped on the side of the road.

At that moment a giant dog began barking at me from what was one of the only houses around for kilometers. He approached me as I was keeled over my bike shivering with no strength to do anything else. The dog stopped barking and began to sniff me instead. I fell to the ground, and soon the dog left and sat by the front door of the house. I followed it and the door opened to a middle aged Spanish woman looking at me with fright.

"Pasa! Pasa! Pasa!" she said, inviting me in. I must have looked awful.

The door led into the kitchen where her family was sitting around the table eating lunch. A father, and older boy, and a girl. They stared at me wide eyed.

The father pulled me a chair next to the space heater they were running and handed me a cup of an amazing soup, that I couldn't eat because my shivers were sending the soup flying out of the cup.

"Tranquilo! Tranquilo!" he told me.

My Spanish isn't too good, so I was unable to tell them my situation.

Luckily my friend had fixed his wheel and had seen my bike lying in the road as he continued on. He was able to explain everything, and after 30 minutes or so I had stopped shivering and they invited us to stay and eat before we got a ride back to town.

It was the only time that I had ever feared for my life, and I got super lucky to have run into the dog whose name was Dexter, and the most hospitable family I have ever met. Wooooof! Saved!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to play the piano if you can teach me the violin. I can show you how to dice an onion if you show me how to clean a fish. I can fix your bike if you can patch my jacket. I can teach you English if you can teach me French. I can write you a letter if you can write me one back.