CURRENT MISSION

Summer 2024 - reconnecting with old friends in Europe and hopefully making new ones along the way. Reaffirming trust in my fellow travelers

ABOUT ME

I became a teacher to travel but, as fate has it, I’m in US looking after my grandmother. I was enlisted in the Coast Guard for 8 years stationed in Alaska and Hawaii. I’ve got plenty of fun stories from both just ask.

After the military, I became an ESOL teacher and worked in Colombia for a couple years and traveled extensively throughout Central and South America. Seriously, I’m only missing Venezuela and Paraguay before I can say I’ve been to every single country.

Anyway, I came back to US to get my masters and now I’m in Florida taking care of my grandmother. I get the summers off from school and family comes down to look after so I’m free to travel. So summers are sacred to me.

Oh! I love to swim, bike and run! If there’s an opportunity to do one of the three then I usually take it. I’m currently trying to get conditioned for a full Ironman Triathlon which is a total of 140.6 miles (226.3 km).

Also I love language! I'm probably going to ask you questions about your own language if you come stay with me or vise versa.

***Language challenge!***

Prove me wrong and I’ll buy you a beer.

All words in the English language that start with the letter “v”are Latin or French based.(Update: there is one quasi exception but I’ll still buy you a beer if you find it)

PHILOSOPHY

I feel the need to stay curious and open to the world to see what it may bring to me and so I, too, see what I may bring to it.

"THE RENT"

The only thing that I ask for, when you come and stay with me, is to bring with you your favorite idioms, sayings, colloquialisms, or slang in your language. I'm a language nerd and am fascinated at how other people and languages view the world through their own 'lens'. So I try to record these things in a book from people who come to stay with me, it's like a cool linguistic version of a guestbook.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Originally, I had a friend in Alaska that opened up his house to couch surfers and met an interesting individual so I thought wow what an awesome idea.

Nowadays, after traveling to almost 50 countries what really is important is not the place but the people and that’s what I’m looking for. More laughs, fun conversations, and good moments

Interests

Bicycling, reading, cooking, learning languages, meeting people from other countries

• education
• cooking
• triathlon
• reading
• drawing
• teaching
• languages
• journaling

Music, Movies, and Books

I love music from all around the world but the American in me likes the bluesy rock and especially the old blues.

I’m currently chewing through The Brothers Karamazov and im looking forward to more of Dostoevsky in the future.

As for films, Good Will Hunting is my all time favorite. I like sci-fi movies and dystopic movies like Mad Max or Waterworld.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The ATM cave tour in Belize made me feel like I was a real life Indiana Jones. You go into a cave and at times you have to swim from one side of the cave to the other then shimmy yourself through cracks in the cave walls. All this to get to part of the cave where there’s old Mayan artifacts scattered about and skeleton of a Mayan sacrifice has been calcified into the floor over the millennia. There are no safety nets or safety features. If you’re ever in Belize just cough up the money because it’s expensive but it’s well worth it.

Teach, Learn, Share

I’m a teacher. It’s hard to turn off but to be fair I love to learn.

What I Can Share with Hosts

As with everyone I'll share my experiences, if you want to hear them. I believe that everyone has their own unique take on life and lens that they view life and I'm interested about that.

Also, if you want help with your English then please tell me. I'll me more than willing to help you and give you small lessons in whatever area you want help in. Helping you actually helps me become a better English teacher down the road so speak up and tell me if you need help.

Countries I’ve Visited

American Samoa, Argentina, Austria, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Christmas Island, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, French Guiana, Germany, Guam, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland, Jamaica, Kiribati, Latvia, Lithuania, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Federated States of, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin (French part), Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Tonga, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, Colombia, United States

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