CURRENT MISSION

To become a Viking, at least for purposes of grad school.

ABOUT ME

I'm a full-time grad student currently studying at KIMEP in beautiful Almaty, Kazakhstan. Besides school, I teach English, am involved in various American Culture clubs at different universities, help run an English Club at KIMEP, and am quite involved with the Baha'i community here. I really like good conversations, which can range from philosophy to politics to God or even about current trends in rock music. I love being outside, especially for hiking, camping, or kayaking. I also enjoy soccer and throwing around an American football.

PHILOSOPHY

"The earth is one country, and mankind its citizens." I try to live by that.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I offer to host other CS'ers if they happen to be in my hometown, and while I'm traveling, I'm certainly happy to meet up with anybody crazy enough to want to be in Almaty and show them around. I've had good experiences so far CSing in both Sweden and Germany.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've couchsurfed throughout a good portion of Western and Central Europe. Overall, it's been extremely enjoyable.

Interests

On the athletic side: Kayaking, Soccer, Camping, and Hiking.

Intellectually: Russia, especially the non-European part; Central Asia, specifically the former Soviet part; religion in general; anything to do with geography.

• culture
• running
• clubbing
• politics
• traveling
• music
• rock music
• hiking
• kayaking
• camping
• american football
• soccer
• geography
• religion

Music, Movies, and Books

Favorite Music: AFI, the Darkness, Weezer, and many more...

Favorite TV Shows: The Venture Bros., Metalocalypse, Arrested Development

Favorite Movies: 300 (по-аглийски и по-русски). Hot Fuzz, the original Dune. Anything that has lots of violence (read corny battles), but has a real point (hopefully a moral one!), or something really funny. I don't do dramas, really, unless they're in another language and I'm desperate to hear said language.

If you start a question with "have you seen that movie that...", the answer is almost always "no". Basically I haven't seen anything that everyone else has seen. Ever.

Favorite Books: Baha'i Writings. The Bible. Someday, hopefully the Qur'an (wish I could read Arabic!) Anything by C.S. Lewis, Gary Matthews or Udo Schaefer. The Wheel of Time series. LotR. Thomas Barnett's Pentagon's New Map books. In general, things that have real meaning.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Being perched on the top of a small mountain watching oil tankers come in the bay of Vladivostok is something else.

Countries I’ve Visited

Germany, Netherlands, Sweden

Countries I’ve Lived In

Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, United States

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