Salem!

I'm from Kazakhstan, the 9th largest country in the world with only 21 million people.
Most of my childhood was in a small village where I cared for cows, chopped wood and coal to heat our house, and never dreamed of a life beyond those boundless steppes around. I currently work for a non-governmental organization to improve access to quality education for disadvantaged kids.

I speak Kazakh, Russian, and English, and am learning Hindi and Urdu which, to some extent, are similar to Kazakh (vocabulary- and structure-wise).

Meeting new people from around the world and learning about their cultures is something I greatly enjoy.

And i LOVE nature!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To learn and to share

Interests

• animals
• education
• reading
• guitar
• nature
• hindi

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: depends on the mood - from the 90s Eurodance, synth-pop, modern upbeat songs, and ballads to ethnic music, Mozart and Vivaldi.

Movies: drama, fantasy, sci-fi, and nature documentaries with David Attenborough

My favorite books are The Catcher in the Rye; The Midnight Library; works by Victor Hugo; The Little Prince; Harry Potter; Amos Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow); Ted Chiang, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anatoli Ivanov, and others.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Volunteered as a teacher at an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.

- Survived the Grand Canyon hike in Arizona.

- Got stranded on a boat in the middle of a mountainous lake in the easternmost Kazakhstan.

- As a member of a rural amateur band when I was a teenager, performed with a concert program for inmates in a prison.

- Swam and bathed in a hot springs pool near Yellowstone in winter.

- Took a jazz history class and an african dance class while a student.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Conversations on different topics like culture, policy, music.

I'm also a small-scale nature enthusiast: I love to explore green and mountainous places and advocate for their preservation. That is why I am always excited to meet 'green' people as well.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, England, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan

Countries I’ve Lived In

Kazakhstan, United States