I am a senior architecture student at Oklahoma State University. I have traveled extensively with the architecture program and have loved every moment of it. In the 2017 Spring term, I will be studying at Loughborough University in Loughborough, England. This will be my jumping off point to experience the culture and people of Europe while abroad, as well as the architecture.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

The best moments of any trip come from conversations with people I would not have known had I not been traveling. They come from brief situations of time and luck, when a greeting turns into a dialogue that I remember long after I've left. I'm open to the things that occupy others, that they enjoy talking about.

I'm looking for those kind of moments.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

It was during the Spring Break of 2015 that a group of us traveled around the Midwest and South, spending a few days between Louisiana and Arkansas. A handful of those days were spent in Hot Springs, Arkansas, home of one companion, and the location of this story.

The Majestic Hotel, a famous landmark of Hot Springs, had become a known urban exploration spot for locals, with a large fire in 2014 not stopping the influx of bored teenagers walking through it with flashlights and abandon. We were such bored teenagers this night, spending some 45 minutes trying to find entry before coming across a hole in a fence, above us by some 7 feet of retaining wall, and a ladder left close by. It was immediate that there was a community that explored this building and encouraged others to as well. We officially entered the hotel's garden and began looking for a way into the building, found through a window left open to the second floor. Homeless had lived here, evident by the gatherings of cloth and bed we found. It wasn't long before we located a staircase and began our way up.

The building, in such as state, didn't offer clear paths to our goal of the roof; often we would find blocked staircase or hallway full of rubble. It took a fire escape to put us on the top floors of the building, where we encountered some other explorers who gave warning of an old and cranky local who lived nearby and would shine a laser sight at the building in hopes of calling the cops on intruders. We kept our heads down as we traversed across the most exposed portions of the top floor, ending at the grand suite of the Majestic Hotel. Its outdoor patio had an exposed covering with a circular void cut out of it and someone had placed a mattress directly under. It was tradition to climb up to the covering and jump some 10 feet down to the mattress, a tradition three of us upheld. We found our way down the building, seeing some new areas but mostly content in reaching the top of the Majestic Hotel.

Details on the Majestic Hotel
http://www.abandonedar.com/the-majestic-hotel/

Timelapse of its 2016 Demolition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bve62N9SOMw

Teach, Learn, Share

I love reading and writing poetry and would love to read anything you've done, if that's your kind of thing.

I can talk the shitshow that is current American Politics, architecture theory and practice (feel free to share any awesome local must-sees), current music, and whatever else.

I've dabbled in photography and sketching as well (through school).

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can sometimes harmonize.

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom, United States