Three years ago, I spent a summer in the Philippines working on delivering solar energy to rural areas. I absolutely fell in love with SouthEast Asia from the people to the landscapes and put on my agenda to return again.

Fast forward to today, and I'm back in the region! I'm spending three months hopping from Thailand to Cambodia to Vietnam to Laos. I love getting to know the people, the sights, and what makes things tick in an area.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

For all the sights you see from museums to monuments, for all the activities you engage in from ziplining to white water rafting, what remains after all is said and done are the memories and relationships you've built with the people.

Human empathy and connection over shared laughter, hardship, and fun make the world a better place. CouchSurfing seems like a great way to really get to understand how people live in a different region of the world.

Hostels are great for meeting fellow travelers, but I would really love to meet you and learn about your way of life! And of course, it's not a one way exchange. I'm more than happy to share about my experience growing up in the United States.

Interests

I'm particularly interested in startups and tech. I work as a product manager for a startup in Boston managing a team of engineers and designers. We build a mobile app to help small-medium sized businesses manage their daily work (service providers, plumbers, etc.). Love talking about anything tech, from new water saving startups (Nebia!) to analytics.

I'm also very interested in the ukelele. I'm trying to pick it up, although I haven't had one while I've been here! Before I could play L.O.V.E., can't take my eyes off you, and a couple others.

• technology
• traveling
• socializing
• coding
• piano
• business
• engineering
• software

Music, Movies, and Books

Favorite Song: Can't Take my Eyes Off You (I can sing if for you if you'd like)
Favorite classical composer: Kabalevsky (Performed one of his concertos once, unfortunately I can no longer do so since I haven't played piano in ages)
Favorite Book: The Remains of the Day (a great story of redemption and the realization that there's always tomorrow to change)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiked the Masada desert fortress in Israel at 4am in the morning. Seeing across the entire landscape from a fortress is a powerful experience. Imagining what it would've been like at the top from the past gazing across your lands is magical.

Teach, Learn, Share

Coding: I'm experienced in the MEAN stack, (mongodb, express.js, angularjs, node.js). If you're a beginner that wants to learn to build a website, I'm your guy!

Product Management: If you're building a product, I have a a lot of experience in business strategy and figuring out value propositions and building the right features with customer validation so I can share some ideas I have your way.

Piano: I can play a bit of classical piano and teach!

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm pretty talkative about a lot of topics. It really depends on how the conversation goes. I like to share anecdotes about my life and experiences I've had meeting people or traveling. Really there's nothing specific and I just like to see where the flow of conversation goes. That said, I've worked for a summer in the Philippines delivering solar energy, a summer in Israel researching gold nanoparticles, and multiple summers for large tech companies like Microsoft software engineering. So I'd like to think I have some diverse experiences to share!

I will say that my focus is not on trying to learn something from you. I don't expect to receive and am focused on sharing what I can. If I happen to learn or share a special experience with you, all the better. This is just so there's no pressure to give me an "amazing authentic local experience" or anything of the sort. :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Cambodia, Canada, England, Israel, Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Philippines, United States