CURRENT MISSION

To be a gracious guest, to cook for you if you'll let me (Indian and Italian are my specialties), and to eventually be a host myself!

ABOUT ME

I'm a fully recovered introvert, now totally into people as a way of life! I keep some vestiges of my former life still: dorking out over computer stuff, a taste for sci-fi, and a serious penchant for art / science museums and for molecular bio.

However, my main hobbies now include: cooking, anything to do with India, writing, meeting new people, music in any form, traveling these great United States (and hopefully the world someday), politics, and more.

I love people. Just straight up love 'em. There are so many different kinds out there, and I'm trying to collect 'em all in the next 20 years or so!

Wish me luck. So far I think I'm up to 1,000 or so that I can recognize on sight.

(BTW, when I say "collect," I'm just being whimsical. I don't have a registry or anything. Just to clarify.) ;)

PHILOSOPHY

I actually have quite a collection of philosophies. :) These are the most important:

1) Never fault people when you can be reasonably sure they didn't know they were doing anything wrong. This is harder than it sounds, but it pays off awesomely in a state of near-constant Zen about the people around you and what they're doing. (This is why I'm a raging liberal, for example, and I'll never call people out on things like recycling habits or what they choose to do with their spare time.)

2) Try to understand everybody you run into. It's not just a nice thing to do, it's fascinating!

3) Don't be afraid to ask unusual questions or to speak out about things before you know all the info. People are too afraid of being imperfect. Being imperfect is the only way to learn something new. :)

4) Everybody has some great potential to achieve. Encourage that potential in someone, and you'll often find your relationship with that person go from fine to great.

5) Remember that we're all recently-civilized, shaved apes, and figuring out peoples' motivations becomes a lot easier. :)

我为什么加入 Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm an active participant in everything I do, from politics to dinner to staying the night. Occasionally that can be a little odd - I've been told it's unnatural to offer to clean the dishes, help with stuff, etc as much as I do, when in someone else's house.

It's just the way I was raised. Apologies in advance! I assure you, it doesn't mean I'm uncomfortable in your place, it just means I'm overhelpful. :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Oh, man! Geez, my experience... where do I start?

I was a staffer on the Obama campaign, and I've been lucky to know a TON of awesome people who put me up for the night somewhere... so the sheer number of couches on which I've surfed, I'll probably never remember them all.

I can tell you they've spanned at least fifteen states, and they've been almost universally great.

Here is my request: please be totally direct with me! I'm a New Yorker, and we tend to just sorta TALK - we have no unspoken rules (other than, be nice and don't commit felonies).

So if there's some unspoken rule you'd think I should know (no cooking after a certain time, don't park your car so that you block the sun, Wednesdays are pants-optional, etc.), just tell me, and I will follow it TO A T. :) The last thing I would EVER want to do is offend anyone who's being so generous in offering me a place!

兴趣

In no particular order, I love all of these things:

- Modern / Contemporary Art
- Molecular Bio
- India and Anyone or Anything Indian
- Quirky Jews Like Myself
- Nice People
- Fun Conversations
- Eclectic Hobbies / Jobs
- Playing Guitar
- Cooking
- Urban Planning / Mass Transit
- Computer Programming
- Politics
- Sociology
- Psychology
- Human Nature
- Pretty Much Everything Else

• arts
• writing
• contemporary art
• dining
• cooking
• indian food
• running
• politics
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• psychology
• science
• sociology

音乐、电影和书籍

I'm pretty culturally illiterate. These are the things I've read / seen / listened to and know I like:

Movies:
Terminator 2, An American Tail, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Star Trek Almost Anything, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Om Shanti Om, 3 Idiots, My Name is Khan, Forrest Gump (the previous two are the same movie), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Kahaani, O Brother Where Art Thou, Sweet and Lowdown, Saved!, Intolerable Cruelty

Music:
Cocorosie, Pearl Jam, Beck, Fiona Apple, Melissa Hyman, Weezer, Reel Big Fish, M.I.A., A.R. Rahman, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem, Ben Folds, Lady Danville, Daft Punk, A Tribe Called Quest

Books:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Time Traveler's Wife, Babyhood, Snow Crash, Ender's Shadow, Our Dumb Century, Savage Inequalities, Nickel and Dimed, Dave Barry in Cyberspace, Pure Drivel

我做过的一件不可思议的事情

Oh God, now you're asking for the whole brain on one page. I'm sure stories will come up if you ask. :)

教，学，和分享

I love teaching people:

1) To get politically involved. It's actually super-easy and a lot of fun. :) Very empowering, too.

2) The SAT. (Hey, it's my job, I gotta have some fun with it!) It's extremely rewarding when someone gets stuff because I found a way to explain it specifically to them. It really is the best feeling in the world.

3) How to cook Indian food. (I'm still in training myself, but I can teach too!)

4) Intro to computer programming.

5) Intro to piano.

6) Public speaking.

我游览过的国家

Italy

我居住过的国家

United States