Until 2010 I had never really been out of my home country of the States. That year I took the plunge and dove straight into the deep end, going out and living for a few months in western Kenya, where I got bitten by the travel bug (along with the malaria bug and a few bed bugs). Since then I've made it a point to travel and explore at every opportunity and soak up all I can from the experiences and conversations.

I've now been fortunate enough to land a job getting paid to travel, working for the past 4 years in global health and disease control, a career that has so far brought me all over East and southern Africa as well as Southeast Asia.

I travel for work about 60% of the time, but end up traveling for fun at least another 20%. The other 20% is spent at my home base in Atlanta, Georgia - a city I group up in but never really got to know until now. As an obligate conversationalist and fairly shameless drinker, I'm typically exploring local bar scenes and seeking out good conversation over an equally as good drinks regardless of where I am. I'd like to fancy myself as being an open-minded individual and love hearing other people's views on things.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I joined couchsuring several years ago, and though I haven't been extremely active through my profile, I've traveled with several couchsurfers and hung with CS communities everywhere from Baltimore to Zanzibar, and even met some of my best friends to this day through my CS experiences. I'm hoping to continue this trend, hopefully building my profile a bit more now that I'm solo traveling a majority of the time these days.

Interests

I spent a lot of my childhood in the foothills of the Appalachians in western Carolina, where I picked up many of the finer things in life, namely biking, bouldering and bourbon. When back in civilization, I'm most interested in exploring cities and checking out the local music and dive bar scene (they often go hand in hand).

• dogs
• drinking
• traveling
• bouldering
• music
• cycling
• rock climbing
• science
• solo travel

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I was listening to the Black Keys when typing this, my first concert was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I don't think I could have made it out of the South without a little southern rock and bluegrass in my blood.

Movies: Documentaries and British comedy, please.

Books: Currently reading City of Thorns about Dadaab camp in northern Kenya. Pretty crazy. One of my more recent favorites was The Incorrigible Optimists Club. Cool way to pretend like I encountered socialist asylum seekers in 1950s France.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

During the Westgate Mall incident in Nairobi several years ago, I had to leave the country for a brief time for security reasons. I ended up at a hostel in Kigali, where I met a pretty awesome new friend who I ended up renting a 4x4 and taking an impromptu road trip across Rwanda with. We broke down, got stuck in mud on washed out roads, and got lost a million times, but met so many awesome people along the way who helped us out of every bind. People are great.

Teach, Learn, Share

I try to stay up to date on what's currently going on in the world, and I have a particular (and maybe nerdy) interest in all things science- and global health-related. I'm all about teaching and learning from conversations with others, and would love to learn more about what interests others.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Conversation, music, hugs, pictures of my dog, etc

Countries I’ve Visited

Botswana, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, United Kingdom, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, British

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Africa, Tanzania, United States

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