CURRENT MISSION

To conquer the world with love

ABOUT ME

I am a dude from Santa Barbara who loves to enjoy life. I love the outdoors, I love traveling and I love spending time with amazing people. The travel bug bit me early and I pretty much spend my days figuring out how to get going on my next adventure.

I'm a student at UC Berkeley studying international development and environmental economics & policy. I am also a professional photographer and support myself through that.

I love meeting new people, hanging out, exploring new places and showing my home to others.

PHILOSOPHY

Carpe diem. Not be cliche, but I am so deeply grateful for every day that I am alive and well in this amazing world! I have been given so much in the form of a loving family, the best of friends, the chance to go to school, having had a safe childhood.

One of my best friends while growing up (and still to this day) is Tibetan Buddhist. I started meditating at a young age and now meditate almost every day.

Be sure your dreams are big enough so that you don’t lose sight of them when you’re chasing after them~William Blake

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm new to CouchSurfing. Friends have told me about the amazing people they met through CS, but I never made an account for some reason. I saw Daniel Hoffer (the guy who started CS) speak at Berkeley in March and that got me thinking about it again, and now I'm going traveling for the first time since and I'd love to couchsurf!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am brand new to CouchSurfing, but have been crashing on couches of friends of friends, camping on front lawns and hosting acquaintances for years.

Interests

Anything and everything having to do with photography; mountain biking (I ride a Santa Cruz Nomad); hiking; the outdoors; traveling (duh!); design; SCUBA diving; technology; Buddhism & related Asian cultures; meditation; The Tao; my cat Fuzzy; my family; cooking both simple and deliciously elaborate meals; eating (I haven't found a cuisine that I don't enjoy, although I am pescetarian); wandering aimlessly around my neighborhood and in new places; collecting cool natural detritus; fashion (I want to start an organic t-shirt company)

Academic interests: international political economy, international development (food security, aid, governance, water issues, rural credit, product design for the poor), colonialism, environmental economics, climate change, anthropology

• cats
• design
• fashion
• photography
• coloring
• dining
• cooking
• meditation
• technology
• traveling
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• scuba diving
• buddhist
• anthropology
• economics
• lakes

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Finding Neverland, Gladiator, Ace Ventura When Nature Calls, Dumb & Dumber, V for Vendetta, Black Hawk Down, True Romance, 3 Idiots, Pi, The Big Lebowski, Star Wars IV-VI,

Shows: Seinfeld, Family Guy, 60 Minutes, South Park, Breaking Bad, The Daily Show

Music: How am I going to fit this all here? Abridged version:

What I'm listening to right now (as of May 21, 2012):

Santigold, Jack White, The Growlers, Sigur Ros, Immortal Technique, The Gaslight Anthem, Easy Star All-Stars, Beach House, The Black Keys, Bonobo, CunninLynguists, Of Monsters and Men, Old Crow Medicine Show, Arctic Monkeys, Glitch Mob

All Time Favorites:
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sugar Ray, Third Eye Blind, Smashing Pumpkins, Amos Lee, The Beatles, Slightly Stoopid, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sublime, Dr. Dre, Tom Petty, Wu-Tang, Everlast, Rebelution, Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Ben Harper

Books: Anything by Dan Brown (although I do prefer Angels and Demons to the Da Vinci Code); anything by Michael Crichton; Sex and Temperament, by Margaret Mead; It's Not About The Bike, by Lance Armstrong; The Tao Te Ching, by Lao-Tzu; The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Perhaps the most amazing thing I've done is hiked up to 3 secluded glacial lakes in Tibet. I was camping at a monastery out in the middle of nowhere and two monks offered to take us up to these lakes. I was dying because of the elevation, while the monks practically ran up the trail. But as we got higher and moved from lake to lake, the bright blue, almost milky, color of the glacial runoff was the most beautiful water I have ever seen, and tasted so pure. We passed a sky burial site on the way up and from the top could see deep into the Himalaya.

visited 22 states (9.77%)Create your own visited map of The World or another interesting project

Teach, Learn, Share

-I am a photographer and have taught a couple classes on photography: ask me anything

-I am a bike mechanic and can help you/teach you how to work on your bike

-I'm pretty good at Photoshop and can teach you

-I can teach you how to solve a rubik's cube

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Fiji, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, Tunisia, United States