CURRENT MISSION

Enjoy life as much as possible. I want to meet interesting people and see beautiful places along the way.

ABOUT ME

I am 25 years old and have been married to my beautiful wife for one year. I teach at three high schools in rural Korea and I am currently working on trying to become a better teacher.

I studied at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where I double-majored in Anthropology and History. While I was there, I went abroad for the first time in Belize. It was an archaeology field school. I had the time of my life and it forever changed me. I knew that I would never be content to stay in my hometown.

After the field school, I transferred to UNC Chapel Hill where I dropped my history major because of time constraints. At that point, I started to dabble in languages since I need to take them up to level four. Chinese was a disaster but luckily I found my niche in German. That led me to Germany where I studied in Tuebingen, Germany for one glorious year and met many friends and traveled all over (England, Scotland, Netherlands, all over Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland and Finland).

I knew after that I was not content to rest on my laurels in my hometown so I made a major decision to teach English in Korea. Unfortunately, I ended up in the middle of nowhere. However, it had very positive effects. I met my wife, whom I married in August 2008, because it forced me to get out of my town every weekend and I lost 90 lbs in the process. Not long after, I started to dig the whole teaching thing and decided I didn't want to wander around teaching hagwons and public schools in the EPIK program, so I recently started my MA in TEFL/TESL. I'm currently on my second module.

Traveling is my main passion and Korea has enabled me to do that. Thankfully, I no longer have to travel alone and have my beautiful wife to accompany me wherever I go. I've been to 18 different countries and I hope to add many more over the years with my wife by my side.

PHILOSOPHY

Hard question. I try to see and experience as much as possible while I am living on this planet. I do not want to be stuck in my hometown and working a dead end job with no prospects. I work hard for my wife so we can enjoy life and be as comfortable as possible.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I stayed with Andrew Cotton in Seoul at the beginning of August. Twas' an amazing experience :)

Interests

I love music, traveling, reading, studying languages, spending time with my wife, hanging out with friends, hiking, watching movies, cycling and eating different kinds of food from all over the world.

• dining
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• anthropology
• teaching
• history
• languages
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - The Beatles, R.E.M, Genesis, The Fall, Bob Dylan, Ennio Morricone, Pixies, Prince, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Pavement, Guided by Voices, Husker Du, Sigur Ros, David Bowie, indie, post-punk, progressive rock, local music from Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham...the list just goes on too long.

Movies - Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Herzog, Kurosawa, Giuseppe Tornatore, Werner Herzog, David Lynch, Pixar movies, Hitchcock, The Mission, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Unforgiven, Ikiru, Ugetsu, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, Cinema Paradiso, Lost Highway, Ran, Raging Bull, Glory, Big Fish, Indiana Jones, Night of the Hunter, Fritz Lang, Apocalypse Now, Godfather Part 1 and II, Goodfellas, DeNiro movies in general before Casino and Heat...I just love good foreign movies and classic Hollywood.

Books - Not nearly as eclectic in books as I should be. I'm a big fantasy and sci-fi junkie (only the best though) and read the classics when I am not reading those. Also love to read The Economist and the New York Times but I know they don't count as books.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

My week in Guanxi Province with my wife in China and doing a 25 km hike along the Li River under the karst mountains certainly ranks as one of the most unique experiences in my life. My two week trek from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, Vietnam is a close second.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love to talk about music. I can spread my rather obscure interests in music that were honed from my college radio days and I'm always looking for something good to read.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belize, China, Finland, France, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, South Korea, United States