CURRENT MISSION

Getting back to New York

ABOUT ME

I'm a US historian. I teach at Northwestern, ride a bike, and live in a 1BR in East Rogers Park, Chicago. I can entertain myself easily and am more likely to spend the night reading or cooking than hitting the bars, which might give you a sense of what kind of host or guest I would be. I've lived abroad (in England) for two years, traveled through Europe and parts of Asia, and have taken far too many Greyhound tours of the South. I'm always up for conversation, a board game, or a jam session. I'm a passable (vegan) cook and an expert dishwasher.

PHILOSOPHY

Analytic. Or continental. Whichever side has the best mixtapes, really.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

The last guest I had stay on my couch (a friend from Boston, not a member of couchsurfing.com) accidentally set my sofa on fire and nearly burned the house down. Oddly, it didn't turn out to be a negative experience. We repaired the couch, had a laugh about it, and learned a valuable lesson in fire safety.

Interests

U.S. history, music (jazz especially), philosophy, turn-of-the-century detective fiction, bicycles.

• education
• cooking
• vegan
• reading
• music
• jazz
• cycling
• teaching
• history
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

Vladimir Nabokov, Umberto Eco, Jorge Luis Borges, and Nicholson Baker are my favorite authors, but my tastes are wide-ranging. I'm on a Hitchcock jag right now, and I've been watching a bunch of screwball comedies lately. Boy, they really knew how to make movies back then.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Showing up in Delhi without a place to stay or a friend in the city. Getting by, staying for three months, and loving it.

Teach, Learn, Share

The things I find myself teaching others most often tend to have to do with computers: ergonomics, speeding up your typing, etc. That is somewhat of a surprise to me, because I don't think of myself as an especially technically oriented person. I can also teach you to moonwalk. I've been teaching college for four years at San Quentin, so I often have a bit that I can tell people about prisons and behind-bars education.

Countries I’ve Visited

France, India, Philippines

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom, United States

•