In 2011, Jamie and I had successful jobs, were partaking in the rat race, and even making offers on houses. On a rainy Pacific Northwest morning, I was driving to work, and that's when it hit me. What in the hell were we doing? We had visited Taiwan in 2005, and vowed that we would eventually make it back. That is when I text Jamie and made a joke about quitting our jobs, selling our stuff, and heading east. When she text back saying we should talk about it when I got home, my mind really started to race. Why not? We were 25 years old, had no children and no reason not to go explore. A few months later, we found ourselves on a plane headed to Asia. Originally it was a one-year plan, and then it became a two-year plan, and at the end, we spent over four years teaching and travelling in Asia. While living in Taipei, we were introduced to Couchsurfing and got to host many beautiful souls and made friends from around the world. Before returning to the US in 2015, we spent a summer backpacking through Europe and reconnecting with many of our past surfers – it was such an amazing experience.

We are now back in the US and fairly established with adult things like full-time jobs and a mortgage. We don't have the same opportunities to travel, so we love having surfers around. Come stay with us, come tell us your story!

If you've read this far, that's great. We want to let you know that we have experienced quite a difference in the type of surfer here in the States as compared to overseas. Because of that, we are requesting that you have at least two positive references. If you are traveling with friends, we ask that everyone has a CS account and that they also have positive references. **If you request to stay and you do not have any positive references, we will automatically decline.** This is not because we don't like or trust you as a person! We just want everyone to be safe and comfortable, including ourselves.

PLEASE NOTE - we live in Vancouver, WA which is much different than Vancouver, BC.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet new people and not lose our sense of adventure even while working full time and trying to start a family.

Interests

Travel has to be our number one interest. We seek those little intimate experiences that occur when on the road. We've shared secrets while sleeping on a single bed in an ancient hostel in Macau, we've taken the time to sit and watch tourists get accosted by naughty monkeys in Indonesia, we've shared stories with fellow travelers as we waited (forever) for our bus in Germany to be fixed, and we still recount the horrifying story of sitting in the back of a hellbent taxi flying through the streets in Mexico.

We hope that we can connect with people, both in our country and theirs, to allow for more of these silly moments that make life worth living.

• reading
• traveling
• fishing
• hiking
• backpacking
• learning languages
• exploring

Teach, Learn, Share

We are always interested in what surfers are reading and watching. We also love to cook, so if you have a favorite dish, we can prepare it together.

Countries I’ve Visited

Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Monaco, Montenegro, Philippines, Spain, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Taiwan, United States

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