CURRENT MISSION

Travel as much as possible!

ABOUT ME

I'm currently a student at Vassar College. I love to travel and meet new people, explore new places, eat new foods, and listen to new music. I'm generally very open and friendly with new people. I'm hoping I can do more traveling and see more out-of-the-way places before I have to get a full time job.

PHILOSOPHY

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

"There is only one good, knowledge; only one evil, ignorance." - Socrates

"Those who are unwilling to confront the past will be unable to understand the present and unfit to face the future." - Bernard Lewis

"The concept of 'Otherness', for all of the incredible suffering and destruction that it has caused when exploited in the political clashes of nations and cultures, is fortunately a very fragile one, whose hard and destructive edges erode very quickly once we familiarize ourselves with other cultures...what delighted, inspired and moved them also delights, inspires and moves us, putting interesting differences of time, space, culture and language into their proper perspective against the enduring message of beautiful things."
from 'Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics', by Walter Denny

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Marianne Williamson

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've couchsurfed throughout southeastern Turkey with some friends in the fall of 2010. Sadly, I don't have a couch yet to offer people, but I look forward to the day when I do.

Interests

Folk music and dance, art and architecture, social and political history, meeting new people, discovering new books and new places, political activism, deconstructing words, rivers, cities

• arts
• culture
• books
• architecture
• dancing
• traveling
• pottery
• music
• folk music
• history
• rivers

Music, Movies, and Books

I will be the first to admit that I am woefully uneducated when it comes to cinema, but I usually tend to gravitate towards dramatic films. I've been seeing a lot of dystopia films lately, I don't like horror, and in terms of on-screen humor, I prefer 'British' to 'American' humor; ie. wordplay and not slapstick. I consider Fantasia one of the most remarkable films of the last century for its synthesis of music, art and visual appeal.

I tend to keep an open mind about music, and I am keen to hear the local and folk music of the regions to which I travel. I myself play the bassoon, and I used to play the clarinet and sing before that.If I had to name a few artists I consistently listen to, they would probably Sigur Ros, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Decembrists, and Aretha Franklin. Since I play Western classical music, I also am quite fond of Stravinsky, Dvorak, Elgar, Mussorgsky and Grieg.

As for books, I work at a bookstore, so I have way too many books that I like, and not enough time. Favorites include:
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
The Road from Coorain, Jill Ker Conway
When A Crocodile Eats the Sun, Peter Godwin
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Color Purple, Alice Walker

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I lived in Istanbul for six months as part of a study-abroad program. Best time of my life!

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, France, Georgia, Poland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Poland, Turkey, United States

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