Hi there! Grateful to be traveling again, meeting new people to grow with, and embracing the world. I was born and raised in San Francisco, CA but moved to Nashville, TN for undergrad and finished my psychiatry graduate studies last year in Philadelphia, PA! I have been told I am a really chill, social, and open person as I love to spend quality time and try new things :)

I've realized the moments that have made me feel most alive are connecting in the wild with people. Super blessed to have solo traveled with a backpack for 14 months out of 2023-2025. In 2023 on a low student budget, I solo backpacked 6 months across Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Spain. Returning back to "normal" society was hard, so I did it again when I finished my Masters in 2024 for 7 months--this time to places I knew I might not have the courage to do alone later on. I covered Iceland (hitchhiking from top to bottom), Morocco (also top to bottom), Mauritania, Turkey, 4 Stans on the Silk Road, China, Japan, and 3 Southeast Asian countries via motorcycle.

I love learning from different cultures, especially since mine is multicultural (both my parents are Chinese immigrants and I have Swedish family as well), and learning from locals about new places! I like to be hardworking and always doing things like work exchanges in foreign places (have done 13 around the world like Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Colombia, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Iceland). I am a pretty clean person, don't smoke, and am excited for the adventures to come!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

It's always been my lifelong dream to travel and see as much of the world as I can, but it's been a lot harder since settling into my work-life balance. I've realized academic, professional, and material achievements really don't mean as much to me as raw connections with others. Thus I want to find my people to share the world and reignite my passion for the CS community! Hoping to meet cool people along the way, exchange life/travel stories, and create memories together :)

Interests

• poetry
• yoga
• running
• meditation
• traveling
• painting
• hiking
• sailing
• rock climbing
• art
• ukulele
• nature
• mental health
• vegetarian cooking

Music, Movies, and Books

Love indie music, r&b, jazz, really any music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Solo traveled to Costa Rica for 1 month in 2021 at my first work exchange for an environmental sustainability project with locals in a village of 80 people! I spent 3 weeks without electricity, hot water, walls (we slept in mosquito cots), and wi-fi. However, we had all we needed with views of Panama's volcanoes and daily hikes. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had, relearning that I really don't need much to be happy and survive!

Teach, Learn, Share

Recently have been into paddleboarding, rockclimbing, running, boxing, yoga, hiking, backroads backpacking, and hard mode sudoku. Very outdoor activities based :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love cooking and am happy to share my vegetarian food (I eat dairy and eggs and don't mind at all if you eat meat).
Have a love for music and am classically trained in piano since I was 5, played in a jazz band in high school, and am self-taught in ukulele! Learning electric bass in the works. Currently, I'm proficient in speaking Mandarin and Spanish, but am always happy to practice and improve/teach some words.

Countries I’ve Visited

Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, Viet Nam, Western Sahara

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Japan, Spain, United States