CURRENT MISSION

Try new things. Take action.

ABOUT ME

I would say I'm an easy-going person who isn't difficult to get along with. I love travelling and connecting with other people from other cultures as often as possible. I have a slightly quirky sense of humour and my interests and hobbies border on the nerdy. I love film, music, and books of all varieties; I enjoy anything that is good--and sometimes things that aren't.

I was born and raised in the midwestern region of the US (state of Ohio), and spent over half of my life there. If you ask me where I'm from, however, I'll probably say California as it's where I "grew up" (high school/university) for 8+ years.

I've been told I'm a 'chameleon' of sorts, blending into different environments by adapting to the dominant way of doing things. I believe that how and where I was raised has something to do with this...(Growing up in a community that was nearly 100% homogenous, to moving to the most multicultural region on the planet: southern california.) I've lived in diversity, I've lived in uniformity (as the minority). I appreciate how both have shaped me.

PHILOSOPHY

To experience as much as you can experience....remember it...and then allow those memories to change you for the better. Is that even a philosophy?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I originally signed up for CS ages ago (2006...before the ".org" era!) as a way of travelling across Europe with my friends. I hosted a few people here and there while living and studying in Los Angeles. When I moved to Prague I lived mainly in a place where, unfortunately, hosting wasn't an option. But i was constantly taking part in local Prague CS events (a Thursday meeting semi-regular), made some close friends, and am looking forward to starting that up once again once I get back to Prague. Oh, and at some point in between LA and Prague, I lost access to the e-mail address I was using for my old CS account, so I had to start a new one.

Interests

music( hip-hop and indie rock) , films (my taste is even more varied than with music), sports (basketball and a bit of tennis), travelling (obviously), Balkan history, finance/economics, learning about cultures, reading, making jokes, keeping up with current events, or anything that involves just having a good time!

• books
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• sports
• basketball
• tennis
• economics
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:

good hip-hop stuff with complex samples, beats, and lyrics. I enjoy the underground, independent hip-hop scene (Brother Ali, Cunninlynguists,etc.) but my allegiance will always be to the old-school, slightly nerdy classics of the late 80s and early 90s (Tribe, Q-tip, Pharcyde, De la Soul, & co.)

indie rock: modest mouse, TV on the radio, CSS, Cake..

Movies: I love ALL KINDS of films... I could never even come up with a list for something like this, so I will just list the first 5 that pop in my head that make we think 'wow": 1. Mean Streets 2. Dr. Strangelove 3. 2001: A Space Odyssey 4. In the Mood for Love 5. L'Aventura

TV..The WIRE, Deadwood, Mad Men, Louie, Archer, Black Mirror.

Books: I read less of fiction than everything else. I tend to stick within a circle of authors in this regard: Zadie Smith, David Bezmogis, Aleksandar Hemon, Roberto Bolano, etc. For someone who reads as often as I do, I'm surprisingly ignorant of the 'classics of literature.'

I spend much more time on non-fiction books on provocative topics, some IR/history/regional stuff, books on economics (Tim Harford, Tyler Cowen), etc.

However, I spend most of my reading time reading via the Internet (I have a pretty elaborately curated list for this)...magazines, newspapers, blogs.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, United States

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