Dodging through airports and wandering foreign streets is when I'm in my element. Nothing makes me feel more alive than barely planned travel and all the unexpected challenges.

I spend my days in my city of residence running performance tests, debugging applications and managing projects for clients at a growing technology start-up I've been with since the founding days.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Resorts are snoozetowns and anything with an itinerary sets my hair on end. I love meeting locals and seeing the lived experiences where I roam. People make places what they are! The best parts of any trip are the unexpected moments and random human connections made along the way.

Interests

*Lush rivers and forests

*Hidden places in the world

*Books, books and more books

*Photography and design

*Fire poi

*Bicycles

*Technology

*Amazing coffee

*Delicious beer

*Music and dancing

• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• performing arts
• design
• photography
• beauty
• dancing
• education
• beer
• coffee
• running
• partying
• drinking
• politics
• technology
• traveling
• magic
• music
• baseball
• boxing
• teaching
• hitchhiking
• rivers

Music, Movies, and Books

*Music: Rock (indie, classic), downtempo, house, R&B, hip-hop, soul. Spotify profile is here: http://open.spotify.com/user/jayelebun

*Films: Big Lebowski, Spirited Away, Tank Girl, Mary & Max, Tokyo Godfathers, Cowboy BeeBop, Eva, Fifth Element

*Writers: Kurt Vonnegut, Christopher Moore, Margaret Atwood, Neal Stephenson, Dan Simmons, Tom Robbins, Dorothy Parker

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Instead of high school I decided to start hitchhiking through Mexico, Canada and the U.S. when I was 15. The time I spent on the road gave me a greater humanist education than any classroom could offer.

Teach, Learn, Share

Not sure what this section means, so I'll just share a story I wrote about a night I had in my old Oakland neighborhood a few years ago. This may help you learn more about me:

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[begin narrator voice]

This is now related to a fun fact I learned today: In Chinese culture the number 13 isn't the spooky one; 4 is. There are no rooms numbered 4. Only 3A.

So, I live in strange neighborhood. Beyond strange. One neighbor referred to his stay there as, "Another day in paradox." The industrial butts up to the ghetto which butts up to the gentrification and is saturated by the local medical cannabis economy. And even though (but especially because) you're a digital phantom of a stranger I want to tell you about my little excursion to the corner store before I came home. But mostly I just feel like writing.

My day was long and filled with tech start-up insanity. We (meaning I plus movers) move the entire company to a 3rd Floor office in Chinatown next week. By the time meeting, viewing, showing, talking, scheming and the eating of a small box of donuts ended I skulked home in the twilight to escape the world for a night.

But not before beer.

The corner store in my strange neighborhood is the hub of local tribes. The hipsters, the gangsters, the homeless, the hoodrats, the growers, and the odd ones out all converge to stock up. And Mohammed, the roughneck smiling Palestinian, runs it.

Tonight I came in to a quiet scene. Mohammed and a not-yet-known Palestinian man hollered to each other in foreign words over the deli case. As I set my goods on the counter the fresh face turned to me and said, "A drink. Have a drink. What you like?"

Ever the polite soul, I decided whatever he was drinking and that I would like to offer some money for it. He said yes to the first, but no to the second and then shouted words I didn't know in a tongue I didn't understand. Mohammed pulled a bottle of Ciroc off the shelf for the new face to pour into cups of ice.

The new face was Ayman. He was family. Not mine, Mohammed's.

We walked into the back of the store with our sturdily mixed drinks. Ayman smoked Newports and told me about Palestine, showed me the scar made by two machine gun bullets, and asked if I had a boyfriend. I always have a boyfriend when I walk into the corner store. There is no other answer to give.

So instead of awkward one-way flirting, Ayman and I got to chat about the world in simple cross-language communication. It sounds like two perturbingly smart children discussing philosophy. We talked about domestic abuse, global politics, the upcoming election, race, family, and all of this with about a 300 word vocabulary. I tried to teach him the word 'reciprocate' and I hope he remembers it.

I left the corner store thinking it was home time. As I began to walk into the parking lot I saw an old man, hair grey with skin dark and a baseball cap, moving an empty box off the sidewalk and onto a dilapidated fence. He looked up and said, "These people. Don't ever pick up their trash."

He seemed nice and without money so I offered him the four dollar bills Ayman refused. He took them and gave me his name. Then he told me people called him Oscar and his occupation was cleaning the street outside of Mohammed's store. He offered me two gifts, the first I'll keep secret but the second is fine to tell. A large quartz crystal, six sides total and worn after years passing hands.

Oscar said it was magic.

We talked about the neighborhood, its quirky characters. The strange goings on. He told me to stay positive and to keep my smile and that was all that mattered. Then he talked about his time as a touring musician, when he went to Woodstock sporting a massive afro, the people he met, beauty he'd seen. And I tell you that 67-year old poverty stricken man didn't look a day over 59.

My last interruption was merely a neighbor I knew. He wasn't as exciting as the first two conversations, just heading out on his motorcycle to visit a house party, see the Art Mumur and maybe raise some hell in SF.

I said it sounded like a good plan.

But my plan was better, at least for me. So I walked the last stretch home to set the beer in my fridge only to sense an itch to write.

I opened my laptop, picked a recipient and began: "This is now related to a fun fact I learned today..."

[end narrator voice]
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What I Can Share with Hosts

Conversation, stories, company, fire poi and any help you might need if you have a website you're running.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, England, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States