I am a person with far too short an attention span to be working on a 6- year PhD. But Que Sera! That PhD will be in Cognitive Neuroscience - I study facial recognition and how experience with members of different race groups modulate our ability to recognize people within those races. Pretty fringe research, but people tend to suck at remembering faces of other races - myself included!

More importantly I have two cats and I love them and I will show you pictures. Just being honest.

I love to travel and I've had great experiences couchsurfing in the past. Looking forward to making new memories and new friends. Once a friend, always a friend in my book. So feel free to reach out even if we haven't spoken in years. We'll pick back up right where we left off!

Places I've traveled: United States, Turkey, Israel/Palestine, India, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, Mexico, St. Kitts & Nevis, Spain, France, England

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Traveling back in time, my 'About Me' from 2012. For posterity's sake.

I'm a freshly graduated Californian, currently residing in Delhi, India. Now anticipating the shock of returning to Los Angeles. The traffic will be so calm and orderly. Jay walking will be illegal and no longer a standard necessity. Gone will be the Autorickshaws. No more cows and stray dogs to play with. 9:00 AM will actually mean 9:00 AM.

BUT, soon enough, I Must return to "real" life in the US to take the GRE, find employment in Neuroscience, and apply to grad schools.

About me... its hard to say, I still feel like I don't know myself. I just believe in constant change and I feel unrecognizable from so many other me's from the past. But good unrecognizable.

I can say I love people, and connecting, and exploring, and learning. I love children, animals, pizza is my weakness. I love getting to know a new city, mostly by just walking around, rather than main tourist attractions, but of course those are always enjoyable as well. I love cats and dogs although I'm terribly allergic. I love mangoes, and bananas, and corn, although I'm mildly allergic.

I love to travel, and I hope I'll be so lucky in life to be in a position that I might continue to see the world.

My tentative life plan for now is to obtain a PhD in Neuroscience and to teach at the university level. I've had experience in research and teaching positions, and I absolutely have loved it so far. But currently I've been working at an NGO with young children which has also been really fulfilling. I'm hoping I can find some way to combine all my passions and have a SUPER JOB filled with neurons, children, and a whiteboard!

For now, enough enough.

PHILOSOPHY

Comfort in constant change.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I haven't personally couch surfed yet, but I plan to pretty soon in Mumbai, Osaka, and Kyoto. My past homes have hosted surfers, and I've always loved meeting such eccentric and disparate individuals. I look forward to having my own place once I'm done traveling so I might begin to host again.

Interests

Literature, arts, philosophy, cooperative and collective thought and structure, sustainable living, BABIES I can't help it, when there is one around I find it very difficult to concentrate and I start babbling nonsense, consequently all things infant-like and fluffy, the mind, body, and brain, Bosch, Surrealism, Magritte, Dali, Gaudi, Lynch, Vonnegut, Bradbury, Sedaris, Rushdie, pegacorns, neurons, musicah, PBS, NPR, TED, NOVA

Talking, talking, more talking

• animals
• cats
• dogs
• arts
• literature
• walking
• traveling
• neuroscience
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

movies/tv:adaptation, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, dead again, waking life, Survive Style 5+, Miyazaki films, princess mononoke, spirited away, my neighbor totoro, paprika, edward scissorshands, twin peaks, community, american horror story, outrageous fortune, courage the cowardly dog, game of thrones, boogie nights, magnolia, run lola run, go, smiley face, a clockwork orange, the big lebowski, amelie, delicatessen, manhattan

LOVE Vonnegut and Bradbury and Salinger.
Dandelion Wine, Slapstick, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse- five, Galapagos, Midnight's Children, The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, The Count of Monte Christo, House of the Seven Gables, The Stranger, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, 100 Years of Solitude

talking heads, animal collective, the arcade fire, Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Dylan, Bowie, the magnetic fields, man man, Ty Segall, The black keys, of montreal, black lips, the velvet underground, pixies, mother mother, devendra banhart

and much much more

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Bus tour, nearly careening off of numerous cliffs in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, India. Greenest hills I've ever laid eyes upon, felt like I was in lord of the rings

Seashells in the sand dunes surrounded by desert brush and camels, Thar Desert, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India

Road trip from San Diego to Vancouver, Canada. Different city every night, old friends and new, stars, canoes, racoons, hobos, brownies, guitars, snow, puke, Quebecians, obscene taxes, exponential goodbye

Teach, Learn, Share

I can tell you all about the brain. Specific interests include phantom limb syndrome, the neuroscience of sleep, learning, and attention, physiological mechanisms behind altered states of consciousness, drug effects on the neural system etc etc etc.

Only get me started if you're ready for it. And its okay to tell me to stop.

Love learning everything and anything.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, France, India, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, United States