CURRENT MISSION

My current goal is to uncover the neural systems that allow people to adaptively and effortlessly switch “mind-sets” between different social contexts.

ABOUT ME

I'm a graduate student in the psychology department at University of Oregon studying the neural processes that underlie self-representation. I majored in psychology and art, and spent a couple years after college traveling and painting. My passion for understanding the human psyche lead me to pursue an academic career in social neuroscience, but I still try desperately to reconcile my creative urges through any avenue possible.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I always love meeting interesting people!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've used hospitality club in the past, but I'm new to couch surfing.

Interests

My time is usually spent in front of a computer nowadays (graduate school): reading, writing, analyzing data, and goofing off on the web. When I'm not too busy, which is rarely the case, I like to draw and play frisbee/basketball/run. Though I'm currently not in a financial situation that allows me to do so, I still have a traveling mindset--I love world travel adventures!

• arts
• writing
• books
• running
• clubbing
• reading
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• surfing
• basketball
• swimming
• neuroscience
• psychology

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One of the most amazing moments I've had while traveling:

In 2008 I spent a month exploring Guatemala on a shoe-string budget with my then girlfriend. I experienced many of my 'firsts' during the trip, but the most amazing experience I had was by happenstance. We had spent a week at a self-sustained farming community, and we were on our way towards the Atlantic coast. My girlfriend noticed in her travel book that there was a waterfall near where we had to change chicken-buses, so we decided to go check it out. Unbeknownst to us, the source of the waterfall was a hotspring, and to get to it required swimming a few hundred yards upstream in a shallow river/creek/tributary(?). The water we were swimming in was cold, but increasingly we'd feel a warm current as a we approached the waterfall. When we finally got to the waterfall, I got to take my first hot shower in Guatemala, followed by my first natural hot-tub experience when we climbed to the top of the waterfall and found a comfortable bowl-like rock in the water. The rock had these almost perfectly spaced holes in it, so that when you sat in it, you received massaging jets of hot water!

Countries I’ve Visited

Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States