I was born in Moscow, Russia and moved to the USA at the age of 7. After spending 20 years in Richmond, VA, I decided to move back to Moscow in hopes of new experiences, personal growth and meeting a bunch of cool people from all over. Now that I am closer to Europe, I am looking forward to visiting as many countries as possible and meeting wonderful people.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am visiting Florence, Italy on December 26th-30th and would love to stay with someone that would like to meet new people, perhaps show me around the city and have a great time celebrating the holiday season.

Interests

My biggest passion is live music - the feeling of standing in the front of a pit is incomparable. I am also passionate about the mind-brain connection - I've been learning a lot lately about how the mind is connected to the brain. Prior to moving to Moscow, I spend 5 years working with children and adults with brain injuries. Currently, I am a governess, or au pair, in Moscow and am working on my own personal projects on the side, which I hope will spread mental health awareness and provide resources to help people have a happy and healthy mind. :) You can check out the very beginning of it (and I mean, VERY beginning) on instagram @theyouestyou.

• music
• live music
• piano
• drums
• sports
• au-pair

Music, Movies, and Books

70's prog rock, Led Zeppelin, British indie, Hip-hop.

Love books about the mind, brain, and soul-searching journeys.

Love shows like Breaking Bad, and comedy films.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hmmm, this is quite the subjective question, innit? Something that for me personally was amazing was that a few research papers I helped write were published in medical journals, one of which was passed out to thousands of people at a conference in San Francisco (so I hope it helped a lot of people!). Also, I presented my brain injury research at the 1st National Sports Concussion Conference in Chicago, IL, as well as the 1st International Conference for Acquired Brain Injury in Liverpool, UK. I helped start and ran all the research, so it was cool that it went that far.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you lots of stuff about the mind, brain, mental health, happiness, etc. Also Russian, English, piano, drums.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share my experience of what it was like to live in the Soviet Union, then the USA, and then move back to Russia after two decades. Considering everyone here asks tells me most are trying to do the opposite, it's quite the interesting experience.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Finland, Iceland, Russian Federation, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Russian Federation, United States