ABOUT ME

I'm from California and love hiking, bicycling, and backpacking in the mountains. When I'm traveling, I tend to feel most homesick for good Mexican food, sourdough toast with butter, and the feeling of driving late at night with the windows down.

I enjoy my work as a freelance editor and writer because it lets me work from the road and always teaches me something, whether I am editing an article about plastics engineering or a blog post about human rights in Iran. I specialize in editing academic manuscripts, but my favorite work is to interview farmers or cooks and write about local food scenes.

I studied philosophy at university and am an unapologetic intellectual and feminist--but I can talk about things other than books, too. I occasionally practice yoga, play tennis badly, and love traveling by train. I'm fairly adventurous and enjoy good beer and wine, but I'm not a huge partier.

I like to take pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirabennett/

PHILOSOPHY

Travel slowly, read carefully, and be kind.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My favorite thing about couch surfing is that it de-emphasizes the role of money in travel. Often, it seems that the main interactions travelers have revolve around buying hotels, food, transport, etc., and that money is the main medium of exchange. I like the idea of creating a community of travelers who are instead motivated by a spirit of cultural communication and interpersonal connection. So I host travelers when I can and use couch surfing as a way to meet people throughout the world.

Interests

Cooking, bicycling, backpacking, traveling slowly, reading long novels and short poems.

• writing
• books
• poetry
• human rights
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• mexican food
• yoga
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• blogging
• hiking
• backpacking
• surfing
• tennis
• swimming
• engineering
• freelancing
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Books by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Pynchon, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, Matthew Dickman, Halldor Laxness, Italo Calvino, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Music by Iron and Wine, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and Neko Case.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I love cold water swimmıng--my favorite swimming experiences have been in the North Atlantic Ocean off Iceland and a lake in the Sierra Mountains in California with snowbanks all around.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you to bake pies or biscuits, or tell you how to pronounce the name of that Icelandic volcano. :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, Russian Federation, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Iceland, Spain, United States

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