CURRENT MISSION

Meet, see, explore, experience, love. Repeat.

ABOUT ME

I'm rather easy going... i think. My focuses are to learn and to love... and to enjoy every bit of it. I spend my days with little ones, as a teacher who learns just as much from them as I impart. I'm also an artist, and I take every chance I get to fiddle around with new and interesting topics, materials, and ideas. I love languages, and would love to learn some of yours from you. I ride my bike absolutely everywhere... especially if there's a hoptastic IPA at the end of the ride. Passion and compassion are two traits I gravitate towards in myself and in other people. I'm open minded and enjoy good conversation with likeminded people... plus the occasional heated discussion with others. I'm up for just about anything, and want to try everything possible. Awe inspiring landscapes can make me cry. Pleasure gives me goosebumps. Plastic people bore me. Liquor makes me talkative. Great music, great food, and great movies are almost as nice as great company. Laughter makes my world go 'round. I've found that beauty is in abolutely everything. I'm a tad naughty. Random acts of kindness should be the goal of our lives.

Also, I'm well aware that I can be excessively verbose when writing, and excruciatingly shy when I first meet people. I'm trying to find a comfortable, relaxing balance between the two.

PHILOSOPHY

Live life! Try to stay in the moment. Attract positivity, love life, teach, and learn.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing remains one of the best things I've participated in my life. Meeting so many amazing and wonderfully varied people and sharing so many stories, laughs, cuddles, meals, drinks, dances, and the like has been a delight that I am beyond thankful for. Most of my best friends have come from this peoplepool, anf I'm all the better for it.

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Primarily, I just put out my couches and have a blast with travelers, local CSers, and new lifelong friends.

During 2020 I mainly stayed off CS because of pandemic considerations, but I'm happy to be vaccinated, in a great home, and back on to hosting!
I organize numerous CouchSurfing events around the Seattle area, some weekly(happy hours, coffee meetups, Taco Tuesdays), some monthly(potlucks), some yearly(summer barbeques, Kalaloch campout, Seattle CouchCrash), and some random(camping, snow tubing, theme park excursions, river floating, hiking, bbqs, etc). I spent years moderating our city's boards and was a Seattle ambassador..... I try to keep up as often as possible, and love the community we've created and how it ebbs and flows over the years.

I also took lead of Couchsurfing Camp @ Burning Man, now called CouchBurners Camp(we now run with a small council), and we've been going strong since 2007.. Basically, we are a weeklong CS event/theme camp in Black Rock city.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I lost count of how many people I hosted at about a couple hundred many years ago... but numbers mean absolutely nothing. My hosting is largely dependant on where I'm living and who I'm living with. If they're not comfortable, I wont host. In March of 2011 I officially surfed my first couches! SuperRad. Regularly organizing and attending CS events helps me keep connected to local CSers, the Seattle Community, and to a multitude of visitors, even when my couch is unavailable.

Interests

Here's the consice version...

Art, art, aRt, bikes, scalding baths, getting filthy dirty, halloween, impromptu trips, coffeemugs, reddit exchanges, celebrating with company, zombiewalks, new socks, late nights, hiking where none-few have hiked before, time with good people, facepaints, learning, singing in my aweful voice at the top of my lungs... especially on some random isolated mountaintop, good storytellers, sunbathing in the buff, backpacking through foreign countries wondering where I'll sleep or how I'll eat, starlight, the feel of a wave as it crashes against you, seeing the spark of knowledge form in the eye of a 2 year old for the first time, knowing that you had to do with getting that spark there, double espressos con pane, belly laughs of little kids, sour candy, surrounding myself with good music, being the devil's advocate, going to shows, camping in the boonies, the smell of pomegranate/mango, the taste/texture/temp of good coffee ice cream as it slides down your throat, the feel of a recently shaved head, pleasure in every sense of the word, the smell of IcyHot, astral exploration, people watching, cooking amazing meals, snuggling... to a point, the buzz in your body after a few hours of working out, the smell and feel of babies.. minus the crap, old peoples wrinkles, watching people dance like no one is watching, being up to my elbows..or ankles.. in wet clay, sand between my toes, breathing... and not getting 'city' in with the air, long hugs, rewatching good film, metal+oxyacetylene+forges+hammering, making people think, goose bumps, blank canvases, yoga practices, taking my class out to jump in the puddles, reading, physics, volunteering, giving massages, feather touch, finding money in my clothes, making someone smile, long coats and tall boots, dancing for hours on end- drenched in sweat, candlelight, making a fool of myself at the pool table or bowling alley, finding old friends, an oven that's baking something, putting on clothes that just got out of the dryer, taking off clothes, the complete honesty and innocence of a child, the satisfaction of stepping back after finishing a piece that's taken a while to create, couch cuddling to a good movie, kayaking, watching someone you don't know stare at one of your pieces in a gallery when they don't know you're the one who created it... and wondering what they're thinking, having a 2year old randomly come up behind you and say "Klaire, can I give you a hug.. you know what? I love you so much", Having a different 2 year old say basically the same thing an hour later, roller coasters and amusement parks, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, loud music, the hole in the wall places where there's no sign.. where pitchers are $4... the bartender knows you and all your friends by name... and puts on the music you like, free pool, the dizzying enigmatic feeling of your energyflow pulsating/expanding/vibrating, waking with dream memory recall, giant air-filled bouncy thingies, ballpits, kickboxing, new experiences, meeting interesting new people.

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies-Amelie, Dancer in the Dark, Requiem for a Dream, Y tu Mama Tambien, 12 Monkeys, Baz Lhurman's Romeo and Juliet, Baraka, Samsara, Nightmare Before Christmas, Science of Sleep, Life is Beautiful, A Town Called Panic, City of Lost Children, Spirited Away,.. and lots and lots more.
Music-Radiohead, Bassnectar, Bjork, Tool, Vampire Weekend, Portishead, Elliot Smith, Bonobo, Chromeo, PJ Harvey, Tame Impala, Ella Fitzgerald, Belle and Sebastian, Duke Ellington, m83, Simian Mobile Disco, Black Keys, Danny Elfman, Thievery Corporation, Bob Dylan, Balkan Beat Box, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Trentmoller, Iron & Wine, The XX, Cut Copy, Pixies, Spoon, Nirvana, NIN, Mos Def, Ani Difranco, Bad Brains, Carl Craig, Gabriel & Gabriela, Jane's Addiction, Shpongle, Rage Against the Machine, Beats Antique, Joy Division, DeUs, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Daft Punk, anything that gets my blood-and feet-moving, and lots and lots more.
Books-definitely depends on my mood at the time. Lots of Science/Physics books/mags, some metaphysical, some leaning to spirituality, some fiction. etc
Favorite authors include Khalil Gibran, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Herman Hesse, Pablo Neruda, Paolo Coehlo, Chuck Palaniuk, to name a few. Oh, you can throw Stephen Hawking in there, too.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Backpacking solo throughout Europe... and continuing the trip after having been completely robbed. It was fantastic, and I wouldnt have had it any other way.

I decided to try the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride one year, and suprised myself by completing the 1 day( I was aiming for 2). I was falling asleep by the time I got there, but i made it. Hahaha.

Getting stranded on the tip of Harder Kulm in Interlaken, Switzerland, with a 70 lb pack trying to navigate my way down on a nonexistant trail in the dead of night while huge bucks are getting their jollies by jumping right in front of me scaring the life out of me... that was a hell of a hike!!!! I hope to do it again sometime.

I hiked the PCT from the Mexican border into Canada. It's been the most incredible, gorgeous, inspiring, grueling, sometimes spine-tingling scary, demanding, and rewarding journey I've experienced. Packing up your life, home, clothes, food, and water to make moves every single morning... sometimes having to put back on frozen clothes, socks, and shoes... took a discipline I never knew I had. I was humbled by face plants in mud, postholing all the way to my torso on the precarious snow crossings on Glenn's Pass, getting lost solo in the dark then nearly falling off Mt Whitney, almost losing it fording fast moving rivers, falling off logs crossing other rivers, losing multiple toenails, mosquito swarms, fainting, having to bushwack down cliffs after losing the trail under snow, hoisting myself up with an ice ax, and a few boughts of altitude induced spewing. I was ecstatic to climb multiple mountains a day, day after day, and never getting a blister. I cannot wait to immerse myself in the next long distance thru-hike.

I also hiked a third of the CDT before having to stop for unfortunate circumstances. I'm looking forward to re-doing the Continental Divide Trail, the Appalachian Trail, the Te Araroa, and whatever else I can get myself to!

Burning Man is ALWAYS amazing... especially when you do it with CSers. CouchBurners are at 7:15 & F this year. See you there!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you some mean dishes, if you like to eat, and I can help you explore your creative side through painting, drawing, etc. I can teach you to teach kids, if that's your thing. Maybe we can get into an M-theory conversation, as well. I would LOVE to learn from you, your dishes, and your culture, though!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Besides my stellar personality? ;)
Besides a vibrant social atmosphere, a warm, artistic, and cozy home, stories, and the like...
I have a very well equipped kitchen you are welcome to use... i have plenty of spices and basic ingredients, but please be prepared to bring your own ingredients if you like to cook!
I have a slew of art supplies if your creative juices are flowing during your stay.

Countries I’ve Visited

Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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