CURRENT MISSION

Finishing my undergraduate degree (FINALLY!) and entering a doctoral program

ABOUT ME

I am updating this profile for the first time since I was 24. I am 37 now, so many things are sure to have changed. I have been married to my wife, Angelica, for over two years now, and we have a dog (Lily - 11 yo Yorkiepoo) and a cat (Snowflake - 4 yo Siamese-Tuxedo mix). We share a passion for travel, and our most recent trip out of town together was to Helsinki and Paris. In August, we will be visiting Boston and New Hampshire, and in December, Mexico City and Havana.

At the top of my bucket list for destinations I have not been would be the Philippines and Spain for the moment.

I spent several years out of high school moving from one college major to another until I finally quit. I have worked most of my adult life as a restaurant server or a bartender, though I have done stints as professional cheese monger, wine director, retail manager, and a few other things. Now, I want to be a researcher and professor, and I am determined to keep anyone from preventing my achieving that goal.

My current focus is on completing my formal education. With a strenuous work and school schedule, I rarely have any free time at all, though I relish it when I do. I have always loved to travel, and have traveled fairly extensively for someone at my station in life, and I hope that I will have the freedom to branch out farther in the future.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

It has been some years since I last hosted. In that time, I hosted visitors from Australia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Mexico, Russia, some others I'm not recalling at the moment. I have never utilized the service for a visit, though I am planning to do so in the near future, as I have recently managed to scrape together some time to travel.

Interests

I like to visit museums and to observe culture in all its forms. I have never so much felt the need to commune with nature so much as with other people. I think that, in observing how others go about their lives, we learn more about ourselves.

My studies are currently focused on population migrations, from forced migrations of religious groups in Early Modern Europe to labor migration from the Philippines. I think that the intersection of cultures is not only interesting but important.

• cheese
• history
• sociology
• beer and wine
• coffee shops

Music, Movies, and Books

(in no particular order)
Literature:
Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Music:
Janelle Monae
David Bowie
Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co.)
Belle and Sebastian
Camera Obscura
The Mountain Goats
Nick Cave
I love live music, but I rarely have the opportunity to attend

movies:
Anything Almodóvar (Talk to Her and All About My Mother especially)
True Stories
Dr. Strangelove
I'm drawing a blank right now

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

If you asked one of my friends, they would probably tell you about the time I was on Jeopardy!, but that was way back in 2005.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Both my wife and I are extremely busy with our school and work schedules. The rare days we do have off, we try to make some sort of cultural excursion, normally to a museum, but sometimes a place of natural beauty like a forest preserve or botanical garden.

We are rich with advice on what to do in Chicago and its surroundings, but, due to other family concerns, it is almost never possible for us to host as things stand right now.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States