In a nutshell:

I graduated a while ago from my bachelors degree in Conservation Biology and since then I've been travelling in Europe, Nepal and India, doing work exchanges and going on adventures. I just got back to the UK after spending 2 years away without spending a day in my home country! Soon I'm starting a new job at a nature reserve. Before uni I spent 3 months in Tanzania on a project run by VSO (amazing to live with locals and we had a mixed team of volunteers from the UK and Tanzania); then 8 months backpacking from Mexico to Colombia. While I was at uni I took every chance to travel, mostly in France and Spain as I could travel there over land.

The most important thing to me is trying to find ways to live more sustainably, and figuring out what's gone wrong with our current globalised culture that is resulting in such environmental degradation and destruction. Biodiversity loss is one of the most tragic consequences of human mistreatment of the world we live in. As such, I love discovering different cultures and ways of seeing the world, to see what I can learn from other people's perspectives and try to find solutions to this problem. I practice meditation, have been on a few Vipassana retreats and am fascinated by plant medicines and shamanism. I'm thinking about studying a masters in Anthropology sometime in the next few years. It would be great to meet some like-minded people to talk about these topics with!

Life story (don't feel obliged to read!):

Before I went to university I worked to save some money and went travelling. I spent 3 months in Lindi in Tanzania with ICS (International Citizen Service) running career and skill-based workshops with secondary school children. It already feels like a distant memory but it was my first real taste of getting thrown into a new culture and I'll never forget it! It was fantastic to live with a local family and work alongside local volunteers, as we learned to work together despite our cultural differences.

After spending some time in Tanzania I went backpacking and travelled mostly overland (except from Panama-Colombia) from Mexico City down through Central America to Colombia. What a trip! I used Couchsurfing for the majority of my accommodation and met so many wonderful people. The whole journey showed me just how wonderful humanity can be (even if the media tries to persuade everyone otherwise!) and thanks to the welcoming nature of Latin American culture I was able to pick up Spanish. I can still speak now, but it's a bit mixed up with Italian!

During my degree I studied abroad in Bern, Switzerland, for a year which was fantastic! It was so interesting to see that subtle differences in culture between there and England, and of course to eat tonnes of chocolate... The electronic music scene was also great! When lockdowns hit I spent most of my time getting more acquainted with nature - wild camping, making fires, cooking and foraging - and also learnt to play the guitar a little.

I am so grateful to have studied and I got to learn so many interesting things! I took courses from many different disciplines and my favourite courses in the end were the ones that had more of a focus on humans. One of these was an anthropology course which looked at how humans in different cultures interact with predator species (wolves, jaguars, lions etc.) and was really critical of conservation. That opened my mind up to finding ways to encourage human interaction with nature for the benefit of both. Rather than trying to 'save' nature from humans we need to find ways to work with nature - after all, we are nature!

When I am in one place for long enough, I like to spend most of my time practicing meditation and mindfulness and doing simple things slowly. I love cooking and learning new recipes from other cultures. I like whole foods, try to buy local, organic and ethically where feasible (difficult whilst living in a city). I forage whenever I'm out walking and my dream is to be able to forage, grow or hunt the majority of my food. I'm hoping to meet people who can teach me how to hunt and fish, I can share my plant knowledge in return!

Alongside my meditation practice I am learning through experience how to use entheogens wisely. I am fascinated by their usage throughout history and pre-history and by different cultures around the world and have written and presented about them during my degree. They are powerful tools which we have so much to learn about! It is encouraging to see recent research which is investigating their effectiveness in helping with addictions, alcoholism, depression, anxiety and PTSD.

All in all the main thing which gives me motivation is the natural world. It gives me energy and inspiration and essentially all of my interests link back to it. My mission is to find ways to heal people so that they can be empowered to help themselves, help others, become more conscious of their impacts on the natural world and hopefully find ways to live more harmoniously with the biodiverse wonderland that we have been thrown into. One day I'd like to join or set up a community close to nature with a healing/retreat aspect which helps local people and increases biodiversity. I'm hoping to use Workaway as well as Couchsurfing to see how it's done and also to find ways to give back while I'm travelling rather than just passing through.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet people and get a real perspective of what the places I'm visiting are like, rather than just seeing the touristy side. I've also enjoyed hosting and meeting great people when I've not travelling. I think it's amazing that we all live side by side on this planet but yet we rarely get to see into how other people perceive the world. Couchsurfing is a great opportunity to get a glimpse into other's lives, to connect, and build up compassion in a world which has many challenges.

Interests

• culture
• environment
• meditation
• reading
• hiking
• anthropology
• ecology
• philosophy
• psychology
• science
• food
• nature
• spirituality
• consciousness
• vipassana
• psychedelics
• climate change
• spanish
• foraging
• climate action

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
Anything vaguely psychedelic or worldy is right up my street! Manu Chao, Queens of the Stone Age, Calle 13, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Mac DeMarco, Grateful Dead, Ten Years After, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Yin Yin, Bonobo. I also play a bit of guitar.

Movies:
Relatos Salvajes, Waking Life, Slacker, A Man from Earth, Pulp Fiction, Lord of the Rings, Fight Club, City of God, The Shawshank Redemption, Shutter Island, Forrest Gump, Reservoir Dogs, Gandhi, Good Will Hunting, American History X, The Matrix, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Inception, Blood Diamond. Watched Horror Alley recently which was pretty good - beautifully shot.

Books:
Journey to Ixtlan (Carlos Castaneda), The Book (Alan Watts), Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer). 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World & Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. I'm currently reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I also enjoy non-fiction books like: Wilding, The Selfish Gene, Resistance by Barry Lopez, Feral by George Monbiot and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, Swami Rama's books Samadhi and Sadhana, Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics by Allan Badiner.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Found a huge crystal whilst hiking for several days along the coast of Cornwall... which I've hidden and plan to go back for one day. My pirate treasure haha!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can share my experiences of culture in Latin America and Tanzania, maybe some camera and photo tips if you want them. I can cook, so I'm always happy to make food! I can teach you Spanish or English if you are interested and random Ecological things too! If we're in the Europe I can show you edible wild plants and mushrooms and teach you recipes of how to use them. I also spend a lot of time wild camping. I can teach you to make fire, or set up a tarp.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Friendship, language practice - Spanish, English and Italian :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Italy, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Tanzania, United States, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, Switzerland