CURRENT MISSION

Learning how to operate in a world where we know much less than we don’t.

ABOUT ME

I went to Bangladesh in 2010 through a Fulbright grant to learn Bangla and co-teach English, and ended up staying for 2 years after that to teach English in a local school there. Wanting to become more involved in education, I signed on as a teacher at an international school in Niamey, Niger in west Africa. After teaching there three years, I taught in Kuwait for a year and then took a year off to travel.

PHILOSOPHY

I travel to learn and grow through challenge. Understanding things is exciting for me, and that’s one reason why I also teach. I like asking questions and love it when people have questions for me as well. I think a lot about how we are shaped by our contexts and how there is so much interdependence around us, but at the same time our sense of self is so strong. I also think about how we create meaning for the lives we live, and I’m really curious how that plays out differently for different people.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I hosted a few people in Bangladesh, and one is still there now several years afterward (she has since married a Bangladeshi and has lived there many more years than I have)!

Interests

Music, listening and playing (piano, pipe organ)
Science
Philosophy
Sociology
Buddhism
Yoga
FOOD (Indian, Bengali)
Exploration

• education
• environment
• dining
• yoga
• traveling
• eating out
• music
• piano
• outdoor activities
• buddhist
• teaching
• science
• sociology

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Practicing for and performing in at least three full-length solo pipe organ recitals in college.

Writing a Philosophy of Mind thesis on how we should re-evaluate the role of consciousness in interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Discussing my fundamental beliefs about education, perceptions of student progress, and aspirations for the classroom space at a parent/teacher meeting -- in Bangla.

Greeting from five people who I personally knew on my way home from school yesterday in the streets of Dhaka.

Having become a connoisseur of dhaka's street-side aloe vera juice concoctions from having been a customer of every vendor I come across.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Stories, conversation, and an interest to learn about them too

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, England, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Hungary, India, Kenya, Kuwait, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bangladesh, India, Kuwait, Niger, United States

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