CURRENT MISSION

To get everything I can out of this new opportunity I have living abroad

ABOUT ME

I just moved to Portugal 3 months ago and prior to that I was living in Brasil for 6 months....and prior to that I had lived in Chicago my whole life so all of this moving around is a bit of a stretch for me. I have always wanted to experience living outside the U.S. mostly b/c my parents are both from outside the U.S. (mom is from Spain, dad is from Mexico) and I have always identified more with their cultures and have loved visiting their countries. I am enjoying my travels but it can get a bit lonely at times.....especially when I am in one of my super wacky moods and I have no one to laugh with. I hate writing about myself but I think I can say with a certain amount of confidence that I have a pretty good sense of humor, I definitely do not take myself too seriously and I do not get along with people that do. In addition to laughing, I really enjoy drumming (although I brought my electronic drum set with me to Portugal and blew the fuse on it when I plugged it in.....sadness), watching soccer (my team of choice is Barcelona...sorry if this offends you), running, my job, people watching, and all the usuals (music, movies, reading....).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have hosted a couple of people and have met up with users who are traveling through Portugal. I have also met up with people that belong to the Lisbon group. All the experiences have been great and have helped to ease the transition of moving to a new country!

Interests

as stated above- I drum, run, watch soccer, work (and love it), people watch, space out (pretty often), make bad jokes (very often), listen to lots of music, watch loads of movies (thank you unnamed web site) and I am addicted to my kindle....which is why i have had to replace it twice in the past 2 months rather than throw in the towel and admit that the thing is too fragile for my clumsiness.

• writing
• running
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• soccer

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Senna, This is Spinal Tap, Harold and Maude, Pulp Fiction, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore...Wes Anderson films in general, What's Up Tiger Lily, Annie Hall, the first 25 minutes of Small Time Crooks, Tommyboy, Half Nelson, My Girl, Up, Sleepaway Camp, The Shining, etc., etc., etc.

Music: the dodos, radiohead, the kinks, sigur ros, Caetano veloso, os mutantes, girls, beirut, caribou, the zombies, deerhunter, beach house, belle and sebastion, Phoenix, wilco
books: the unbearable lightness of being, breakfast of champions, blindness, evidence of harm, the fountainhead

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I would say that my move to Brasil and to Portugal are two amazing things for me to have done. They have taken me completely out of my comfort zone and forced me to change the lens through which I see myself and the world around me. That may sound trite but it's true.....pinky swear.

Teach, Learn, Share

I speak English and Spanish fluently and have gotten pretty good at Portuguese as well. I can work on teaching you to drum and I have lots of information to share about autism. I would love to learn anything that you have to teach me....