CURRENT MISSION

To never stop, to find the next place and go there.

ABOUT ME

Some things that I have gone through that made me the way I am, whatever that is: I was bullied often in elementary for being the shortest of the class. I did some bullying too, to younger kids than me. When I turned 16 my mom passed away from cancer. Aged 17 I moved to India to study High School. In India I learned that I wasn't as sharp, as intelligent, as creative, as "awesome" as I thought, but I also learned that it didn't really matter. Aged 19 I moved to the States for College.
I'm a neo-nomadic, I guess. I use up the resources in one place (academic, intellectual, spiritual?) and I move to the next one to let the previous one recover, so that at some point in the future I can come back to it.

I'm interested in international development, film, history, philosophy, and economics.

Life is a playground, but the people in it aren't.

PHILOSOPHY

I think that it is very easy to see what's wrong about others: we just point at how much they lack what are our (or think are our) strengths. It is hard to step out of that to be as little judgmental as possible, but we should try as much as we can: we cannot aspire to better our world if we think the other is wrong only because, for example, he or she doesn't share our political view.

There's so much actual wrong in the world that we shouldn't waste our energies bitching about others for things that we think are wrong about them, which perhaps don't even matter.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I hope to participate by sharing a bit of my culture and the places I've seen. And now I also participate by offering a couch for other travelers (actually it's a proper mattress), so that they can also share who they are with me and teach me new things.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Once, traveling in southern India with a group of friends, I ended up staying in the house of this random indian family: we wouldn't take any hotel or hostel room offered to us because we thought they were too expensive, so this guy on the street asked us how much we were willing to pay. We told him our very low price, he thought about it for a little while, just standing there looking at the sky and then he said "ok, I know a place". We follow him and when we got to the place it turned out to be a house, like any other house in the area. The guy goes inside, and I guess talks the family, who probably were his friends or something, into hosting us. We were waiting outside, tired from traveling in trains and carrying our bags. He suddenly came out and told us to follow him. We were taken to these two rooms, one for the boys, another one for the girls, which clearly belonged to members of the family. The room for the boys had a bed...with no mattres. We slept on a bare pice of wood.... It turned out to be the best place I've ever stayed at in India: the mother would cook delicious south Indian food, which turn out to be surprisingly similar to some Mexican dishes. The young boy of the family was super excited about having this group of foreigners in his house, so he would play with us and throw oranges at us while we were sleeping. We didn't know Tamil, and they knew very little English, so communication was done through gestures, and sings, and some English words.

Being cheap sometimes does pay.

Interests

I like watching good movies, reading good books, and listening to good music. I like writing, both prose and poetry, but mostly prose. I draw sometimes. I like playing around with my videocamera to make random videos.
I enjoy good conversations, especially over tea or coffee.

I definitely enjoy traveling, especially if it is not too plan and you just take the opportunities that come along.

• culture
• writing
• books
• poetry
• dining
• cooking
• indian food
• coffee
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• drawing
• music
• economics
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Alejandro Jodorowsky's Fando & Lis, Michelanchello Antonioni's Blow up, Andrey Tarkovsky's Stalker... Music: Austin TV, Chingon, Gypsy Kings, The Doors, Muse... Books: Fightclub, A Clockwork Orange, Santa, La Virgen de los Sicarios...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I got a scholarship to study in India for two years. I had never gone anywhere outside Mexico before that. Traveling around India aged 17 is probably the most amazing thing I've done so far.

Teach, Learn, Share

I know Spanish and English. I'd love to perfect my incipient French.

Countries I’ve Visited

Cuba, Germany, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, India, Mexico, United Kingdom, United States

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