Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Studied Creative Writing at Interlochen Arts Academy and English at Oberlin College. Master's in Applied Linguistics from University of Massachusetts - Boston. Four years in Mexico and Ecuador researching/studying shamanism, teaching English, assisting and running jungle tours, and doing journalism and literary translation. Migrated to Austria in 2000. Taught Business English, wrote, developed a sideline as a proofreader, learned some German. Got married and had a kid. Taught in universities, most at recently the Department of Business Sciences (Fakultaet fuer Wirtschaftswissenschaften) of the University of Vienna. Accepted an offer of a part-time position at George Mason University as a first step toward resettling in the USA with my wife and kid.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm on Couchsurfing because I'm in transition and might need crash space while I figure out my living situation.

Interests

• literature
• education
• cross-cultural communication

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: recently I've been enjoying a Facebook page called Aural Archipelago: a guy from the States is going around Indonesia recording traditional ethnic music, mostly played on instruments of bamboo. At the same time, I'm slowly learning to play several flutes.

Movies: "Underground" by Kosturica, "The Secret Life of Pets" by Pixar....

Books: "2666" by Bolano, "Death and the Dervish" by Selimovic, "On the Road" by Kerouac, all the Harry Potter books, "Open City" and "Known and Strange Things" by Teju Cole, "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Taught English to roughly four thousand people from over fifty-five countries.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can proofread texts and teach English and certainly Spanish and probably basic German. I'm interested in hearing people's stories.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Proofreading skills, English teaching, jungle stories, Europe stories, economic and sociopolitical analyses of the current world situation and Vienna/Austria/Europe in particular.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Palestine, Peru, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Ecuador, United States