CURRENT MISSION

To see the world and understand who I am within its context

ABOUT ME

I am a 20-year-old student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and French. Currently I am studying abroad at University College London, where I will be until June 2011. Although I'm still not sure exactly what career path I want to follow, I love everything I'm studying and can't wait to figure things out! This summer I will be working as a research assistant at a Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, which I am very excited about. Apart from the boring career stuff, I have 10 years of dancing (one of my passions!) under my belt (ballet, pointe, tap, jazz and lyrical/contemporary) and although I took a break when I came to uni, I'm hoping to get back into it this summer. I also love horseback riding, cooking (especially Russian food - ask me for recipes!), traveling, and although I am not the most physically fit person since I dropped dancing, I do like hiking and running outside :) Right now I am searching for my place in the world, and I hope that through traveling, meeting new people, studying, and enjoying life, I will find it.

PHILOSOPHY

This is tough. I have many personal philosophies, doesn't everyone? I think one of the most important things you can do in life is to allow yourself to flourish. Find something, be passionate about it, don't hold back. Make the most of yourself doing something you love.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now I'm just looking for places to stay during my travels in Europe; I don't have a couch to offer as I'm often out of town. In the future I would be very happy to host couch surfers and attend CS meet-and-greets in the city I'm living in.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My friend Martin Krafft introduced me to this website, and we spent a few days (each) in Dublin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Nice (March-April 2011) with many different interesting and welcoming hosts - all great experiences; I have learned a lot from the people I have met and stayed with. I can't wait to meet more people!

Interests

Cooking, traveling, music, languages, dancing, horseback riding, neuroscience/research, hiking, walking, exploring, video games, cards (really, any games at all), beer and wine. Also, I really enjoy and love talking about ethics (especially biomedical ethics), Darwinism/evolution, current events/world affairs, history, and neuroscience.

• dancing
• ballet dancing
• ethics
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• wine
• beer
• running
• walking
• video games
• traveling
• music
• jazz
• equestrian
• hiking
• biology
• history
• languages
• neuroscience

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: I like science fiction a lot (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, anything by Douglas Adams), Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wicked (I want to see the musical!), anything by Shakespeare (Hamlet is my favorite, I have seen 7 productions of it so far)... as for music: my favorite artists are Modest Mouse, Tool, and Muse. I like kind of sad, emotional music and anything syncopated or in compound meter, for some reason. Jazzy and acoustic stuff are wonderful. Also, spectacular demonstrations of talent are appreciated - I've recently been listening a lot to Andrew Bird and am in love.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Went on a hacking (horseback riding) trip through the Welsh countryside. Wonderful.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can cook a few good Russian meals as well as some mean brownies!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Germany, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States