**COVID UPDATE: I am vaccinated as of 5/3/2021 :)) **

I speak Ancient Languages, and sometimes teach them in Princeton. I love Philosophy, and I have begun reconstructing the sound of Homer's epic poetry. I am an avid meditator, and currently I'm trying to use ChatGPT to find the commonalities in practice between all major religions and classical wisdom traditions, and systematically implement them into my life. (It turns out that Couchsurfing is one!)

I love to travel when I can, and when I do, I love to stay with locals! I think that too often people go to new places without "travelling" anywhere. They stay at a hotel that caters primarily to tourists, only try food that they're comfortable with already, and hang out primarily with others like them. To my mind, that's backwards. If you don't want to leave your comfort zone -- and learn (when in Rome) to do as the Romans do -- you'd be way better off just staying at home!

Interests

• music
• mathematics
• philosophy
• religion
• art
• psychedelics
• ancient languages
• philosophy of life
• philosophical conversations
• philosophy of mind
• philosophy of science
• language learning generally!
• running!

Music, Movies, and Books

Favorite Band: Pink Floyd, no doubt.

Favorite Book: Plato's Republic! (Maybe not my "favorite," but definitely the one with (a) the most re-read value, and (b) the one that blew my mind the most).

Favorite Movie: Either Memento or Citizen Kane, but it varies.

Teach, Learn, Share

Fun fact: Couchsurfing is much older than you think!

One of the major themes of the ancient Homeric poems (especially the Odyssey) is "ξενία" -- which was a codified way you were supposed to treat foreign guests, or "ξένοι." Actually, "foreign guests" is a pretty bad translation for "ξένοι" because "ξένος" (xenos) defies translation into English (or any other language!) -- it simultaneously means "foreigner," "guest," "host," "friend," and "potential enemy" (hence the word "XENOphobia").

Regardless, ξενία was the cultural practice of treating "ξένοι" well. Proper ξενία entailed to receiving guests into your home -- regardless of who they were or where they came from -- and then giving them a meal, a bath, and a place to stay. Only afterwards could you ask them who they were and where they came from. The guest and the host were then bound to each other, and were expected to return the favor, even to the descendants of those from whom they had received ξενία.

The theme of ξενία is central to the Odyssey's plot (Odysseus is alternately doomed and saved by improper and proper displays of ξενία), and Homer seemed to regard this cultural practice of "kindness to strangers" as a bedrock of civilization -- i.e. that which separated men from the myopic, brutish Cyclopes. In other words, a fundamental practice of Archaic Greek civilization was Couchsurfing!

Nowadays people don't practice ξενία -- strangers remain strangers -- but I think it's fascinating that such generosity was once considered the dividing line between civilization and savagery. Maybe the concept of Couchsurfing is more powerful than we think!

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, Italy, United States