CURRENT MISSION

jump start. escape from the midwest and greener pastures

ABOUT ME

I discovered in 2004 that I love to travel. I had not really gotten out of the Midwest at all up to that point. It is hard to describe why I get such a thrill out of it, but I guess I just realize that life is very short and that I have an appetite to wander a bit and see things for myself.
Just to warn any potential hosts, I am not an especially outgoing person. I guess you could say that I am more adventurous than socially extroverted. I am assuming, though, that anyone who would be signed up for couchsurfing would have some very important similarities with myself, some crucial shared values of curiosity, mobility, freedom, etc... and the fundamental belief that such things should not require a high income to pursue, nor the prohibitive expenses of hotel lodging on the road.
In 2004, I got a taste of life outside of the United States for the first time. It was a lot of fun, but I realized that I had yet to explore North America. I have been on a couple of road trips since then and find travel to be personally exhilarating.

PHILOSOPHY

I will have to update this section in the future. For now, it must suffice to say that I am a little bit obsessed by the ideas of freedom and liberty. It would probably be fair to describe myself as a secular humanist. I want to get a lot out of life and time is limited. I have currently been feeling very much a desire to find some way to give back to the society that has provided a lot of opportunities for me. My attention is drawn to New Orleans as a place to see if I can effectively contribute somehow.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

full disclosure - i've never hosted anyone on cs yet, due to reasons primarily out of my control. it might be affecting my karma. i can't wait to remedy that when i find a bit of stability again.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

No formal couchsurfing experience yet. I guess that in a way I have already couchsurfed in Tuscon and California during '06 and '07. Both times I found badly needed rest and recuperation among friends after the exertions of "hard" travel. In both instances, the most important luxury was the gratification of taking a shower. I normally shower daily, but in those instances of cross-country driving without the (stubbornly self-imposed) luxury of hotel comforts, I have found bliss in the form of a shower and a nap.

Update:
I had my first formal couchsurfing experience in the city of Porland last July. I surfed at two places formally related to cs and two places unrelated to cs.
Thank you, Portland cs-ers.

Also, I've been to a potluck in New Orleans and met some great people.

Some day, the stars will align and i will have both enough stability to host as well as an address worth surfing at.

Interests

I am a fairly avid reader. That includes a lot of nonfiction. I love netflix as well. Good movies are a true pleasure. Perhaps it is obvious by my previous comments that I am highly interested in traveling. My cobbled together topical minor, "The Twentieth Century," may be revealing. I "dig" a lot of stuff, from an amateur appreciation of jazz to the humor of The Onion to just plain wanting to understand the culture that we live in.

• culture
• coffee
• potluck
• drinking
• clubbing
• clothing
• movies
• traveling
• jazz
• surfing
• cartography
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

umm, I could refer you to my myspace page which has a pretty extensive sample of my taste. Right here I'll just list two of the first things that come to mind in each category.
film: Big Lebowski and Hara Kiri
music: tool and django reinhardt
books: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse and Factotum by Bukowski

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One of the coolest things I ever saw was a man riding a tiger which was literally leaping in mid-air through a rimg of fire. That was at the Moscow circus. There was also a large bear jumping rope, bouncing on two legs (upright position) on a narrow pole that was about 5 feet off the ground.

Teach, Learn, Share

Hmm... I have learned a lot of little things over the years that may not specifically pertain to couchsurfing. One amazing lesson is that if you are roadtripping, it is nearly impossible not to be able to find some kind of free firewood. I was delighted and amazed to find this out in May of 2007 in South Dakota, Oregon,and Montana. Bring a hatchet in the trunk, too. It's not for chopping down trees but rather for breaking up the pieces of wood that you do find, especially if you don't have much kindling. I have also learned that maps are essential. There is no better way to spend $5. For me, at least, I always buy a map in a city I am wandering in and take detailed notes of where "home base" is to stash in my wallet. It may be useful to bring a compass as well. I have discovered that pronounciation can be a horrible but humorous impediment to verbal directions from strangers. In Berlin, a friend and I were looking for the "Knaack Club" but were getting lost because each person we asked about it thought we were asking where the nearest "nacht" (night) club was. Eventually, we found it before realizing how ignorant we were. Cigarette Karma is real, i think. If you are not stingy with your smokes, (other) people will generally be very helpful and kind to you when it counts. Using public transportation in a strange place requires an undetermined amount of time of concentrated "study" before you try to get around efficiently. It is well worth it in saved time just to sit quietly and absorb the details of the system as comprehensively as possible over a silent cup of coffee. The bigger your group is the slower and more indecisive you will be. The ideal number for exploring would probably be three, assuming that you shared priorities or were at least willing to compromise with each other. Any more than 3 people means you will move twice as slow and twice as idiotically. I try not to be misanthropic but the constraints of making decisions while traveling with a bigger group than three are almost unbearable to someone who actually thinks he knows what he's after in his wandering. The group dynamic of two people has its own dangers, though. In that case, the empathy and synergy can be extremely cool and pleasant, but the danger remains that even the best of friends can get very abrasive with each other when they've been in each other's company too long, especially is there is any kind of "crisis" happening. I have had some amazing times wandering solo. The bitter irony, i guess, is that although you can really get the most out of your time and resources that way, you always realize that it would have been cool to have someone along, someone to share the experience with. There is no silver bullet, but I would avoid wandering around with a group of 5 or more like the plague unless you have some very specific objectives that will keep people focused and unified.
Also, the bottom line is that people in general are inherently decent and humane. I'm talking about all those strangers that you are allegedly supposed to be fearful of. I'm not saying let you're guard down completely or take rides in vans with strange people or that there is no one who may want to mug you, rip you off, or pick your pockets. The bottom line is not to assume that the average person is a potential threat, though. I think that people can intuitively sense such things and that strangers resent being subtly judged as potentially harmful. I may have just been lucky so far in that no one has tried to hurt me when I was indeed quite alone and vulnerable in strange areas surrounded by strange people, but I can't help but wonder if people (on the whole) are just a whole lot more decent than we sometimes suspect. I may change my tune if I ever get jumped or mugged someday. For now, I just know that it feels a whole lot better not to be on the defensive all the time. Still, though, don't ask to get victimized. If you're on a crowded subway, wear your wallet in your front pocket. If you're going to be in "rough" areas, consider dressing down a little bit if you are used to wearing a lot of expensive, flashy clothes. Don't wear a camera around your neck unless you don't mind sticking out. Wear comfortable shoes, you'll be on your feet a lot more than you are used to. Don't drink as much as you may usually do when you're on unfamiliar turf and may be at risk of getting lost on the way back to home base, wherever that is. Back in the day, at least, there was a term for foolish and vulnerable outsiders that were effortlessly exploited by the few people who do specialize in such things as ripping off tourists. They were considered "rubes." Don't be a rube, even if you really are a rube! There are many situations in which everyone will know you are obviously an outsider, but at least don't go out of your way to seem like the most vulnerable outsider. Perhaps it is like lions stalking a herd of antelope. Don't be the slow, sickly, defenseless individual in the overall rube population.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Germany, Russian Federation, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Latvia, United States

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