Hello! I'm Rachel. I'm a graduating senior at UCONN. I am a psychology major but am also taking courses needed to apply to a post-grad, accelerated nursing program. I am highly interested in child development and pediatrics, and I love NPR podcasts and procrastinating my work by surfing the web for awesome recipes to try in the apartment my best friend and I are sharing this year. At school, I am a research assistant for one of the Psych departments which deals with perception and action and physiological reactions to external stimuli...this study takes place at UCONN basketball games and is a great deal of fun. I am an amateur jogger (for my own leisure and stress-release) but I am also a member of UCONN's Club Swim team which gives me the opportunity to travel to Harvard, Rutgers, UMASS, and even Atlanta, Georgia for the Nationals meet with my amazing team. It's the perfect balance of fun and exercise. I am a part time worker for the Physics Dept. where I plan trips for the head of the department and edit her journals to be submitted. Through this I have fallen in love with the complexity, importance and beauty of research and will never go back! I hope to conduct research of my own, hopefully having to do with children and child development later on in my life (if my career permits!) While I see myself as outgoing and active in my community, I deeply value alone time and it keeps my spirits up. I love binge watching Portlandia and That 70's Show on Netflix and am recently obsessed with Black Mirror! I love buying cool candles and writing little poems and snippets of my thoughts from the day in my journal. I never share any of it, but it's truly a release for my soul. I am a total cat mom and wish my kitten Geno could live with my friend and I at school! I enjoy hiking and going for jogs in new places.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Unfortunately, school and work and responsibility sometimes get in the way of breaking free from the region I live in. I also am a typical broke college student, which has held me back from my travels. I can scrape together enough for a flight OR housing, but never both! So, due to that I've focused on traveling to places in the US where I can drive or stay with a friend. I was so excited when my good friend told me about CouchSurfing! I need to feed my spirit more so it doesn't wilt. Sometimes I feel too cooped up and stuck in CT and I just want to see different things and just enjoy myself.

Interests

• running
• reading
• hiking
• baseball
• swimming
• tacos

Music, Movies, and Books

I enjoy listening to Marina and the Diamonds as well as Lana but I am also a reggae fan. I guess I listen to Iration and Rebelution the most. However, my favorite album is the soundtrack to "Diary of a Teenage Girl" - it's wicked groovy and lighthearted and fun to clean, cook, and move around to. I really enjoy any music, I also have been super into Kings of Leon ever since high school and have a love for Jason Mraz' early 2000s music!
A few of my favorite movies: The Town, Inglourious Basterds, Napolean Dynamite, and Trainwreck is one my friend and I can watch over and over.
My absolute favorite book was one I actually read for an English course: A Separate Peace. I can't ever pinpoint, even to myself, why it has such an effect on me. I guess it's because there is a serene yet extremely fragile vibe throughout the entire book, which is chilling and beautiful. My grandfather is a fan of many genres of literature and another of my favorites was a book we both read called "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink... if you couldn't tell, my grandfather is very German! Although I write my own poems, I usually don't read poetry or books of poems. However, I did read the trending "Milk and Honey" and loved it.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I actually used to teach swim lessons to four and five year olds. I guess it's not super amazing, but it's an incredible feeling to watch them finally take the plunge and swim on their own!

Another amazing experience I have shared with my family was when we spread the ashes of my uncle, who had passed away suddenly, over the Grand Canyon in a 10 person plane.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I am clean (that's a plus right?) and I can always bring groceries and cook you a meal! I think this CouchSurfing deal is amazing and honestly says a lot about people and altruism. I would love to visit and learn more about the area you live in, and share stories and memories with you. That's what human interaction really is... we tend to forget that when our faces are buried in our phones. I love meeting new people!

Countries I’ve Visited

Aruba, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States