CURRENT MISSION

My current mission is to return to Spain this summer after spending a month in Galicia three years ago. I have 20 free days after a Study Abroad trip to London in June 2013, and I plan to use them bouncing among various Spanish cities.

ABOUT ME

I'm a 20-year-old American college student from Nashville studying at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I come from a loving family of four and these days am particularly excited to have my sister, Sarah, joining me for the next two years at UVa. I am an English major and plan to pursue either seminary or English graduate school after my undergraduate career comes to an end. I speak English, Spanish, and a bit of Portuguese. I'm an acoustic & heavy metal guitarist. I'm quite the introvert & prefer extended, edifying conversation in small groups over erratic small talk in crowds. I am a Christian and derive the bulk of my thought & worldview from the Biblical narrative. I get giddy over gorgeous cloudscapes, mountainous vistas, spring flowers, and strong breezes. My palate is quite adventurous. The only foods I refuse to eat are rice krispie treats, black licorice, and obscure animal parts like livers, stomachs, etc.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe that worship is as primal an instinct as mankind will ever come by. Whether to a god, a void, a spouse, a part of nature, a school of thought, or an ideal, I really think that everyone carries with him/her a deep desire to give the self away fully to something or someone else, both as a sign of adoration and as an attempt at imitation. The object of my worship is the Christian God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that to know Him more causes one to love Him more, that greater love will become greater obedience, and that to obey this God is to love the people around me. The more I obey Him by loving my neighbors, the more like Him I will become, He being the greatest Love there is. Practically speaking, this worldview leads me to understand all personal interactions as small acts with cosmic consequences. It leads me to look for symbols of holiness in everything, for objects & images that tell stories beyond themselves, whether these be apparent in nature's scenery or the writing of authors past or the beauty in a young woman's face. It leads me to frequent prayer and time in the Biblical text. It leads me to entreat my God for the new ability to love others well as I feel my natural capacity for love of things & persons beyond myself to be lacking.

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

At present, I have zero firsthand couchsurfing experience. I know a few veterans, however, including my cousin, Becca, who has spent time in Istanbul & Finland and my former cross country coach, Connor, who surfed through Spain a couple summers ago just as I plan to do now.

Interessen

I write, play, and record a lot of music. I keep all my tunes updated @ soundcloud.com/therynoceros. I'm big into literature and these days consider the late David Foster Wallace to be my favorite author. I was an avid & competitive long distance runner all through middle & high school and currently still try to enjoy the sport on a semi-regular basis. I love trying new food & have recently learned a good deal about cooking. The topics of conversation I get most excited about are faith, theology, good books, the outdoors, foreign language, running, and nature.

• animals
• writing
• books
• literature
• beauty
• causes
• dining
• seafood
• cooking
• running
• coach
• flowers
• music
• outdoor activities
• sports
• soccer
• world cup
• divinity
• study abroad
• language exchange
• beaches
• mountains

Musik, Filme und Bücher

My recent favorites in cinema are the Life of Pi, Goodwill Hunting, Slumdog Millionaire, Monsters Inc., Gladiator, and the Matrix Trilogy. My taste in music spans from heavy metal groups like the Black Dahlia Murder, Between the Buried & Me, SikTh, the Contortionist, and Mastodon to solo acoustic artists like Andy Mckee, Michael Hedges, and Antoine Dufour. I love me some jazz like Miles Davis, George Benson, and Vince Guaraldi. As far as books go, I'm always reading them for school. Preferences from this past year are Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, As I Lay Dying and The Sound & the Fury by William Faulkner, Consider the Lobster and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, Surprised by Joy and The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Saturday by Ian McEwan, and Night Haunts by Sukhdev Sandhu.

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

Three summers ago, I wound up in Spain during the World Cup Finals of 2010. My presence there was unwitting. I had signed up for a language immersion program in Galicia with an American organization called The Experiment in International Living. A few weeks into our trip, I found myself sitting in the front of a cleaned out seafood market with a few thousand residents of Vilagarcia de Arousa on the Northwestern Iberian coast, the occasion being the final soccer match between Spain & the Netherlands. When my host country scored their winning goal somewhere around the 120th minute in double overtime, the city exploded. Elation, uproar, deafening commotion, dune buggies & trucks racing up and down the beach, fireworks rocketing from the plazas, the hum of distant celebration from over the hills well into the night & next morning. I've seen nothing either before or since then to rival the spirit I saw in that small Spanish town over their national victory with global consequences.

Länder, die ich besucht habe

Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain

Länder, in denen ich gelebt habe

United States