CURRENT MISSION

Do you want some empathy with that German verb? No? Uh, okay. It keeps really well, though. Also, here's a baby squirrel.

ABOUT ME

I'm a college student, which, unfortunately, involves cringe-worthy poetry dissections. But I'm almost done, and after I graduate, I'll (hopefully) be a high school teacher in Germany (grades 5-12). Also, I write a lot. This year, I'm taking some time off from university to work at a middle/high school in the Puget Sound area. The children are wonderful and I love Seattle. I'm hoping to get the chance to travel to the South-East of the U.S.Things I might want to let you know in advance:- I'm a vegetarian. But a really low-maintenance one. Seriously, I'll keep my dark jokes about the cadaver on your plate to myself. Also, being German, I'm perfectly happy with a plain potato. If you make it a buttered one, with pepper, I'll love you forever.- I don't really enjoy alcohol (but I'll gladly be your driver. I have a Washington State driver's license if that helps). - I can be somewhat of a dork, and I'm easily amused, for example by pudgy squirrels and bad puns.

PHILOSOPHY

"Look hard, life's soft." -- Molly Peacock

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now, I'm in the US as a foreign language intern at a middle/high school. Since I'm staying with a host family here, I can't really offer a couch to anyone because I'm the person on someone else's couch. So for now, I can only be the surfer, not the surfee. Hopefully, that's going to change in a few years, when we can afford an apartment in Germany whose shower and kitchen don't have to be roommates.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None so far.

Interests

Poetry (particularly spoken word - I just started and I love it!), writing, reading (especially anything psychology-related, and anything with compelling character development and dynamics, and fantasy), music (ROCK, folk/singer-songwriter, A. L. Webber musicals), nature, cats, children, conversations.

• cats
• writing
• poetry
• dancing
• vegetarian
• reading
• traveling
• knitting
• painting
• music
• spoken word
• teaching
• psychology
• science
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Books:
- I grew up IN the Harry Potter series.
- Other favorite books: Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut), The Book Thief (Markus Zusak), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Peter Hedges), No et moi (Delphine de Vigan)
- I also read a lot of poetry. My favorite German-speaking author is Ingeborg Bachmann.

Movies/TV:
Star Wars, Inception, Donnie Darko, Buffy, Little Miss Sunshine

Music:
Sinead O'Connor, Bright Eyes, Nirvana, In Extremo, Linkin Park, Astronautalis, Simon & Garfunkel, CATS, Phantom of the Opera, aAron, Placebo, Three Days Grace, ...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In no particular order:
Each and every one of my students.
Andrea Gibson performing, for example, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwh23QSrwKw
Getting married to a person who lets me be myself.
My cats.
Watching my brother grow into the beautiful person he is.
Getting lost in old European cities on purpose.
I'm having a hard time pinning down particular amazing events. Guess that means that there's an overabundance of wonderfulness in my life.

Teach, Learn, Share

I wish I had something terribly smart or deep to put here, but I don't. Instead, I'd like to tell you about the stuff I do in my free time. In Germany, I volunteer at a mental health clinic, often in the emergency/"secure" ward. All I do is go there, and listen, and do whatever else the people I visit might need to feel, above anything else, human. I'm also a volunteer tutor for disadvantaged adolescents, for example refugees. I teach them how to write essays, but what's much more important is that I teach them that they have a voice in the first place.I have lots of stories to tell. And I'd love to hear yours.

Other stuff I could teach you:
- ballroom and Latin American dancing
- how to knit fingerless gloves
- how to make Cordon Bleu, German Spätzle and Black Forest cake from scratch
- German (native speaker) and French (conversant)
- how to face-paint a dinosaur that looks like it's opening its mouth when YOU roar.

Stuff I'd love to learn:
- how to make a cake with Fondant
- anything science-y and mind-related
- outdoorsy stuff

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States