CURRENT MISSION

Find laughter and insight... and a bit of flat water to row on and music to dance to is always welcome

ABOUT ME

We grew up in the States... moved to NZ.. and now, well it looks like we'll be in Italy for the next bit of our lives!!!

We're a couple that has been together since Shannon graduated from high school. Well.. it took us awhile to find ways to live in the same city, but in the interim we lived and loved so many wonderful places -- Melbourne, Boston, Chicago, Portland, & Wellington.

While we've tended to 'travel' by moving to a place for a few years and really diving into local experiences, we've also been lucky to get to do some shorter trips too. Road trips to Nova Scotia with a brand-new to us (15 year old to the world) car, several trips across the USA, huge loops of back country Australia, and many day/weekend trips through our new home country New Zealand.

Shannon is a speech therapist who works with people with severe speech difficulties (many cannot speak at all) and children with autism. Traveler (yes his real name) is a mechanical engineer who has been designing robots for the past few years. We're really lucky that our work feels a lot of play.

We still often travel separately depending on which of us is working where, but together or separate we offer a love of cooking, good conversation, and willingness to do pitch in and fit as best we can.

PHILOSOPHY

Everyone has a story and everyone has something to offer. Everyone has something good in them, and most people are mostly good. Honesty and openness take you far. The best way to get to know a person is by sharing space and doing things together, and as much as I love good conversation, it is only one way of connecting with a person.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We're new to the couch surfing project, but after hearing about the wonderful experiences our neighbors had with it, we thought -- heck maybe its time to expand beyond surfing/hosting our friends and their friends in our homes, and join a wider group of people doing what we do.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Shannon has often made connections through blogs and other random web gathering spaces, and often these have lead to friendships and chances to host and stay with people we never would have otherwise known. Her favourite story is how she planned to meet up with two people she'd never met before up in Auckland. Turns out they lived 2 blocks away from each other and both grew up in the same city in America! Plus they were living 1 block away from another person we knew who also was from their home town!

As for couchsurfing.org, we're new to this, but really hopeful that it will enrich our new European adventure.

Interests

Shannon is into rowing, volleyball, quilting, reading, violin (scottish fiddle in particular), dancing, hiking/camping, and exploring new cities.

Traveler loves a good cup of coffee, flying, aikido, swing dancing, mechanical systems, problem solving, and gardening.

• dancing
• swing dancing
• cooking
• recipes
• coffee
• flying
• gardening
• boating
• reading
• traveling
• music
• violin
• hiking
• camping
• surfing
• scuba diving
• volleyball
• rowing
• engineering
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

We'll have to come back to fill in this section.... the list is a bit long! In general, Shannon loves any well crafted story. She loves to wake up by listening to words and fall asleep reading. Her ipod is always full of podcasts of radio shows from America's National Public Radio. She loves the Firefly TV series and anything that makes you laugh aloud. And although we don't own a TV, she often sneaks off to watch Scrubs, Gray's Anatomy, Supernanny and other random TV shows when she can.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Shannon - Sleeping on a boat deck watching dolphins dance in the moonlight off the cost of Ecuador.

Traveler - Sitting in a remote rock shelter in Hell's Canyon where few others have been, watching the sunrise and looking at a pictograph of one.

Teach, Learn, Share

We both love to cook... and love to play around with new recipes, particularly ones with a bit of spice to them. Current favorites include Thai beef salad, Black been and sweet potato enchiladas, and bake apple pancakes!

Shannon used to work as a pie baker, and hand her a bunch of fresh fruit, and she can have a baked pie in front of you in a couple hours. She loves hanging out with kids. She also is happy to share what she knows about speech and language (in American English...).

We're both very keen to learn as much Italian as we can, given that we'll be living there for the next while and its a beautiful language!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Costa Rica, Ecuador

Countries I’ve Lived In

New Zealand, United States

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