CURRENT MISSION

To travel to as many places as possible while in Europe for the year...

ABOUT ME

Sometimes I am a bit of an anachronist; I wish the world was more wholesome and more interpersonal--no cellphones, no computers--only letters and long, meaningful conversations. Other times I'm enchanted with how far the world has come: cellphones, video chats, laptops, ipods... everything! and I'm completely impressed with how the human mind can come up with these ideas and make them real, make them tangible. In other words, I'm very indecisive, capricious, and very spontaneous. But when I do make a decision, I'm very stubborn and almost nothing can persuade me to change my mind! Which, frankly, can be good or bad. I always strive for balance in my life... I truly believe that that is the only way to achieve happiness. Ironically, I tend to always go to extremes. It's always a challenge to find balance, and I feel that the more I work at it, the happier I become. Anyway, that's just a bit of my philosophy on life. Another part of my philosophy is that I believe passion is the greatest thing that a person can have--be it passion for music, medicine, geology, apples... you name it! I also believe that the gift we were given as humans, the thing that most separates us as a species, is that we have the ability to care about one another--to really help each other. Most of the time we can choose to put aside this "survival of the fittest" concept, and instead reach out to others in order to better ourselves as an entire human race. Although I can't deny that I get disenchanted with humanity, beneath it all I really believe that humanity has such great potential and that we can work for and reach the ultimate goal--to be able to coexist peacefully. Other things about myself: my addiction is coffee, I love the arts (literature, theatre, film, poetry, music) and the ability of human expression, and yet I'm studying medicine. I think there is an intricacy in science that is beautiful-- and to me, this is one interpretation of God. I'm not religious, although I grew up very Catholic, and now the 'religion' that I identify with the most is Buddhism, but I feel like I still have so much to learn. I hope to be a full practicing Buddhist someday.
I am passionate about many things; I guess it really just depends on what's on my mind for that day or week or month. I try to be passionate about everything I do. Some passions that shine through and through, regardless of my situation at the time, are people and their creations, music, traveling and the myriad of cultures, and conversing. I'm always passionate about learning... I hope I never stop learning. I am also interested in politics. I identify myself as fairly liberal, although I try to take each issue individually in order to remain moderate and not let my party ideals guide me. One of my top interests, as you may have already been able to tell, is just the human mind, plain and simple. I love its complexity, its quirks, interactions between people, people's opinions.... etc. I really think it is the most powerful instrument. I would love to go on to study neurology at some point. I also really believe in homeopathic medicine and medicine of the mind; meditation and the like. Yoga is my savior.

I hope that gives you a little insight as to who I am. Although, I felt like this was a bit of a stream of consciousness; but I feel like the very essence of a stream of consciousness is a very good way to describe me.

PHILOSOPHY

Like I said in the about me section: I believe that passion is the greatest thing... indifference is really disrespectful to this beautiful gift of life we were given. Also, I think every single thing comes back to balance. Striving for balance is the key to happiness.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have yet to have a CouchSurfing experience, but I am so excited to do so!

Interests

Yoga, music, the brain, the arts, reading, coffee, natural medicine.

• arts
• literature
• poetry
• perfumes
• coffee
• yoga
• meditation
• partying
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• survival
• music
• buddhist
• geology
• medicine
• religion
• science
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

This is always the most difficult section. It would take years to list all of the music, movies, and books that have reached me... but I guess I'll just list some. For music: the classics; Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, then Elvis, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, then the Ramones, Nirvana, Green Day, then Daft Punk, MGMT, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, The Flaming Lips, and also Iron and Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Wilco, Radiohead... just to name a few, but there are so, so many.

As for movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Inception, Shutter Island, A Beautiful Mind, Schindler's List, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, Chocolat, Spirited Away, Pulp Fiction, Amelie, The Notebook, Rear Window, The Godfather (part I), Bourne series, Julie and Julia... again, just listing off the top of my head but this doesn't even cover the half of it.

Books: any Kurt Vonnegut (but specifically Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat's Cradle are great), Harry Potter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a lot of science-y books like The Brain that Changes Itself and Healing Night, The Great Gatsby, Through the Looking Glass and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Letters to a Young Poet, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, the Taming of the Shrew, Animal Farm, Memoirs of a Geisha, Eat Pray Love, Revolutionary Road, The Sun also Rises, Naked...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Ah, I wish I had various things to list here. I am not quite sure... I'll have to ponder this section.

Teach, Learn, Share

hmmm.... I can teach you how to make tortillas... I can teach you how I know how to meditate/meditate with you, a fair amount of yoga, spanish, give you some really cool music... I don't know, this is a hard section. I am definitely always up to learning though!

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, United States, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States