I'm Russian but grew up in America.
Up until the age of 25 I followed a normal expected life - school, job, 2 weeks vacation, paid my taxes. But it just felt like something was missing - maybe it was a quarter life crisis. So I saved up some money, quit my job and went backpacking in Southeast Asia and South America solo for one and a half years. Now I'm back to the "normal life" but that doesn't mean I've stopped traveling or looking for adventures.

I've seen and experienced and learned so much but there is one thing that I've always known to be true - there is nothing more important than the connections you make with people. Sometimes I've spent just a couple of hours with somebody but getting to know them changed everything - challenged my assumptions, convinced me to do something, made me love a place I was hating.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I want to make friends.
I also want to get to know and stay with locals and hopefully experience a little of what it's like to live in that country and not just be a tourist.

Interests

• photography
• cooking
• baking
• yoga
• politics
• reading
• hiking
• scuba diving
• basketball
• badminton
• science
• hitchhiking
• solo travel
• budget travel
• trekking
• biking
• daydreaming
• figure skating

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC -R&B from the 2000s will always have a special place in my heart

MOVIES - wake me up in the middle of night and I will still want to watch
Gladiator, Erin Brokovitch, Good Will Hunting, The Departed, Save the Last Dance, Catch Me if You Can, Overboard, Coming to America, Burn After Reading, Intolerable Cruelty, Fargo, Little Miss Sunshine, Love + Hate

SHOWS - Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Daily Show with John Stewart, and Seinfeld had profound impact on my life

BOOKS - wow...so many ...the one that made me cry the most would be
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
and laugh the most would be
The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Learning to scuba dive

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach - how to make yummy foods (subject to availability of ingredients)
Learn - local recipes
Share - delicious meals
do you see a pattern?

What I Can Share with Hosts

passionate discussions about politics, religion etc

yoga - we can do sun salutations together

some good loose leaf tea - I never travel without it

my encyclopedic knowledge of figure skating

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Monaco, Nepal, Norway, Paraguay, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Peru, Russian Federation, United States