CURRENT MISSION

explore as much of the world as possible on a college-student budget, more challenging than I thought it would be

ABOUT ME

I think that when people see "20 year-old american" on my profile they assume I'm an ego-centric college student trying to be as drunk as possible in various european cities, but I think I'm really quite well informed about the world (for a 20-year-old) and I'm always curious to learn more, I love good conversation over coffee, beer, wine, whatever!

I'm skinny, pale, tall, and awkward, mostly...no but really I'm actually pretty relaxed, friendly, open to new experiences, excited about life and about seeing new places, sometimes really pretentious about books and music but it's okay because I cancel it out with a good sense of humor. I love exploring new places, I'm happy just walking around a city for hours on end, in fact, i can't think of many things I enjoy more than that, some of my best experiences have been hopping between bars and cool places across cities with friends, want to do more of that!

I'm a full-time public-health/ infectious disease student at UC Berkeley in California, but I'm currently studying in spain for the spring and trying to see a bit of europe while I've got the chance

PHILOSOPHY

"If I could do just one near-perfect thing I'd be happy" -Stuart Murdoch

"Sometimes, on really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion" - waking life

"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around chinatown" -Woody Allen

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

so far just a bit of surfing, hopefully hosting in the future

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

can finally change this section from "none" to "a bit," surfed 3 nights so far and had a great time! and when I head back to california in a few months I want to start hosting as well, so if you host me hopefully I can repay you with a couch in the future, if you ever want to come to san francisco or berkeley!

Interests

I spend my time playing guitar, running, reading, backpacking, hanging out with friends, and eating. a lot of eating.

• books
• singing
• dancing
• salsa dancing
• wine
• beer
• coffee
• running
• walking
• reading
• music
• guitar
• backpacking
• camping
• surfing

Music, Movies, and Books

movies: anything involving wes anderson, hitchcock, woody allen, christopher guest

music: so much. beatles (I'm an amateur beatles historian and love talking about it with anyone who will listen and many people who won't), rolling stones, kinks, clash, velvet underground, ramones, smiths, simon and g-funk, modest mouse, radiohead, shins, strokes, white stripes, vampire weekend, to list the basics...finding new music is one of the joys of my life so I always love suggestions!

books: east of eden, grapes of wrath, siddhartha, lolita, beloved, for whom the bell tolls, zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

funny story: one time, when I was thirteen, I went with my family to China for a month while my parents were teaching english. The school we were at was a fairly big deal in eastern China so they had their own sketch-style televised variety show at the end of the program. The students had earlier found out that I was an impressive source of boy-scout style camp songs, so they asked me to be a musical guest, singing "the beaver song" (beaver 0 beaver 1, let's all have some beaver fun!) on chinese television, with a live studio audience, and a team of teenage backup dancers. For all I know, I could be a youtube phenomenon in china, but probably not.

Countries I’ve Visited

China, France, Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Spain, United States