CURRENT MISSION

My current mission is to accrue the very most and very best life experience this world has to offer, to never say 'no' to an adventure or the bizarre, to never tire or let myself become bored or grow roots in any one place.

ABOUT ME

I'm a man of simple tastes. My closet consists of 20 changes of the same t-shirt. Good food can sometimes be substituted by a lot of bad food, with little to no loss. I have a dog, a bicycle, and a passion for good books (food rule does not apply) and rock climbing. I'm new to Couchsurfing, but I hope to become very active very quickly.
As of Summer 2012, I am an official college graduate with a Bachelor's in English Literature. I'm using this fact to full advantage by working a minimum wage job in Texarkana, AR and living on my father's farm while I gear up for graduate school in Ft. Collins, CO.

PHILOSOPHY

I've long thought that the books I read somehow capture, in part, the more technicolored life that I experience outside of them. But I'm finding more and more that it's the stories we tell ourselves and each other that tincture the outside world. We live as much of the story as it is told back to us by those talented enough to tell it. If I'm to make my life into a story, I want it to be a good one.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Surf, host, enjoy the company of others. No events yet, but soon!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have been lucky enough to spend my first couchsurfing experience with a surfer in Nemours, France. It was a very eye-opening experience in terms of how minimally one can live, how much one can give to relative strangers, and how much happiness can be gained. Truly a great introduction to Couchsurfing. I stayed with many lovely and generous people along my way from Europe to the Mideast. I will pay it forward tenfold when I figure out how to settle into one place!

Interests

Rock climbing! As of late, most of my travel has revolved around grabbing onto small, sharp things and going upward. I've always had a passion for at least motion--as a baby, nothing put me to sleep like a car ride. Moving, exploring, traveling: always a go-to for my well-being. With the help of this community, I hope to meet a ton of people, each with a story to tell, to see all kinds of stuff that will make me feel small and happy to be in its presence (geological, if I can swing it), and to taste as much local cuisine as I possibly can. I also hope that travelers will come and share their experiences with me, if their journey happens to come my way.

• dogs
• books
• literature
• dining
• recipes
• vegan
• walking
• traveling
• kayaking
• rock climbing

Music, Movies, and Books

Authors: Pynchon, Kundera, David Foster Wallace, Fitzgerald, Cortazar, Rushdie, Bulgakov, Nabokov, the list goes on... [edit: if you have a chance, read Warlock by Oakley Hall.]

Music: I've become very passive in my tastes as of late... A lot of ambient, background music, i.e.: Bonobo, Tycho, Mogwai, etc. And I still love some of the bands from my teen years: Modest Mouse, The Velvet Teen, The Long Winters, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I was 18, I made a trip to Alaska, which left me in a stupor that only a world that BIG could inspire. And here I was, thinking Texas was as big as things got. I had (took) the opportunity to kayak alone in the Chatham Straight, near an island it only took 10-15 minutes to paddle around, to sit alone and watch otters pop their heads out of water to spy on me, to listen to the not-so-distant whales that were bigger than me by a whole lot and ultimately indifferent to me and my yellow, plastic kayak. I try to cultivate this feeling whenever possible.

Another example is really of the other end of the spectrum: I traveled, rather recently, to a dude ranch in Arkansas (called Horseshoe Canyon) in order to climb the gorgeous, sandstone cliffs out there. My friend and I set out to spend 5 days at the ranch, book-ended by two days of travel. Everything went wrong. On the way there, I let him drive, and we both fell asleep--hit an 18-wheeler, lost a window, a mirror, duct-taped a trashbag on and kept going. We seemed to have trouble with everything from then on: no sleeping bags, injuries, walking near poisonous snakes, chiggers everywhere, etc. But we stuck it out, and came back hungry, bug-bitten, and half-of-my-car-less. I suppose the point is: as long as I'm in a beautiful, interesting, or new place, my very American, middle-class worries are no longer an issue. I can find the fun in any scenario. Plus, the climbing was great!

Since I wrote the paragraphs above, I have traveled (with the help of CS) to England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, and Israel/Palestine. In the US, I traveled through the Confederate South with no radio and no showers to climb in Kentucky.

Teach, Learn, Share

I want recipes!
I can make a killer curry (secret ingredient is peanut butter), and I just recently figured out a healthy (vegan option) roasted bell pepper with quinoa, lentils, and a bunch of other good stuff. I love food that can be served in one, big pile. Recipes to come...

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Palestine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States