• My name
- My Korean name is Yena Lee. "Ye" means 'ART' and "Na" means 'FLY A FLAG' that my dad used a metaphor for 'being successful' or 'making a great contribution.'
- In sum, my name means 'making a great contribution in art.'

• My mission
- I had not followed the mission my name gave me for years. I really loved painting and making art when I was young, but I chose to study business in undergraduate, worked as a business consultant, and then studied business again at the business school.
- It all came to me when I was at the business school. I thought about 'what I would do on the last day of my life' (other than saying I love you to family and friends). Certainly, the answer was not 'working as a business consultant.'
- So I decided to follow my heart this time and redefined my life mission to "Sharing the joy of painting with the world"

• My travel
- I travel with my sister who has the same life mission with me.
- We travel the world starting from the Eastern Europe.
- We travel and we paint.
- We travel and we teach how to paint on streets for free.
- It is a pure joy to see how much people enjoy painting when we give them a brush and paints.
- Why do we this? We hope to develop a business in art, but we do this because we are certain that this is one single activity we would do on the last of our lives!

• Others
- I spent 90% of my life in Korea and 10% in the US.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am new on Couchsurfing ! (which means I have relatively fewer references ;)...)
I joined CS because...
• I want to be connected with the larger world (outside of the office cubicles)
• I want to learn new cultures from hosts and surfers and share Korean culture with them
• I hope to share the joy of painting with hosts and surfers

Interests

• arts
• comics
• painting
• classical music
• animation
• travel
• zen
• oil painting
• chopin

Music, Movies, and Books

• My favorite music
- I love listening to classical music - especially Chopin. I love pianists like Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, and Seongjin Cho. Nowadays, I listen to Martha's Chopin Piano concerto no.1 and Krystian's Chopin Ballads almost everyday.
- Another genre of music I love listening to is movie OSTs. My favorite artist is Hans Zimmers.
- I also enjoy listening to pop and EDM music.

• My favorite movies
- Love watching SF movies such as Matrix, Inception, and Interstellar.
- I am a big fan of animations both Japanese and Western ones. I grew up reading and watching a lot of Japanese comics and animations. I still enjoy watching Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks.
- Also enjoed watching musical movies like La La Land.

• My favorite books
- I love reading all sorts of books. Nowadays I started indulging in Zen, reading 'Be here now', 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind', and so on.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I am teaching painting on streets for free with my sister 🎨🌟
Since we started the trip in the last July, we did busking in Warsaw and Krakow, sharing free painting tools and painting lessons. People who attended said they had an amazing experience and realized how joyful painting can be. Starting from Poland, we are aiming to do busking across the Eastern Europe.

Teach, Learn, Share

• Painting
- As I mentioned earlier, I and my sister paint and travel together. We teach how to paint and share free painting tools on streets.
- I also keep learning watercolor painting.

• Language
- I taught Korean when I was in the US. It is my great joy to share Korean culture and language.
- I also continue learning English as my second language.

What I Can Share with Hosts

• I can share Korean culture (foods, K-POP, dramas, beauty tips, etc) and teach Korean language if a host wants.
• I and my sister can teach how to paint and give free painting tools
• I and my sister can paint YOU if you want your portrait :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea, United States