CURRENT MISSION

To Sail or at least Work on as many Tallships as I can

ABOUT ME

I am a clean polite simple person. I won't stink up the place or make a terrible mess. I consider myself pretty resourceful, I am also pretty self contained. I enjoy the simple things in life such as the sound of the bow of a ship cutting through water, the shade of a sail, the fragrance of tar, a good list, rock n roll, a nap, a walk, a conversation, eye contact, wool.
Here is a little about me and my trip.
I've been in Dublin, Ireland now for a few days, it's been very exciting, I am getting a kick out of hostel living but I get the feeling that I'm missing a lot by spending all my time in the city. I've been walking around a lot and getting lost a lot more, I've found my way into a grocery store and learned that I'm not goign to be offered a grocery bag, and other little things like that which I wasn't prepared for, all that aside, I'd like to see more than Dublin and if you live outside of Dublin I'd particularly like to see that. Anyway, I'd be extremely appreciative to anyone who offers their hospitality towards me, thanks very much.

PHILOSOPHY

In order to get what you want, you must know what you want.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've only just discovered this mission. I'd be very grateful to participate by being a couch surfer. When I get back and get my couch out of storage it will certainly be open to my fellow couch surfers!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am naturally a solitary person, I have friends but I am completely comfortable with my own company and more often than not I chose to do things on my own. While pursuing this goal I had to make certain sacrifices, one of them being my apartment in order to save rent money for this trip. As a result of the decision to give up my apartment, I have been forced to call up these friends of mine and ask for a couch for a couple of nights. It has been a wonderful experience. When I was living in my little apartment I would often times be sitting in bed late at night thinking, "Man o man, I'd really like someone to hang out with right now, but I don't wanna call anybody at this hour and wake them up." Now I hang out with my friends all the time and spend the week going from couch to couch. Each friendship has only strengthened because of it. I hope to make even more friends internationally in this same fashion and return the favor in the near future.

Interests

I love music. If left to my own devices I could lay in bed for days on end just playing music from my jukebox all day long. I never mastered any instruments, I sort of made some noise come out of a piano as a little boy and awkwardly stroked a guitar in my late teen years. These days I'm just happy to hoarsly belt out some forgotten songs every now and then. I also love sailing. I started sailing Tallships a little more than two years ago and it has been a very intense and very humbling and very rewarding learning experience. It has forced me to ask for help and has taught me the value of being a member of a team. I really enjoy the comraderie and kinship from the crew and the challenges and exercise from the sea. Sailing on a ship is one of my favorite ways to spend a day.

• horses
• aquaria
• writing
• fashion
• coloring
• perfumes
• dancing
• cooking
• exercise
• walking
• music
• guitar
• piano
• backpacking
• sailing
• sports
• wrestling
• rock climbing
• paragliding
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

I thoroughly enjoy live music, I've seen a variety of artists perfrom from Björk to Little Richard to the Meteors to Peaches to the Living End. When I go to a show I prefer Rockabilly and Psychobilly like Demented Are Go or the Cramps or the Reverend Horton Heat. I enjoy the very clear sense of subculture and the chance of danger. I also enjoy festivals with a variety of music and that's how I've seen bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Siouxsie and the Banshees. Once in a while I'll go see a big artist headline and that's how I'll end up seeing Björk or Alice Cooper or Jerry Lee Lewis. I really enjoy music, it is the thing that most bonds me to strangers.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One of the most amazing things I've done in my life is to have worked with my kids at the Braille Institute. I have worked here for more than four years now and our blind youth have really opened my eyes to a lot of things. I've had days when I had to say to our kids, "Alright, now I promise everything is gonna be ok, so just give me your hand, you're going to touch a shark." or "I swear nothing bad will happen, just put on this backpack and jump off that cliff and I promise you wont drop to your death." One of the things I've enjoyed most about my job is the variety, each day there is a different program and they range from judo to choir to writing to dancing to cooking to sports and all kinds of other things. It's been fun being in the judo class because our kids go head to head and for the most part without fear. Sometimes they wrestle eachother and sometimes they wrestle sighted kids, but the thing is that they can't see how big their opponent is and they can't see what color belt their opponent is, so they just bring everything they've got and just throw down. It's pretty cool. Over the summer we have field trips and that's when we've gone paragliding or to the Long Beach Aquarium, a couple of times we've been sailing and once we spent a week on a dude ranch milking goats and riding and cleanup up after horses climbing walls and feeding pigs. In the four years I've worked with these kids I've seen a lot of them grow from into fine well adjusted young adults. They have taught me a lot about trust and about blind courage. It's been a wild ride seeing the world through the eyes of the blind.

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