CURRENT MISSION

Heading east one country at a time!

ABOUT ME

I spent the first 21 years of my life in Ohio. Since then I've lived in California, Texas, and Germany. I've seen a good part of Europe and driven across the US. Right now I'm trying to finish school and head to Russia!

PHILOSOPHY

There are good people everywhere.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Ok, finally I have had my first "official" couch surfing experience in Montreal... however, I think I have always had an inclination towards it! During one trip to Amsterdam we could not find a SINGLE hotel with a vacancy. After we had just about given up I asked a group of strangers biking by if we could stay with them... to my surprise they said yes! We followed them home for about 30 minutes and stayed in their "meditation" room. I also have a tendency to end up sleeping in public places... I've slept in train stations in Munich, Berlin, and Venice and also on a park bench in front of Buckingham Palace in London!

Interests

I enjoy Russian, new experiences, classic literature, long bike rides, taking photographs, cooking (and eating) tasty food, discussions late into the night, animals (especially cats!), mountains, trees, snow, wind, fog, and the sound of moving water!

• animals
• cats
• literature
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• meditation
• flowers
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• rock climbing
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I love to read... some of my favorite books are "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot" -Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Catcher in the Rye" -J.D. Salinger, "Babbitt" -Sinclair Lewis, "Catch 22" Joseph Heller, "Despair" -Nabokov, "Lady With a Lapdog" and "Gusev" -Chekhov, "The Trail" -Kafka... Gotta read Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita" someday!

Music and movies are good too!

...I could care less for celebrities though! :-p

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiking from the Upper Rim of the Grand Canyon all the way down to the Colorado River... and then climbing back up! I was amazed by the different colored flowers and layers of rock. To me, the size of the Grand Canyon was beyond comprehension! I started before dawn and it was SNOWING at the top! Around noon I reached the bottom and it was 90 degrees!

Teach, Learn, Share

My goal is to learn Russian to fluency and someday to read Dostoevsky in Russian! Learning Polish, Czech and Ukrainian would be nice as well. I am always interested in learning about new places to visit... especially in Russia! I'd like to pick up some new recipes, and maybe someday someone will teach me to dance... :-)

I haven't much to offer, but I can always willing to teach English and share my time and experiences!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States