CURRENT MISSION

Living it up!

ABOUT ME

I am a freelance ballet dancer and sculptor, Ryan is a structural engineer working in downtown Chicago. We both graduated from the University of Oklahoma and moved to Chicago about a year ago. We love to travel, mostly to mountainous regions for climbing and hiking. And we're vegetarians.

PHILOSOPHY

"I may disagree with what you have to say, BUT I shall defend to the death your right to say it." -Voltaire-
"Get your priorities crooked." -Mitch Hedberg-

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I haven't done any couch surfing with this site, but friends of mine have always been generous when I go visit their cities. I'm always up for helping people out and offering the spare area to visitors.

Interests

Dance (ballet, modern, contemporary), choreography, painting, sculpture, politics, social issues, the environment and recycling, get-togethers, movies, music, and learning new things. Ryan's a mountaineer, climber, biker, marathon runner and cooks a mean meal.

• dancing
• ballet dancing
• environment
• marathon
• politics
• movies
• traveling
• painting
• music
• hiking
• mountaineering
• surfing
• rock climbing
• engineering
• freelancing

Music, Movies, and Books

Ani DiFranco, Andrew Bird, The Format, Green Day, Sufjan Stevens, Ben Kweller, Kings of Leon, The Shins, Ben Lee, Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles, Ben Harper, Robert Johnson, The Offspring, Bob Dylan, Jet, Janis Joplin, Imogen Heap, Elliott Smith, Zeppelin, Neutral Milk Hotel, Beirut, Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), Damien Rice, Tom Petty, Ben Fold's, Neil Young, David Gray, etc. etc

Movies: Garden State, High Fidelity, Punch Drunk Love, Office Space, Fight Club, Sunshine Cleaning

Lots of mountaineering, political, social and nutritional books.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I think travel in and of itself is such an amazing experience. I've been to San Fran, Chicago, New York, lived in Pittsburgh, visited France and multiple other small places. Ryan's prone to visiting Washington, California and Colorado.

Teach, Learn, Share

A suggestion to couch surfers (something I try to follow when I travel), gratitude is a strong thing and necessary when someone opens their home to you. Also picking up after yourself like dishes and 'making the couch' is always a rockin plan for future-stay plans. And enjoy, this is such a cool network and a great idea for wanderers.