I was born in Charleston, SC and lived there till I went off to college. I graduated in 2007, lived abroad for a year, moved home for a year, and now I'm in graduate school here at UNC-Chapel Hill. I still haven't met a ton of people, so I figured I'd turn to the internet.

I like to travel. Like, really like to travel. When we're trying to decide what to do for the weekend, I'm always the one who throws out "Let's go to Cuba." I usually get shot down, and rightfully so, but I still love going to new places, meeting new people, drinking beer in entirely new places, etc. I've been all across Europe, and am particularly obsessed with Russia in a way I can't explain. I graduated from college two years ago, lived in Russia (surprise) for a year, lived at home for a year, and am now working on my MA in Russian Area Studies at UNC.

I enjoy everything from a movie at home to a nice dinner out, but my favorite evening activity is good conversation with friends over a beer. I promise that I am capable of talking about things besides Russia, so you just might find me interesting even you don't want to hear about trudging through two feet of snow in a driving blizzard just to get to work.

I'm kind of a nerd. Not in the traditional sense (I've never seen an entire episode of Star Trek), but in that I get really interested in stuff that most people don't care about. Like Russia, for example. I like meeting other people with weird obsessions, because I feel like they validate mine.

I can cook (a new skill for me, I'm still pretty proud of it), I like to read (often history books - I was a history major, after all), I love a good movie, music, etc...I hate to end this with the standard cliche, but if you want to know more, just ask.

I'm in graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill, getting my Master's Degree in Russian and East European Studies. I think I already said that. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with that, but knowing why Russia does what it does is a pretty marketable skill.

Alright, now's a good a time as any to write this list. It's a work in progress.

Books:
Gorky Park - Great book, along with its sequels.
Guns, Germs, and Steel - What can I say, I'm a history nerd.

Movies:
Boondocks Saints - Is it too cliche to say this? Whatever...I love this movie.
Aliens - I once got into a discussion with a friend where we compared the effectiveness of space marines in different sci-fi movies. That's what you get when you combine graduate-level analysis with a taste for cult science fiction movies.
James Bond films - Most of them, at least
Gladiator - Just because.
Red Dawn - Not because it's a good movie. Because it's a very bad movie.

TV:
The traditional staples, like Family Guy, the Simpsons, South Park.
Shows that combine my nerdiness with my love of explosions. Like Mythbusters.
Venture Brothers, because it's awesome.

Music:
I hate this question. A little bit of almost everything, I guess. Flogging Molly is always near the top. The Ramones are on the list, too, as well as O.A.R., Metallica, Less Than Jake, Johnny Cash...I'm really just going through my iTunes list and pulling off band names. Also, a bunch of Russian stuff that no one west of the iron curtain have heard of, like Кино, ДДТ, СПЛИН, and Ленинград.

Food:
Barbecue. "Pulled pork," not "toss a hamburger patty on the grill." I shouldn't have to say that in the South. Actually, I'm madly in love with most Southern cooking. I also developed a taste (like I had a choice) for Russian cooking. You'll never see it on a menu anywhere, because there's no way to describe "chicken and cabbage" to make it sound appetizing, but I miss it.

Let's see...
1. Friends. You know that feeling when you see something really cool, and you think about how much cooler it would be if your best friends were there? Yeah, I get that a lot.
2. Beer. This should include all alcohol. I'm not an alcoholic, I just play one on the weekends.
3. Food. Good food.
4. Music. And I guess something to play it on, too.
5. The number 5.
6. Honestly, I was reaching with number 5. I probably shouldn't have been so general with numbers 1 through 4.

Well, I could say something like TV or movies, but I should probably be honest here, so...Russia, and going back into the past with a modern invention and pretending to be a wizard.

I don't really have a typical Friday night. I have a firm "work hard, play hard" credo, though, so more often than not, it involves going out with friends and forgetting that I'm supposed to be a mature grad student.

I'm using the internet to meet people.

You want to be friends, you want to tell me how much you hate me, you want to listen to me talk about Russia, you want to listen to me talk about anything but Russia, meet for a beer, meet for a glass of refreshing ice water, meet for dinner...I'm not really picky.