Mary

Travel information

I am currently

Activities i am interested in:

My dog and I like to get up early & walk every day, in the forest, by the Seine, etc. We’re happy to meet up for a walk. I know eastern Paris fairly well. On weekends, we try to get a 15 km+ hike in.

Description

Hi, I'm Tsita, travelling with my favourite human, Mary. She adopted me in Greece while volunteering with an NGO in Chios. I am VERY friendly with other humans and dogs! I LOVE them and they love me! Mary is very creative and hardworking. She is passionate about food justice, loves to garden, and is a decent (plant-based) cook. She worked as an English teacher in Beijing at the same company for nearly 7 years, so she's a bit mad, but in a good way. Thank goddess she has dual citizenship, Irish and American, so she doesn't need to worry about visas in Europe! Currently we are in Paris, working for the same company again.

Interests

Vegetarian or vegan

Pets

Hiking

Gardening

Farming

Drawing & painting

Cooking & food

Art & design

Animals

Languages

Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Arabic: Intermediate
Spanish: Intermediate
French: Beginner

More details about my language interests
I’d like to work on my French, learn Portuguese or Italian, and can teach English.

Find a language buddy

Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn

Some knowledge of:  

Animal Care

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Able to teach about:  

Gardening

Creating/ Cooking family meals

Life at a Farmstay

Helping around the house

Hospitality/Tourism

Languages

Art Projects

More details about your skills

"I am only good at two things, and those are: gardening and painting."
—Claude Monet 😂
Mary has been an English teacher for fifteen+ years and also has a background in hospitality and food and beverage. Basically, she grew up babysitting for her younger siblings, branched out to the neighbors’ kids during high school, and started working in restaurants (Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor in Southfield, Michigan) at age 16. She spent some time in Southeast Alaska, working for the USDA Forest Service on a trail crew, did catering in Seattle; including work on boats for a year, and at the Sheraton Seattle for 7 years. After 9/11, she started teaching English to local immigrants and refugees, and eventually moved into full-time teaching.
Update: Mary has her US driver's license! She's actually a very good driver. In 2018 she helped to expand the refugee organization's vegetable garden project in Chios, Greece, coming on board at the end of July, harvesting, and then planting the winter garden. She was part of a community garden in Seattle, and in 2019 spent six weeks working on a small farm outside of Berlin, so she knows a bit about organic practices, composting, permaculture, and the like. She can cook (mostly plant-based, but more than willing to learn new recipes), is reliable; also quite creative, paints and draws. She has painted some murals as a workawayer and looks forward to working with people on their art projects. She posts her work at https://www.instagram.com/m.alice_mcelhinny/ if you are interested in seeing some of her artwork/ideas/things that inspire her. She loves DOGS and other animals, especially me, and enjoys taking us for long walks. She loves hostels and always stays in them whenever she travels, or rather she did before she got me, so it’s complicated 💗... 🐶

Age

64

What else ...

I have always done art, but worked very hard during and post-COVID to get my painting up to speed, and applying to artist residencies.

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies
  haters

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  Special dietary requirements
  Plant-based, but no biggie. Mary is not averse to picking the meat out of her food (and later sharing it with me of course!) Come on, she lived in China for 9 years!