General Information
Languages- GermanExpert
- EnglishIntermediate
- FrenchBeginner
- ArabicBeginner
- IcelandicBeginner
- RussianBeginner
Groups I Belong ToCouch Information
Couch Available: Yes Preferred Gender: Any Max Surfers Per Night: 2
Shared Sleeping Surface: Depends Shared Room: Dependsd
Hi there folks,
I'm living together with four other beautifully nice people in an old bakery at Dresden-Löbtau. We have one guest room with a mattress that is big enough for two people.
We don't have pets bigger than spiders and smoke sometimes in the kitchen. Our flat is close to the city center (10 min tram ride). When I am in the mood and have time I can show you around the city of Dresden.
See you!
Friends (21)
Simon Robitaille 24, Male Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec Canada Friends since June 2006 "we spent hours on the arteries to highways" Friendship Type: 4 - Friend
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Frederico Kuhl 34, Male Lisbon, Lisboa Portugal Friends since July 2007 "was walking down a dark alley and a space ship landed in front of me... it was torsten" Friendship Type: 5 - Good Friend I vouched for Torsten Philipp
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LOUISF 29, Male Montreal, Quebec Canada Friends since July 2006 "Met in Dresden while I ws in Freital (huuuu...Freital)" Friendship Type: 3 - CouchSurfing Friend
3 |
Caesar Appleton 53, Male New Delhi, Delhi India Friends since June 2006 "We exchanged lots of thoughts and idea on the Hospitality Club forum and we met at the Berlin Beach Camp, June 2006" Friendship Type: 4 - Friend
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DIT 35, Female Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany Friends since October 2008 "Surfed his couch in Dresden." Friendship Type: 4 - Friend
3 |
Vagante Coaloa 21, Male Los Angeles, California United States Friends since May 2007 "couchsurfed his coconuts completely spectacular place" Friendship Type: 4 - Friend
2 |
Nathan Sharp 24, Male San Francisco, California United States Friends since August 2006 "stayed at his flat in dresden" Friendship Type: 3 - CouchSurfing Friend I vouched for Torsten Philipp
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Gil Vicente Oliveira 32, Male Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo Brazil Friends since July 2006 "I saw him the firs time in bahnhof mitte" Friendship Type: 3 - CouchSurfing Friend
2 |
Noora Huhtanen 24, Jyvaskyla, Lansi-Suomen Laani Finland Friends since May 2007 "surfed his couch in Dresden" Friendship Type: 3 - CouchSurfing Friend I vouched for Torsten Philipp
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Liang Rao 25, Male Biel/Bienne, Bern Switzerland Friends since July 2007 "couchsurfing" Friendship Type: 3 - CouchSurfing Friend
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How I Participate in CS2
Being there and trying to listen.
Interests
At the moment I´m interested especially in gaining more experience in aikido, forum theatre and lucid dreaming.
Besides I am interested a lot in what I study and work, which - by accident - happens to be social work, so have a look at my blog "Adventures in German social work" for insights into, well...German social work.
And in case you`re more into listening than reading check out my freemusicpodcast:
There you can listen to and legally download music, that is under a free licence and read interviews I conducted with musicians about music, life and their approach to free music.
Philosophy
See that the itches on all ducks feet will glimpse like honey butter under vietnamese furniture.
( - Replace with any other nonsense - I despise personal philosphies. Not in a personal or philosophical way of course =)
Music, Movies, Books
Recently I stumbled upon the french philosopher Foucault. To me this stuff was hard to read, like running a marathon on hands backwards underwater during the night. I almost gave up on it but fortunatelly there where friends who helped me reading and understanding his crazy ideas.
I'm pretty obsessed by it at the moment. If you wanna do yourself a favour, DON'T read Foucault !
Other texts I like:
The Prince and The Magician - It's hippy shit, but I just love this story.
Ulises Mejias: Open Ijtihad - About Technology and New Opportunities for Community Building and Activism
Well the whole blog of Ulises is pretty irritating, so give it a go!
Something I wrote myself: The Logic of Collective Action and Wikipedia deals with the question why the production of the collective good "Wikipedia" works like a charm, though american economist Mancur Olson predicted in his book "The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups" that it can't. Unfy it`s only in german atm.
Not by me, but nevertheless interesting:
Why Open Software works
Bertram Russel: In praise of the idleness
My favourite blog: 360east.com - Ahmad Humeid's text, image and audio commentary on design, media and technology from a confused Arabia
And finally I think that this is a pretty amazing magazine: Surveillance & Society - An open-source online surveillance studies journal
And my all time favourite song: "Emmaline" by Hot Chocolate.
Teach, Learn, Share
I think I´m good in failing. Not that I have a long carrier or special skills in it, I just like to fail because it´s much fun if you know how to do it properly. Besides it´s extremely subversive and (done the right way) it gives a lot of power.
So from me you can definitely learn how to fail. Either you manage to learn failing the way I do it or you find your own way of failing or (if you are stupid) you completely fail in learning how to fail - Either way, you fail! Ain't that just great? =)
One Amazing Thing I've Seen or Done
When I was a child I´ve seen a dead cat swimming in a rain barrel. I couldn´t eat for weeks.
And once when I was hiking alone in the icelandic highlands I stopped my feet and realized that I heard absolute silence. This sounded soooo good and inspired me to write this small poem:
Ob...?
es eine Stille gibt
die so leise ist,
dass niemand sie hören kann
Opinion on the CouchSurfing.com Project
Great idea - yes, indeed. Really.
But maybe it lucks some openness? At least I got a bit scared about CS when I found one day that negative references can just vanish without people noticing or agreeing.
Maybe openness is just a buzzword in the end? Anyway I like to read what others write on www.opencouchsurfing.org
Oh yes ... and I don't care about references (neither receiving or leaving any) as both reading and writing them bores me to death - literally, it's a rare allergy.
If you explicitely want a reference from me though, just ask and I will see what I can do.
Locations TraveledTRAVELED: Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States LIVED: Iceland, Slovenia WANTS TO GO: Syria References
From Piotr Kubowicz Krakow, Poland Sep 5 Positive Torsten showed me most important tourist attractions in Dresden at the beginning and told much about the city. Staying in his WG in an old bakery was quite an experience, as it's not a usual house ;) He made me feel like in home; like if I needed a map of Dresden, I could take one hanging on a wall. You can find lots of topics to talk with Torsten and if you are in Dresden you should definitely meet him.
From Nana Vereskaya Montreal, Canada Jun 3 Positive this guy has a great sense of humor, good taste in yogurt and I fell in love with his city! what more should I say other than go to Dresden and meet him!!! I know I will be back!
From Alexey Kostin Saint Petersburg, Russia Sep 14, 2007 Positive Torsten have hosted us in his nice WG in Dresden for 2 days, tryed to make our stay as comfortable as it could be. Thanks a lot! :)))
From Steph Flynn Copenhagen, Denmark Aug 26, 2007 Positive VERY nice.. wow looked after me.. found me a punk movie to watch, told me good places to go too. waited for me to get home to make sure i could get in the door. GREAT sense of humour... will miss him
From Frederico Kuhl Lisbon, Portugal Aug 17, 2007 Positive I stayed with Torsten 2 weeks. I dont have enought words to describe such an excellent experience. This guy is one of the funniest people ive meet in a long long time. Dont you just love when you meet someone who combines a sharp sense of humour with inteligence. He is political incorrect with style, a sweet smart ass and the best social worker i ever meet. Torsten was one of my best couchsurfing experiences and i do hope i have a chance to meet him again sometime soon. Untill then take care my friend!
From Christophor R. Prague, Czech Republic Aug 6, 2007 Positive Torsten the magnificent. Torsten and crew were a great bunch of people. From when I first arrived and he made me a cup of coffee and all through the stay I felt like I had known him for years. Hell they even invited me to stay and have dinner with them and their friends, and while I don't speak much German I was still quite comfortable. He even gave me all the info I needed from the nightlife to where to hitch a ride to Berlin.
So if you're going to Dresden this is the man to contact.
Thanks again Torsten, that bottle of wine will arrive soon.
From Luigi Fadda Milano, Italy Aug 2, 2007 Positive thank u for everything
really sociable and kind guy
see u in naples
ur welcome
From Liang Rao Biel/Bienne, Switzerland Aug 1, 2007 Positive hi torsten, are you at home? and the others? say hi to murihuana and hubrita. they are good people. you should come to our wg-party on 24.august. the address you know. see you, amen.
From DASMADE Dresden, Germany Jul 11, 2007 Positive I met torsten at two cs-parties, one of it was his self best-organized party, where he was a great host. He is really nice, open-minded and funny and of course helpful!! Torsten thank you for your help with the music-equipment. hope to see you once playing with your own band ;-)
From Vagante Coaloa Los Angeles, United States Jun 16, 2007 Positive Torsten is a great, gentle, openminded, analytical guy and i feel grateful to have couchsurfed your place...but it was too short and i will have to come back, there is much more to experience im sure. great music and hope our paths cross again!
From Caesar Appleton New Delhi, India Mar 14, 2007 Positive Torsten and I have exchanged ideas and thoughts over the hospitality club forum for a while. And then, he came to the berlin beach camp. I was so damn sloshed but he was cool~~~
Torsten can surprise you immensely with his wit, and his sharpness. He's a very intelligent guy with the soul of true spirit. I would love to meet him again.
Take care, dear brother
Caesar
From RUDELHEINZ Dresden, Germany Mar 7, 2007 Positive We met at the notorious Dresden CS member's parties. You're a pleasant and funny company and party host with interesting opinions and maybe one of the last in the world who knows how to prepare a "cold dog" ;o)
What a special sense for artistry!
From Zsizsi Dresden, Germany Mar 6, 2007 Positive He was a great host of the 03.03.2007 CS Party. It was one of the few German parties in the last 4,5 years where I danced until 6 am!!! It was a very nice music and there were very nice people as well! Also thank you Torsten for the host and let it be some other nice parties like this! :)
From Anna Schiller Dresden, Germany Jan 29, 2007 Positive next time i`ll be more awake to talk to you and get to know you better!
From LEFTIE Budapest, Hungary Jan 10, 2007 Positive I met Torsten at Leon's birthday party in Budapest, then he stayed at my place for 3 nights.
Torsten is one of the nicest people I ever met and definitely the nicest guest I have had so far. Though he crashed in at the last moment my only regret is that he didn't stay one month instead of just three days. I hope he comes back. If you ever believed that germans have no sense of humour Torsten will make you change your mind: he can make you laugh for hours on end. You don't actually need to go to Dresden just to meet him, as Leon says, you can always invite him to your place. He is a wise, intelligent and mature person, who can prevent any conflict. There's no way you can have a problem hosting him, because he always asks permission about doing things, leaves everything perfectly clean after himself,and he is always thoughtful about little things. He is such interesting company that any feelings of awkwardness will disappear like snow melting in the sun. He has varied interests and it's fun to talk with him about any topic. In the end I might just have to go to Dresden just to visit him.
From Yael Ben Jacob Herzliyya, Israel Jan 7, 2007 Positive my sister and i spent 2 nights at torstens place.
torsten is realy nice, interesting and open minded!
he's a great host.
see u in israel torsten.
From JEANKEBOS Brussels, Belgium Nov 18, 2006 Positive I stayed at his place in Dresden, some months ago; i contacted him with this other website globalfreeloaders.com. We had some good time talking, drinking wine, eating carrots, going to some bars.
From Gil Vicente Oliveira Sao Paulo, Brazil Sep 13, 2006 Positive Torsten is really a great guy, very attentive he waited for me and my girlfriend in the train station and carry us to his home. He is inteligent, good talk and very human. Thanks a lot, Torsten
From Johnny Fıtzgerald Bliss Vienna, Austria Aug 22, 2006 Positive torsten was a really cool host, very interesting personality.. my only regret is i didn't have more time to get to know him (i was in dresden 4 days, and i stayed 3). the people in his community were also very cool, a good trustworthy bunch. i would stay again in a heartbeat, and would also host torsten when i have a couch.
From Nathan Sharp San Francisco, United States Aug 15, 2006 Positive torston is a fantastic fellow. wonderful listener. i really felt welcomed in his home. he invited me to listen to jazz at the museum of hygiene one night. too bad we couldnt meet up in berlin. maybe next time....
From LOUISF Montreal, Canada Aug 7, 2006 Positive Thanks again Torsten, my life in Freital would have been hell without you, Dresden, your Freudin and the good talks we had. Thanks again.
From Pavel Kocourek Kaohsiung city, Taiwan Jul 19, 2006 Torsten helped me to stay in Dresden!!! Unfortunately I came to dresden when Torsten was out, so I have not met him, but he let me stay althrow - really nice of him. His roommates are so great that made me laugh all the time:-)
From Lam Tran Vienna, Austria Jul 19, 2006 short but nice. torsten and his girlfriend isabell just stayed for one night, but still we had a comfortable relaxed evening and it was fun having them here as the first two official couchsurfers to use my new actual couch which now allows 2 people to surf my place.
From Anais Moller Caracas, Venezuela Jul 19, 2006 Dresden. We had a great time staying at Torsten house. He is a really a nice person and his roommates were also cool.
Originally we were going to stay one night but then we stayed another one without a problem. He also tried to help us in our way towards Berlin.
Very helpful, lots of fun. |