HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING I've been part of CS for coming on to 9 years now. It's had a profound effect on how I view travel, interpersonal relations, cultural differences and shared histories. As a writer, this has been invaluable to me and I give back as much as I can. I've organised dinner parties for over 50 people, turned people into die-hard converts, had long debates about the ethics and changes of the project over the years (sadly, the recent changes have led those discussions down much more pejorative paths), and surfed and hosted many, many times. Don't hesitate to drop me a line of you have any questions. COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE So far I have hosted and surfed with a fair few people and shared drinks, adventures, late nights, early mornings, waterfall appreciations, deep discussions, hugs, laughter, road-trips, animal love, star-gazing, coffee, chess games, shishas, bike-rides, movies, books, religions, ridiculous banter, aesthetic appreciation and philosophical debates with them and many, many more.

Films: Amelie, Russian Ark, Spirited Away, Sex and Lucia, E Tu Mama Tambien, The Edukators, Withnail and I, Life is Beautiful, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, pretty much anything by Pixar (though I seem to be the only one who thinks Up was a severe disappointment), Pan's Labyrinth, Oldboy, Shortbus, Showtime... Books (honestly, to attempt a summary of literature is a futile task for me, but here is a brief rundown of a few favourites): 1. Sexus - Henry Miller 2. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut 3. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift 4. The book thief - Markus Zusak 5. Everything is illuminated - Jonathan Saffran Foer 6. Written on the body - Jeanette Winterson 7. Love in the time of Cholera - Gael Garcia Marquez 8. The book of laughter and forgetting - Milan Kundera 9. Narziss and Goldmund - Herman Hesse 10. The beauty of the husband - Ann Carson 11. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 12. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugendes 13. Dance, Dance, Dance - Haruki Murakami 14. The Master and Margharita - Bulgakov 15. On the Road - Jack Kerouac 16. Too Loud a Solitude - Bohumil Hrabal 17. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton 18. The History of Love - Nicole Krauss 19. Henry and June - Anais Nin 20. The Bone People - Keri Hulme 21. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood And I haven't even touched on poetry... Music: I cannot even begin. But to give you an idea alphabetically: Ani Difranco, Beirut, Chopin, Delerium, Elbow, Faun, Glen Hansard, Henryk Gorecki, Iron and Wine, Joanna Newsom, Kid Sam, Lamb, Metric, The National, Okkervil River, Patrick Wolf, Regina Spektor, Sage Francis, The Tiny, Unkle Ho, The Verve, The Weepies, The XX, Yann Tiersen, Zebrahead. If you stay with me you will no doubt be subjected to a ridiculous amount of music, and if you're nice, I will be sure to let you take some away with you.