HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING Me and James were hosting when we lived in Hawaii. Now that we have a new place to live we are hosting again in Kopparberg. We've lived in a lot of places around the world, but this is the place where we've decided to try and stick. You can get to James' profile from my Friends list. COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE I have never really surfed myself, this mystifies many people. Why would we invite strangers to our home? People seem to assume hosing is a loss, that there is nothing to gain from it. For me, it gives me an opportunity to speak to very different kinds of people and learn more of their countries and cultures. I don't travel much or go out to bars these days, working and taking care of the kids take up most of my life. Hosting makes everyday life a bit less dull...;-) And the kids love visitors too. They learn a lot from meeting people from all over the world.

I've learnt to fly helicopters. I especially liked learning emergency landing (turning the engine off and falling to the ground...) Working the reindeer calf branding under the midnight sun was a once in a lifetime sort of thing. Also, walking the lava fields on an active volcano, seeing the green/white/red and black beaches of Hawaii was pretty cool.