Hi world-travelers! :D BEFORE you send me a lovely message: I probably won't have time to meet up, as my schedule is really full these days. You can try, but you might not get a reply. For travellers who like alternative culture (underground/hippie/activist), check the website radar-squat (just google) and select Amsterdam. For example underground cinema, awesome parties (if you're not into mainstream) and so on. All the stuff don't have time for these days 😂 ... Enjoy your travels! ♥🌻🌈☀ So... If you are still interested in reading, here we go! 😆 My name is Tsjalline, which is a really difficult name all over the world - unless I explain it is pronounced like cha-cha-cha! 💃 Cha-line! I joined Couchsurfing some years ago and it made me connect to so many cool people! First I hosted a couple of people in my student-room in the Netherlands. I went for a month to the United States for a Geography summer course in NYC and afterwards I couchsurfed while traveling the East Coast. I also did a one-month French language course in Lyon and made sure I spoke French all the time.. ^^ I have had really amazing experiences with CouchSurfing, but also think it can be a bit tricky. Spending a day or two in someone's intimate space - their home - can be quite a challenge. I realised that I am not always able to voice my needs and concerns. I have felt uncomfortable a few times, mostly because I didn't listen to my own intuition... I always want to think the best of people and I try to stay in a good mood at all times (which is quite impossible), so I find it hard to tell someone: "I don't like this," or "I feel uncomfortable". I would rather pretend that everything is fine. I have also never written a negative review, even though my personal experiences have been negative a few times (so I guess I should have been more honest to myself and others). So I'm trying to being more careful now, using CouchSurfing a bit less for sleeping over at someone's place and more for meet-ups in town. It's safer and just as much fun! :) For the past months I was traveling through Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania. I visited different projects along the way, such as a refugee aid group in Belgrade, Serbia. Afterwards, I stayed in Istanbul for 2 months to do volunteer work at a small community center: https://www.smallprojectsistanbul.org Then I traveled through the south of Turkey to Lebanon, where I was a volunteer at a small NGO at the border with Syrian, teaching children in a small refugee camp: http://www.reliefandreconciliation.org One day I hope to become a writer. Maybe a travel story writer, or a documentary maker, or a professor in human geography or anthropology… (that's a broad definition of writer, I know). Well, something that makes me happy at least. And something I find meaningful.... I am interested global issues like immigration, food security and sustainability. Or just anything with the word 'international' in it... The idea that all people in the world are in some way or another connected is just so fascinating! Before I make the decision to visit a place, I like to be well-prepared and well-informed. I love to learn about the country's history, cultural traditions and politics. I love learning languages. At the moment I am studying Turkish and it is so beautiful and poetic. For example 'günesh', the word for 'sun', is made out of 'gün' - which means 'day' - and 'esh' - which means 'partner'... So the sun is the partner of the day! Isn't that beautiful? :) So basically if you have any random words to teach me in any language, I am down...