Why everybody's on Couchsurfing? I guess the reason is more or less the same (unless you're a creepy man looking for girls to host) - traveling and getting to know people from all over the globe

Let me throw some random names at you, whatever came to my mind: music - Mitski, Florence + The Machine, The Libertines, Mother Mother, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Smiths, Vampire Weekend ...... (the list goes on and on and on aaand there are many bands who sing in russian as well) books - lately I've been more into authors who explore experiences of soviet/post-soviet era soo "The big green tent'" by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, ''Second-hand time'' by Svetlana Alexievich are devinetely one of my favorites.