CURRENT MISSION

Taking bikes/trains throughout Europe during the summer of 2007.

ABOUT ME

chiara: can you type really fast?

geoff: yes.

chiara: ok, go. what else can you do?

geoff: i'm good at working with computers and playing music with people.

chiara: and long conversations.... cooking. i think you're a good cook.

geoff: i think i'm good at being late. you are too.

chiara: it's true. that doesn't make us look very good.

geoff: is this obnoxious.

chiara: no.

geoff: i like bruce springsteen (playing as i type this).

chiara: i like 90s music and clothes and sometimes politics.

geoff: what do you mean by 90s politics?

chiara: it was the birth of the pc, but some of it wasn't very evolved.

chiara: i like history....music. art or history of art. art in general is good, but it's vague.

geoff: what do you think most people mean when they say they like art?

chiara: they're trying to sound smart. i like to see the way that people try to digest reality. that sounds so smart. does it make sense?

geoff: i think so.

chiara: i like fat animals a lot, but i don't know if that's really relevent. i'm from italy but i've lived in the united states from 5 years.

geoff: i don't really know where to say i'm from.

chiara: pennsylvania. i feel like that's the place that holds the most history.

geoff: but living in the midwest again, i feel even though i spent most of my youth in pennsylvania that i find myself identifying as midwestern.

chiara: i think that's really deceiving.

geoff: what do you mean?

chiara: that there's an idea of being midwestern. having ideas or beliefs that aren't really descriptive of you.

geoff: it's more of a perception. you see a certain set of geography or the way that people live or traditions. so, even though there were things that i only witnessed for the beginning of my childhood, seeing them again now, or noticing their absence where they once were almost makes those things more vivid than the things that i actually had more experience with.

chiara: i feel like the idea of midwestern is something that only someone from america, or who has spent a lot of time in the us can understand. but this is kind of off topic.

geoff: okay. what do you feel is important to convey about yourself?

chiara: that we're nice. and helpful. and thankful.

geoff: i agree. i think that you're very appreciative of the things in your life and experiences that you have.

chiara: and eager to know the place that we're going to visit. so staying with someone from wherever we'll go is important. it's not just a free place to stay. it's actually important to me to stay with someone who is comfortable and knowing of a place.

geoff: i want to say .... no

chiara: what were you going to say.

geoff: i thought that it would be too self-agrandizing. i was going to say that i think that i like to think about things a lot. to dwell on them.

chiara: it's so true. it's not self-aaaagrannndizing. but it kind of makes you sound like a dork. it's fine.

geoff: i also think it's important to say that we're both pretty independent people.

chiara: despite the joint profile.

geoff. right. i think we should stop.

chiara. okay. let's stop it.

chiara: is there anywhere that we put our ages, or do we put it in this section?

geoff: let's do it. i'm 26.

chiara: like you don't know.

geoff: chiara is 25.

PHILOSOPHY

chiara: can we skip personal philosophy? i think it's pretty apparent.

geoff: i wanted to touch on something that we talked about the other night though. just the idea of it being important to appreciate the things that you have.

chiara: can mosh-pitting be one of my interests? i really like it.

geoff: yes. yeah, i guess things just seem so unequal in the world sometimes, and in a way where it seems impossible to give the things that you have back, even if you wanted too. so i've been thinking a lot about how in the things that i get to do, that maybe others don't, like travel, i really want to enjoy it fully and completely, and try to share that enjoyment or pleasure or hapiness somehow.

Что привело меня на Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

chiara: by traveling to different places and bringing our experiences along and having an eagerness to learn about peoples lives, beliefs, and culture.

geoff: people can sleep on my couch.

chiara: people can sleep on my couch. it's kind of saggy. it's okay. i would like that actually.

geoff: at my old house i feel like there was always someone who didn't pay rent sleeping on the couch at any given time. it was nice. i feel like i got to know a lot of different people.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

chiara: i was an exchange student when i was 16 and my first host family was really troubled and i ended up staying on someone's couch for about 4 months. the couch was the dog's so i ended up waking up with the dog inches from my nose every night for a month. he was mad. he was just looking at me all night.

geoff: i think as a child, my parents, especially my dad liked to save money traveling, so i remember sleeping on relatives or family friends' couhces a lot rather than staying in hotels. i also get to travel around playing music and have had a lot of nice people share their couches and floorspace. do you have any other couch sufing experience?

chiara: yeah hella.

geoff: like what.

chiara: should i start from the beginning? there's many. the times i traveled through europe before i stayed on people's couches. on road trips. a lot. i guess, so, traveling in europe and traveling in the united states.

chiara: geoff has toured in bands but is very reticent to let it out for some reason, so there. it does not make him an asshole. it' s ok to be in bands and not suck.

geoff: i guess just to travel around and have people offer up hospitality, food, sleeping space, taking me around their town, clothes, music ... it's a great privelege. i don't take it lightly.

Интересы

chiara: ok. just make a list.

geoff: linux. and free software. that's just first because i just got a new job that does a lot of stuff with linux. i like

chiara: i think we're obnoxious people. i'm serious.

geoff: but interesting?

chiara: i can't go there. we're diverging again. keep focused motherfucker.

geoff: can i not type the swearing?

chiara: you are such a motherfucking wuss.

geoff: but there are people on this site who are 50.

chiara: right and people who are 50 don't cuss. and they don't have sex. they just pray all day. ok. interests man.

geoff: i like making things. and learning how to do new things. in a pretty universal way, it's more that feeling of making something or realizing you know something new.

chiara: i don't know ... it's too general. finding out why things happen and why people do the things that they do. i think that's my chief mission in life really. trying not to be hurtful? is that an interest?

geoff: that might fit better in the next section.

chiara: ok. let's do it then.

geoff: wait. you like bicycles. and sweets.

chiara: that's it? maybe i should write your interests and you can write mine? can we do that?

geoff: okay. go.

chiara: computers, music, long conversations, caffeine, recently beer, mobility, finding out hidden things, having an expanded sense of knowledge in general, cooking, soda sometimes, discovering new places and simple adventures. politics in the sense of figuring out imbalances and balances in the realities around you. lots of projects all at the same time. then getting pissed because there is no fucking way you can do them all at the same time. and me.

geoff: people. i think you really like people and their stories ...

chiara: did i mispell a lot of stuff?

geoff: no. i was checking. by the way, our friend will says one of his favorite personal pleasures is to correct people's grammar in his head. i think that's nice. but as i was saying ... i think that you like people and trying to understand them, not in an analytical way, but in an empathetic way. i think that you like using your abilities to be supportive of people. i think that you have a general interest in knowledge, in learning, in connecting together stories throughout history to get some larger, more whole sense of understanding. i think that you have an interest in discovering a long denied sense of physical abilty, so things like running or basketball or

chiara: swimming

geoff: or jungle gym acrobatics. i think that you like food, but fairly or not, i chalk that up to your italian culture. music and art, but ...

chiara: social justice, gender.

geoff: i was going to say gender actually, but i didn't really know how to write that as an interest. i think it's true though, not that your identity as a women is overwhelming or singular to how you think of yourself, but i think that there is always a consciousness of how that has shaped your experiences and how it connects you with the experiences of others.

chiara: we know each other pretty well. it's really fucking weird. do you have to write everything.

geoff: yes. being meticulous in doing things would be an interest of mine.

chiara. yes, yes. fucking freak.

• animals
• dogs
• arts
• culture
• tattoos
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• running
• clothing
• politics
• traveling
• knitting
• painting
• music
• basketball
• swimming
• geography
• history
• software
• volunteering
• road trips

Музыка, кино и книги

geoff: every time i answer these questions, i just write down what i've been into recently. my friend will's band landlord. this french screamo band called what's wrong. i just saw the movie 'black book' with my brother and thought it was good, but the last movie that i saw that was crushingly good was

chiara: pan's labyrnth

geoff: yup.

chiara: lord.

geoff: the new dinosaur jr. record. fugazi.

chiara: i like the blow. i mean, yeah. her and the music. it's okay.

geoff: do you really want me to put that?

chiara: it's true.

geoff: i like italo calvino's writing. and the boing boing blog. i like npr's news coverage. you like the new york times.

chiara: it's true. i don't like scary movies. i don't like being scared.

geoff: oh yeah!

chiara: the golden compass.

geoff: creepy. i was just going to say that.

chiara: oh fucking god dammit. dude.

geoff: anything else? that huge stack of books on the table perhaps?

chiara: i like reading lots of books at the same time.

Классная вещь, которую я сделал(-а)

chiara: i can't do that.

geoff: it's hard, but i feel like you have some good answers to that.

chiara: i don't know... biked the astoria bridge. that shit is intense. i can't really do this. i mean there are things that seem amazing to me, but don't seem amazing to someone else because it's too internal.

Учу, учусь, делюсь опытом и информацией

geoff: i like to show people how to use computers. i have lot's of experience with that. i work with a couple of volunteer projects and i like to talk with people and compare how we do things with how other people do things and get new ideas.

chiara: i think that's pretty accurate.

geoff: for you?

chiara: i can teach ... um ... dude! god, you're so annoying. simple music. italian. stretcher making/i don't know what you would call it, canvas making? painting in different mediums. how to work on bicycles. helping people with relationships. that's weird though, but it's something that i do a lot. i mean i think that we can both show how to cook things.

geoff: yeah. i think we both have our specialty dishes. i can show people how to knit.

chiara: stick and pokes! [tattoos]. i can cut and dye hair. i think that's good.

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