Hi there,

I am a well traveled woman in her 30s, quiet, organized, friendly, active, curious, and open-minded.
I am always there to give a hand when it comes to chores, and know how to make myself either useful or forgotten!

I know how to cook and take care of pets, and I only smoke and drink socially.

I am independent, always try to learn the language of the country I am traveling through, also I have sometimes great difficulties doing so (Mandarin and Thai are NOT easy!!!).

I love reading, hiking, kayaking, swimming, riding motorbikes, and trying and discovering new things in general.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I don't merely want to see the beauties this planet has to offer, I want to see these with the insights of the locals.

Seeing is one thing, understanding is another one. I want to understand.
And you are helping me doing just this.

Likewise, if I can show you how people here live, I will be happy to help!

Interests

Baking bread from scratch and teaching it to others.
Drawing, painting. Art in general.
Thoughts, languages, customs, anything and everything.

• pets
• arts
• beauty
• cooking
• baking
• drinking
• reading
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• cycling
• hiking
• kayaking
• swimming
• languages
• au-pair
• parks

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I love Post-rock (The Evpatoria Report, Mogwai, April Rain...), Classic rock (Pink Floyd, Funkadelic, Supertramp, Dire Straits...), Blues and Blue grass... I dislike rap, hip hop, and sadly most of today's music.

Movies: 12 Monkeys, Trainspotting, Only lovers left alive, Blade Runner, The Big Lebowski, The Assassination of Jessy James, J'ai toujours rêvé être un gangster, Alien: Resurrection...

Books: Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Walter Scott's The lady of the lake, Jean Teulé's Le magasin des suicides, George Orwell's 1984...

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to make bread, how to speak French and English, and how to travel where I have been.

Here's the highlights of my travels, and my life. That will give you an idea of what I am looking for when it comes to learning, and sharing.

I was born in New Caledonia, a French island located North of New Zealand and East of Australia.
I grew up in France, and traveled quite a bit with my lovely mom and sister. For a few weeks at a time we visited Sardinia, Sicily, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Australia, England, and Turkey.

Looks like this gave me the travel bug:

I went on to Senegal and Morocco with friends or voluntary worker group, improved my English in Northern Ireland, visited Belgium with a great friend.
I traveled to Canada for a year, where I drove the 5,000 km - not counting the multiple side trips - from Quebec to Calgary in a few wonderful days of snowy white winter. Back in Europe, I worked as an au-pair in Scotland for a wonderful - even if complicated - family.
I moved to Vancouver (Canada) where I found this better life I was looking for, traveled through the parks of the West in the United States, went back to New Caledonia for a summer and spend 24h in Oakland (New Zealand) which is really not enough!
Rode through Canada again, enjoying summer heat on a motorbike.

I went traveling in Taiwan and Thailand, opened my heart to new cultures and ways of life yet, and I can't wait to continue on my route to discovery.

So, I am a traveler first, but I am also a motorcycle rider. I learned on a beautiful1982 CX500. Blueberry was my 1979 CB400. Stella a CBR600 was lent to me. And I am still looking for my dream bike, a beauty I could explore the world with...

As a linguist, I translate in French and English. I picked up Spanish and Mandarin; Spanish to ride from Vancouver to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, and Mandarin to go back to Taiwan, but life decided otherwise, and both travel plans have been postponed for now.

I am an amateur photographer as well. Some of my work (translation and images) can be viewed on my website: elsachesnel.com

Respectful and unconventional, I have a passion for art in all its forms, different ways of thinking, different walks of life, everything and anything that could open my mind further.

The rest is still to be written...

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, Scotland, Taiwan