Hi! This is a collective profile now: originally, this was my (Jonathan's) profile but, as David has been travelling and hosting with me for a while, we eventually decided to extend this profile to introduce the both of us.

So... who are we? David is a lawyer who has done all kind of jobs in different coutries; and Jonathan professional life has been almost as chaotic lately as the Barbie doll's.

We like meeting people, travelling, playing videogames, listening to music, cinema, theatre, reading, arts, sciences and all those things that everybody likes ;-)

Sorry, we know that this may sound a bit generic, but I guess that you will have to discover who we are by yourself. In a nutshell, let's say that we love discovering new things, and meeting people is one of the best ways of doing so.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We have been using CS both as guests and hosts for a long time, now.
When we travel, we love meeting people from the places where we are, as getting a local's perspective is always rewarding. It is actually difficult to consider that you have visited some place if you have not really met anyone who knows the place and the culture.
In the opposite sense, we love sharing what we know about the places where we are with our visitors. Jonathan has a strong interest in History and he will be glad being your guide.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have had great experiences so far, both as hosts or travellers:
When we went to Chile, CS was a great way to meet people and learn about local specificities and have great guides. In the opposite direction, as (unfortunately) we cannot spend all our time travelling, having guests from elsewhere at home is the closest substitute. Also, we have become closer friends with some of our guests, which is great!

Interests

We are very interested in a lot of things, but the current top 5 would probably be:
- History of places that were barely mentioned in school (Jonathan)
- Independent videogames (David)
- Music/movies/literature/arts: sure, this is not very specific, but let's say that we love culture in all its declinations and we tend to make very thorough analyses of anything that we may listen to/watch/read/see.
- Cooking/good food
- We are not sports people, but we love outdoor activities such as hiking and kayaking.

And, of course, travelling!

Sorry, that's not necessarily very original, but already includes so many things!

• arts
• literature
• dining
• cooking
• gardening
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• hiking
• kayaking
• swimming
• biology
• geography
• history
• law
• films

Music, Movies, and Books

This is extremely difficult to say, as it is a moving target depending on what we are discovering at any given time. Yet, let's choose a little bit at random some things that we love:
- the "viking of the 6th avenue": the amazing music of Moondog!
- the "best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced": James Booker
- the most surprising and original, yet awesome band that we have discovered in a long time: Moon Hooch (check out their performance at the "Tiny desk" from NPR, and continue from there).
- some extraordinary films that we love: "Fanny och Alexandr" by Ingmar Bergman or "Playtime" by Jacques Tati.
- I (Jonathan) recently felt in love with "W ou le souvenir d'enfance", by Georges Perec: simply brilliant!

... but there are still so many other things to discover...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A few years ago we made our first trip to South East Asia. It was one of the most amazing experiences in our life and still remains a part of us today. Even though we only spent a month in Myanmar it was so intense from a cultural, personal and... everything point of view, that it felt like a year. Nothing beats being in the other side of world, speaking to people with whom you don't share anything on paper, but with whom you still can somehow reflect despite the differences. We even felt homesick when we came back...

Other than that, there have been so many special moments that it is difficult to say. I will remember for a long time the sensation of skating for the first time on a frozen lake in Sweden less than a week after we had capsized in a crazy situation in a kayaking trip in Thailand: teenage me would have never imagined that I would find myself in any of those situations growing up, never mind imagining that they could take place within a week!

Fortunately, we don't need such outstanding things all of the time. An evening spent with friends or eating fruits directly from the trees in your garden can be the most lovely experience as well.

Teach, Learn, Share

We have nothing to teach, some to share and everything to learn :-)

What I Can Share with Hosts

For us, the accommodation is the least of the questions in the CS project. Everything is about meeting people and sharing your life with them, whether you are a guest or a host. It is like meeting new friends, but in a more intense way because the situation allows so.

I guess that we can share the same things with our hosts than with our guests: our company, experience and friendship.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Malaysia, Monaco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Réunion, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States