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Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
@gavincangan
Member since 2021
PhD student at ETH Zürich studying Robotics. Originally from south 🇮🇳, lived in 🇺🇸 for a few years, and now in🇨🇭since 2021. I haven't travelled so much as I have just moved around in life and ended up living in a bunch of places TBH, but I do have a deep appreciation for cultures
Interested in Board games
Interested in Economics
Fluent in English
Learning German
Why I'm on Couchsurfing
I have some a pretty comfortable couch bed where I host friends and family from time to time, so this is a bit of an extension of that to a broader group. And there’s just something wholesome about sharing your home with a complete stranger, putting your trust in an international community of like minded people.
Music, Movies, and Books
Music: I have a Spotify favorites playlist that I expand slowly over time if I hear something I like, but this list includes all kinds of genres from Classical (Western as well as Indian) all the way to Jazz, Heavy Metal and Rap. Sometimes I listen to the same Artist or even the same song for a week. For some time now it’s AnnenMayKantereit that’s been my „earworm“ Films: This list is going to be insanely long if I list all my favorites. But one movie I sort of obsess over is “the Man from Earth” by Jerome Bixby. If you have seen this one, I would love to hear your thoughts! Books: I have probably read every Harry Potter book at least twice, and #3 and #6 about 5 times. Then I recently picked up a fan-fiction, Methods of Rationality, and loved it more than all the original books 😄. I also like to read nonfiction from time to time; the Sapiens series by Yuval Noah Harrari and a few Jared Diamond books are favorites in that area. In sci-fi, I quite enjoyed the Martian and Dune, and the Culture series by Ian Banks has been on by to-read list for quite some time now.
One Amazing Thing I've Done
Went gliding in a sailplane and absolutely loved it! Definitely plan to get my solo license by 2025. I need to get to B1 level German to start my lessons. If it’s close to 2025, ask me how this is going 😄
Teach, Learn, Share
I believe there’s something I can learn from pretty much anyone, and I love to learn. Love learning about history especially in the context of why we do things a certain way today and how this is influenced by events in the distant past. Was raised Catholic but I wouldn’t say I’m religious anymore, however I suppose I could say I’m a humanist/beginner Stoic. Philosophy discussions/debates are welcome :)
What I Can Share With Hosts
I cook pretty decent South Indian food, but might need a bit of spice tolerance on your part. And we might need to do a bit of shopping for spices 😅 Can introduce you to my favorite Indian music artists/movies if you’re interested. I’d be happy to host you when you visit Zürich 😀