I am John, a 29 year old English teacher living in Hanoi. I am from the UK but have lived abroad now for the past 6 years (2 in Colombia, 1 in the Netherlands, 2 in Vietnam and the other year traveling around). I am from a big family that all live at home in Manchester and I try to get home for a month every year to play with my nieces and drink whiskey with my grandma. I love to travel, I love an interesting conversation and in general are more interested in people than things. I don't like to travel by myself but prefer that to a big group where you never end up doing what you want to do.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am new to the couch surfing site, but have pretty much been doing the couch surfing scene for a decade. I am always having people over to my place that are friends of friends that are visiting and I have not had a bad experience yet. It is a great way to facility human interaction, travel, cross cultural understandings and a wider sense of the world. I have recently taken two months off from my job in Vietnam and am visiting the US from the 7th of January. After going back to Vietnam in March I will put my place up for visits.

Interests

• documentaries
• beer
• rugby
• economics
• history
• international relations
• mma
• guinness
• marvel
• philosphy
• south park
• international politics
• literture
• curb your enthusiasm
• it's always sunny in philadelphia
• la casa de papel

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: She Keeps Bees, The Doors, Tash Sultana, Tame Impala, Mozart, Nina Simone, Coltrane, Joni Mitchell... loads more, quite an eclectic mix!

TV: La Casa de Papel, It's Always Sunny, True Detective (season 1), South Park, The Wire, Curb your Enthusiasm

Books: Half of a Yellow Sun, The Cellist of Sarajevo, Animal Farm, Lolita, Development as Freedom, 100 Years of Solitude

Movies: Airplane, Blue Ruin, Una Vida Mejor, Coco, Up, Miss Baja California, The Hunt, Guardians of the Galaxy

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I managed the English department of a foundation in Medellin when I was 24 for a year and a half. It is the reason I am an English teacher today. They made a documentary about my work there and put in on Colombian TV, I still have a copy haha! I am quite skeptical about the usefulness and long term effectiveness of charities and NGOs in general, but this place really did a lot of good and the negative side effects were limited. I managed it for a year but could not stay on anymore because of visa issues and it only paid expenses so I had to go do something else.

Teach, Learn, Share

I am a head teacher at the biggest English language school in Vietnam, or so I have been told. Vietnam is quite a unique place which has left me a lot of interesting dinner table stories to share. I have an MA in International Politics which was based on post conflict resolution in Colombia. I did a lot of research on the place and loved it a lot. People are usually interested in it anyway! I am also a bit of a history/politics nerd

What I Can Share with Hosts

Duty free booze without a doubt! Hit me up with your preferred drink. Also have a lot of friends that work in recruitment in Asia so if you are looking for work as an English teacher out there I might be your guy!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Panama, Peru, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Ireland, Netherlands, Viet Nam