I love the outdoors: bird-watching, camping, hiking, trekking, rock-climbing, mountain biking, swimming in fresh water/sea. I spend quite some time meditating (Zazen meditation), volunteering with animals/wildlife conservancy. I am passionate about genealogy, sociology, psychology, criminology, gemology, art exhibitions/museums (Musée d'Orsay is my favourite because of the impressive collection of Impressionist pieces), music, dancing, drawing/painting (I studied at the Beaux-Arts in Nancy, France)/writing (especially poetry/short stories), reading, cooking/baking. I have a soft spot for martial arts, I practised judo and jiu jitsu for many years. I travel to meet people, discover new cultures and acquire knowledge about the world around. It's important to me to be in constant motion, I can't stay in one place too long. I try to learn new languages as much as I can. I'm a crazy linguist, I am always studying new words and their ethymology. I'm very social but also enjoy time on my own.
I started teaching languages 11 years ago and I enjoy having students of all ages. I love children and animals and we get on well. I have always moved around a lot as a kid, we were often on the road and I guess I have grown accustomed to this life style. I guess nature is my happy place and I'm definitely a forest lady. I am very curious about life and everything I can try/learn. I think I'm a woman-child and I have a lot of imagination. The world fascinates me :)

I studied Anglo-Saxon/anglophone culture/linguistics and I specialised in translation and cultural tourism. I wrote my memoir on Australian Aboriginal Literature. I am so curious about native/indigenous art/literature from all over the world. My favourite part of studying was a semester on slavery/its history and I have been very involved in fighting racism and for human rights ever since.

Oh and I love piercings! I think I have 14 now. No tattoos yet.

I am vegan/raw vegan. I don't drink any alcohol/don't do drugs. 🕊

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

I travel a lot and I find it better to spend time with locals rather than in a hotel room!

Interessen

• animals
• wildlife
• literature
• music festivals
• dancing
• pilates
• meditation
• music
• outdoor activities
• forestry
• languages
• hitchhiking
• mountain biking
• trekking
• buddhism
• wild camping
• hypnosis
• judo
• meditating
• environmental protection
• gypsy jazz

Musik, Filme und Bücher

Music is omnipresent in my life, I was a dancer for 8 years. My absolute favourites are Bossa Nova (and basically any Latin music), Jazz Manouche (I am obsessed with Reinhardt and Grapelli), klezmer (I have always been interested in Jewish and gypsy music because they resonate in my soul), anything folk (John Butler Trio, Devendra Banhart, Joni Mitchell, Atahualpa Yupanqui to name a few), rock (especially stoner rock but I love anything psychedelic, my dad introduced me to Hendrix and Pink Floyd as a kiddo and I have listened ever since), hip hop (often mixed with a lil bit of jazz, Damu the Fudgemunk, A Tribe Called Quest, Gorillaz, MF Doom, Disiz La Peste), country (Bobbie Gentry, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash), I am crazy about African rythms (Fela Kuti, Fatoumata Diawara, Orchestra Baobab)...disco, funk... an awful lot of music really, I spend hours on Youtube listening to new artists or watching music documentaries. I have eclectic tastes and I can listen to Nina Simone or Rammstein (I met them when I was 6 haha), to Joao Gilberto or the Queens of the Stone Age, to Tom Waits or Serge Gainsbourg, to Henry Mancini or Boney M. Music is life.

Favourite books: The catcher in the rye, Lolita, The Unbearable lightness of being, anything written by Romain Gary or Murakami. I love classics and we have quite a few in French literature. German poetry is my favourite but I absolutely adore Rimbaud, Verlaine, Baudelaire, Dickinson, Plath, Bukowski, Ovid and so many others. Poetry is magical.
Over the past years I have read many foreign novels like Rosa Candida, Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy and I must say Scandinavian and Japanese writers are so good!
I think Salinger/Gary/Nabokov/Murakami/Bukowski/Vonnegut/Camus/Gabriel Garcia Marquez/Milan Kundera/Tolstoi/Goethe/Luis Sepúlveda/Luiz-Alfredo Garcia-Roza/Marek Krajewski are a good combo in my library. I have more than 400 books I might be a bookworm hehe.

I have very diverse tastes in the field of cinema. Independant/foreign movies are my favourite. You won't catch me in a movie theater watching the latest schlock fest or American blockbuster. As a kid I loved Hitchcock movies and I acquired quite the taste in horror, psychological/twisted thrillers. We have some good French movies and actors/actresses and I try to stay tuned with French cinema too. I love biopics, probably a little too much. I'm really open-minded about the septième art and I often watch very old movies that no one knows about or the latest Turkish or Swedish movie being screened. Some of my favourite directors are Albert Dupontel, Sofia Coppola, Darren Aronofsky, David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar, Wes Andersen, Tarantino, Michel Gondry, Taika Waititi, Costa Gavras, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, François Ozon, Larry Clark, Luc Besson, Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Roman Polanski, Xavier Dolan, Richard Linklater, the Coen Brothers, David Fincher, Guy Ritchie, Terry Gilliam
Oh I love movies about the mafia and Westerns.

My two favourite TV shows have to be The Sopranos and Mad Men for sure. Masterpieces.

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

I went volunteering in Laos at ECC Sayabouri, the only certified rescue center for elephants. My favourite part was sitting in a tree house where you could observe them simply be in the forest.
I was lucky enough to cruise on the Daintree river in Queensland after a flood and got to see tens of crocodiles (and a baby one with its mamma) while being surrounded by beautiful ylang-ylang trees in bloom.
I also got to rescue a juvenile blue penguin in Kaiteriteri, NZ.
I once visited a friend who worked as a French tutor in Oxford and got to have a very fancy dinner at New College in a decor that reminded me of Harry Potter, we ate like queens and they even had Vegan options. I was tipsy from all the champagne and good wine, whisky and ended up meeting and conversing with amazing professors, intellectuals and got to visit some secret rooms after losing my shoes. Fun British night!

Was ich mit Gastgebern teilen kann

I can share vegan and raw meals (I love Thai, Lebanese and Italian food) and of course I can cook French style! I am very comfortable talking to strangers and I love making new friends, we can talk about anything, there is so much to discover and discuss :)
I am a teacher so if you want a French/English/German session I'm yours!
I also make a mean glutenfree bread 👌

Länder, die ich besucht habe

Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belgium, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Scotland, Spain, Tunisia

Länder, in denen ich gelebt habe

Australia, Austria, England, France, Germany, New Zealand