Hi all! We are now living in Glasgow in a top floor apartment 6 mins on the train to town and a 10 min walk to the beautiful Queen's Park (best views of the city). When Katee isn't using the studio for her art, we host couchsurfers in there as it also doubles as a second bedroom. We love meeting people from around the world and as we also use couchsurfing when we're away, we like to nurture good karma and host people ourselves when we can.

This is our previous text written when we were travelling in 2016 but all still relevant:

We're travelling around the West Coast of America from April 2016, starting in LA an going up to Portland, then South America (Buenos Aires, Chile), ending up in Mexico. We are a very easy-going couple and are interested in the arts, experiencing different cultures, reading, journalism, playing musical instruments, and building things (we're both pretty handy with paints/drills/saws etc so we're happy to help out around the house if wanted). And when we lived in London, we used to host guests at our house when we were away travelling so we're used to cleaning and making things comfortable.

Books: Bukowski (just started reading him when we were in LA as he lived around where we were staying), Orwell, Huxley, Sylvia Plath, Tom Robbins, Hunter S Thompson, Ginsberg, Beat poets, the Frankfurt School, Kirkegaard. I'm also quite into neuroscience (although I studied music at Oxford University) so I've got a few books on my To Read list like Mind Change by Susan Greenfield about how our use of digital technologies affect the brain). I've also recently started reading more South American literature like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Joe studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Manchester so, in addition, likes reading things by writers like Gramsci, Foucault, Bauman, etc.

Joe is also an extremely good cook and loves making food for people to share. He makes excellent dishes inspired by cuisine from Mexico, India and Italy.

Joe works at an arts charity based in the UK (he works online at the moment so can do most of it remotely) that raises the profiles of disabled artists. I recently worked at another arts charity that enabled disabled people (and other marginalised groups like refugees, homeless people, and carers) to access arts workshops led by professional artists, with the aim of developing their skillsets and also enhancing their mental and physical well-being. I'm now a practising artist in Glasgow.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To learn about different cultures and ways of living, to see different places, and to meet new people. We find it often a really lovely experience to spend a day or two around someone to get to know them and meet a potential long-term friend. We like hosting as reminder that not everything is about money and profit but about kindness and giving when you can.

Interests

• arts
• books
• literature
• dining
• cooking
• vegetarian
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• eating out
• music
• hunting
• history
• journalism
• neuroscience

What I Can Share with Hosts

Good food, relaxing times, interesting conversation, knowledge about the arts, politics, environment or whatever we end up chatting about. We're very laid back and tend to just go with the flow!

Countries I’ve Visited

Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, United States