CURRENT MISSION

To find the Holy Grail

ABOUT ME

I grew up in Holland and left these watery lands and tulip fields at the end of 2000, when I was 18, and traveled through Australia and New Zealand. Visited my family in Christchurch and spent most of my time WWOOFing (because I was broke the moment I arrived :) Then I worked for two and half month in a hostel in Brisbane, Australia.

When my travel time was up, I wasn't ready to return to Holland yet, so I decided to move to the UK whilst making up my mind about my next step, which would eventually become my home for over 7 years.

From Trowbridge I moved on to live in Bath for 2 years, but the town has not much to offer beyond nice tourist scenery, so then I moved on to Bristol. I lived there for a year with my (then) boyfriend. I played in a band, went to lots of crazy parties, met amazing people and finished a Bachelors in Environmental Science.

In 2008 I moved back to Holland to do a Masters study in Utrecht. First I took a year off, worked in a shop, turned into a health freak, gave that up, and moved to an amazing (monumental) house in De Bilt (see pics). My boyfriend Ruben also lives in this house, and we have another 18 house mates. I'm very very happy here, there's a great atmosphere, we live together but respect everyone's need to also lead your own life. Of course, as in every household there are the usual frictions, but the great thing about this group of people is that everything is open to discussion and everyone is trying hard to make sure everyone enjoys living here. We often eat together, watch a film, enjoy a lounch in the garden etc.etc.

Via my CS buddy Daaf I got addicted to climbing. We did a lead-climb trip to France in 2009 and I try to climb at least twice a week. In the summer I like to find outdoor climbing places and enjoy typical "summer sports" (surfing, skating, hiking... etc.).

Oh, and the latest: I'm pregnant! Our little boy is expected to welcome the world around the beginning of June 2011 :) So no climbing for me for a few more months, but so far I'm really enjoying my pregnancy.

PHILOSOPHY

I like to learn from life and my state of mind, it´s quite a journey at times!

I can be quite self-critical at times, when I feel there´s lots to improve about myself. But I feel that if I focuss on acting with good intentions, then most things will fall into the right place.

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I haven't been able to host for a while due to lack of space, but in my new house there's an ocean of space, but my other housemates will also need to be happy about it (they're very flexible people though). Sometimes I'm really busy with my studies, but usually I have some time to show Utrecht. I hope, but I don't think, this will change when the little boy is there.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My first couchsurfer friend was Katerina whom I met on my university time at Bath Spa. She's a super girl, and she introduced me to CS.
Then I met Vladimir as my first couchsurfer. We met for a quick drink in Bristol, Mr Wolf's. It was really nice talking to him, he's an enthusiastic traveler.
Then I've hosted for this incredibly sweet girl Talitha, who spent two nights with me. She was so nice to talk to and hang out with. I couldn't wish for a better first CS-experience.
My latest experience was staying over at Daaf's. It was the first time I stayed over at a random person's house and it was super nice. We got on straight away and we're still good friends and see each other regularly, especially to go climbing, but also to catch up with each other.

Last year I was in Barcelona and I had to wait for 13 hours for my boyfriend and on that day there happened to be a CS-meeting. So it was really nice to go for a beer with a bunch of complete strangers for just one hour.

Intereses

At the moment my biggest passions are climbing and my new home, which I love. There's always something happening in this house. Usually I try to go climbing twice a week but that's now been replaced with swimming twice a week, because of my pregnancy.

I´m also busy with my study (Sustainable Development), which I enjoy an incredible lot! My final research project is about combatting land degradation, focussing on the Mediterranean region in particular, for which I will do fieldwork in Alicante, Spain.

I'm generally interested in environmental issues and I volunteered for Friends of the Earth Netherlands in Amsterdam for about a year, it's a great NGO to work for!

I also love skating, cooking, traveling and meeting people with good stories of where they've been and what they plan on doing next. I love camping, I've been doing it since I was very little.

• dogs
• acting
• cooking
• beer
• partying
• drinking
• gardening
• shopping
• chess
• traveling
• socializing
• crochet
• knitting
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• camping
• surfing
• sports
• rock climbing
• swimming
• science

Música, películas y libros

Just finished Narziss and Goldmund by Herman Hesse. I liked it so much I think I'll read it again. Really a book that anyone can relate to and I love the overly romantic style.
"White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga is also amazing! I was hooked from page 1 to the last one!
I like most of Haruki Murakami's books, especially Dance Dance Dance and Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Waris Dirie,Tessa De Loo's 'De Tweeling', Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel), Bill Bryson (Short history of nearly Everything), used to read Paolo Coelho a lot, but not so much these days. I like a bit of Isabel Allende at times, but not to much in a row, ha! Last year I read this amazing book about Indonesia by Richar Lloyd Parry, called: Indonesia In the time of madness. It's a mind blowing account and very readable (no big words and he explains everything really well) so I would recommend anyone with a remote interest in Indonesia or world conflicts to read this.

Algo increíble que he hecho

I think my most amazing time was my WWOOFing time in New Zealand, where I spent two and a half months under the flightless wings of the Kiwi's and got to see some precious, unspoiled parts of the Southern Hemisphere. I would love to do it again. I wonder how much has changed in 10 years (sadly, I know Christchurch will not be the same :( ). Also slept under the Eifel Tower when I was 16 (only for a few hours, too many dodgy people around too, with scary dogs) and I was in a mini-earthquake in San Francisco (well, that's not that difficult really, but a special event for someone from the flatlands).
And I really really loved the fieldtrips which we did at my uni: going to Severn estuaries to learn about the mud (if only you knew the stories in the mud... :)
Or the trips to the Mendips. I love the English landscape, it crazy-ass fascinating!
I know it sounds really cheesy, but studying environmental science has really enriched my life and added value to things I didn't think were interesting before. It really opened up a whole new world to me (that's where the violins start)
Dubai was also pretty impressive. Saw a lot of poor people, working very hard in the scorching heat, really a sad sight. The city really feels like the Babel Tower. Breathtaking, but somewhat unnerving...

Enseña, aprende, comparte

I can teach people the basics of knitting and crochet (see pics) (it's very therapeutic, I can assure you) and eh... teach you how to play chess...? Hehe. I'm the Queen of pancakes and popcorn, if someone would like to challenge me, bring it on!

Países que he visitado

Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United States

Países en los que he vivido

Netherlands, United Kingdom

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