I've been a PhD student for 4 and a bit years studying speech technology. I'm fascinated by languages although not very good at speaking them! I love learning odd facts and strange words from any language.

The PhD is complete, my partner Mischa (https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/mischa-van-kesteren) has quit his job and now we're travelling round the world to Russia, China and Japan without flying! Not entirely sure how to get home yet.

...Update! In December 2017 we caught a cargoship from Xiamen, China to Long Beach, California for 15 days across the Pacific. Hoping to catch another home to Europe!

We hope to stay with locals and share our experiences and learn about different languages and culture :) Looking forward to meeting all sorts of people!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

My partner and I have been hosts and met great people. It's good to help those who need a place to stay so now as we're travelling we hope to meet nice people who feel the same and can help us out with somewhere to stay!

Would like to do it abroad as I think it's a good way to get to know a place by knowing a local. Would love to know what it feels like to live day-to-day in other cities and countries.

I'm looking forward to meeting people, helping them out, learning from them and having fun!

Interests

I love travelling by train and hoping to take a train in every country I visit. I've spent the last year and a half volunteering at a local community allotment doing gardening with disadvantaged people. In spare time I love reading and computer gaming. Keen about looking after the environment.

• environment
• walking
• gardening
• reading
• languages
• travel
• gaming
• sewing
• trains
• cacti

Music, Movies, and Books

I listen to all sorts from metal to hip hop. Would love to find some good songs in foreign languages. I love reading and watching sci-fi and fantasy.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Spent a week on trains travelling from San Francisco to Seattle to Chicago back to San Francisco!

Can top this now with taking a container ship across the Pacific Ocean from China to USA!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Happy to chit chat or discuss politics, cook meals and teach a couple of card games.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macao, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom, United States