Hello,

I'm Tess.
I grew up in The Blue Mountains of Sydney and then moved to the far South Coast of New South Wales on the edge of The great dividing range in Australia.

I had been living in Sydney (inner city) and studying Music and working as a freelance florist/nanny then decided to go galavanting around Europe with a backpack before settling for some time with my family in Turkey and Germany.
I'm currently (slowly) finishing my Bachelor of Music at university and have completed my Cambridge University CELTA to work as an ESL teacher.

I love many things but being amognst nature,
by the sea and spending time at home with my lovely Labrador named Olive are definitely up there...

I also love coffee, wine/beers, laughing, good company, cooking, pottering around the garden, doing up old pieces of furniture, drawing, live music/listening to music, art, design, films, books, surfing, soccer, horse riding, camping, adventures and picnics.

I currently reside in Düsseldorf, Germany and work with a lovely Florist in Cologne.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I like the idea of authentic and rare experiences when I'm travelling and feel you really get this when you have the chance to be invited into someone's home to stay, as you can share stories, culture and conversation around the dinner table..

Interests

I guess you can see this above in my introduction :-)

• arts
• culture
• books
• design
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• coffee
• gardening
• movies
• traveling
• drawing
• music
• live music
• backpacking
• camping
• surfing
• soccer
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

music,
I like the genres of shoe-gaze/blues/jazz/dream pop

Beach House, Twerps, Allah-las, Mac Demarco, Kurt Vile, The war on drugs, Washed Out, Mazzy Star, Atlas Sound, Brianjonestown Massacre, Bob Dylan, The go betweens, Tame Impala, Nick Drake

films, anything dream-like, quirky and with a great score

Permanent vacation, Amelie, Beginners, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Science of Sleep, Pierrot le fou.....also, I love Sienfeld and Curb your enthusiasm!

books....
"A brief history of everything" ,
"Neither here nor there"
"The festival of insignificance"
"Cavalier and clay"
and anything Kerouac...or ...Orwell

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

hmmm not sure about that one?
perhaps we can share and elaborate on this question over a beer/wine...

a couple of years ago I met the Dalai Lama and received a blessing from him... that was a pretty special day for me...

Teach, Learn, Share

maybe cooking? It's communal and always something nice to share with others- it's a win-win, it's great if the meal works out but if it turns awray I guess you can laugh about it together :-)

What I Can Share with Hosts

again, perhaps see above :-)

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Germany, Turkey