I'm a young university graduate from Manchester who studied French, Russian and Chinese language and literature. Love to travel, meet new people, explore new places and experience the different, vibrant cultures and languages of our world!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I would love to be able to experience new and different countries and cultures firsthand by staying with and meeting local people. I would also really appreciate the opportunity to make new friends abroad in different parts of the world who could help me to understand their way and style of life and also maybe in turn be able to learn something cool from me.

Interests

From a very young age I have been cooking and baking all sorts of dishes from many different cultures. I like to cook food from all sorts of different countries I've travelled a lot and I've gained a lot of experience in cooking different foods and I've been able to apply these different techniques I've learned abroad to my own way of cooking at home and so Im very grateful really to have learnt something about cuisine and gastronomy on my travels. As well as this might interest in gardening goes hand in hand with my interest in cooking for example I like to keep my own herbs in my garden as I think it's very important to use fresh ingredients so I keep a cornucopia of herbs just in the garden as well as an array of fruits and vegetables. I really enjoy cooking for its therapeutic benefits. I enjoy it because when I'm cooking I feel very relaxed and I feel like I can be very creative and make my own food and recipes out of nowhere and just experiment however much I like. As well I think gardening is also a good creative hobby as I can choose to plant my favourite flowers and plants and to watch them grow into something beautiful is very rewarding. Additionally I'm very interested in alternative ways of living for example I have a keen interest in yoga and meditation and I'm very interested in pursuing different spiritual ways of life. For example, I like to meditate and practice yoga relatively frequently at least a couple of times a week just to keep my mind and body and spirit healthy and as well as that I like to try and lead a balanced and healthy life. I've read a lot on alternative practices and different spiritual paths, as well as lot of psychology and philosophy as it's very interesting for me. I'm also interested in following politics as I studied politics for a while when I was younger and I think it's important to keep up to date with what's going on all around the world. I'm also very interested in music film And TV and all different kinds of literature from all over the world. I currently listen to a lot of Indie music so I like a lot of less known bands mostly from America and the UK but I do listen to some more mainstream styles of music as well.

• literature
• music festivals
• cooking
• baking
• yoga
• meditation
• gardening
• politics
• reading
• music
• spiritual
• languages
• philosophy
• religion
• travel

Music, Movies, and Books

At the moment I listen to a lot of Indie music mostly from the United States and a lot from the UK as well as a couple of bands from around Northern Europe. Some examples of the bands that I like at the moment are The XX, London Grammar, the naked and famous, faded paper figures, the glitch mob and Trentemøller. I like quite a lot of different movies for example since I was very young I got into watching horror movies and scary movies so for just like generally relaxing my favourite kind of film is that sort of movie but I do enjoy some more serious movies as well that tackle contemporary societal issues for example. I like films that portray their messages more subtly as well and aren't so obvious about the message they are trying to get across; films that really make you think and questions your place in the universe and what you would do in somebody else's shoes. I really enjoyed Girl, Interrupted, La Haine, Cidade Deus, Lacombe Lucien, Bladerunner, Requiem for a Dream, The Matrix and so on... In terms of books, I mostly nowadays read thought provoking, psychological & philosophical pseudo spiritual works. Anything that will make me think about my own life and what I could be doing to improve myself, as well as theories on God, astrology, religion and the cosmos are all books that I relate to profoundly. However I do appreciate fictional works too! I like a lot of classic French and Russian literature, as well some English and American. I like things like Maupassant, Mauriac, Zola, Chekov, Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Pushkin etc... I like some of the classic American works too like The Great Gatsby and Farenheit 451. I also occasionally read modern day fiction, for example, I think Paulo Coelho is a fantastic author and I've read several of his works and thought all were very interesting.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I bungee jumped from a very high platform in Malaysia, went on a 4 day jungle trek in Thailand and I went on a week long meditate retreat in a Buddhist monastery in Chiang Mai Thailand.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I would love to share my passion for reading, film & TV and music! As well as my passion for cooking and maybe share recipes or cook together. I would love to share what I have learnt travelling to different countries and learning all about the world from different people's perspectives.

Countries I’ve Visited

Antigua and Barbuda, Canada, China, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, England, Latvia