CURRENT MISSION

discovering the world step by step

ABOUT ME

UPDATE 13/12/2011: My couch is not available at the moment because I am currently finishing the renovation of my apartment... this should be done somewhere in January.***********After travelling and working my way through Asia and Australia for about 3 years I decided to return to the Netherlands for work. Although I am pretty much settled here at the moment, the travel itch is still there and I take every chance I get to make short trips abroad. Fortunately I have an interesting job that makes this possible. :) Even now I am 'back home' I am still enjoying the international experience at work and I like discovering the cultures of the different countries in the world. I think I am an open-minded person who is always interested to hear stories from people around the world, so let me know if you have something nice to share too. :)

PHILOSOPHY

Listen to other people's viewpoints regardless of how much I disagree with them; you can always learn something I think. Doing this is not always easy, but at least it's worth trying it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Apart from hosting people myself I have been pretty active since I have become a CS member: surfing people's couches, meeting up with other couchsurfers (mostly in Australia), buying and borrowing vehicles from other members... and I even found a place to live through CS! Couchsurfing has really made me meet some amazing people and I love the idea behind it.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

visited 44 states (19.5%)Create your own visited map of The World or Like this? try: Google Ransom Note

Interests

cultures, languages, politics, music of almost all styles, writing, reading, yoga, buddhism, (art) movies, cooking, photography, musea, cycling... not necessarily in that order.

• arts
• writing
• photography
• cooking
• recipes
• yoga
• walking
• politics
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• cars
• socializing
• music
• cycling
• surfing
• buddhist
• languages
• physics

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Jeff Buckley, Portishead, Regina Spektor, Air, Massive Attack, Radiohead, Muse and a lot more (like Spinvis, if you are Dutch you might actually know them)... and I have recently discovered Xavier Rudd. Then there is a decent amount of jazz and classical music. I also like traditional music like fado and sevdah... the list is quite long really. :P

Movies: Amelie, A Clockwork Orange, Persepolis, La Fille Sur Le Pont, Magnolia, and many, many more... I like visiting film festivals so I see a lot of movies (at least I try to)

Books: during the last years I didn't get to read too many books (I mean novels) but I just finished Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which I found very entertaining. The next book on my list is Don Quichote.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In my CS lifetime: having dinners with and staying in the houses of several people I randomly met in Iran. Riding a stallion in Kyrgyzstan with a broken foot. Walking around a Chinese mountain lake with the same broken foot. Staying in Adelaide for 5 months instead of 2 weeks just because I met some great people there. Crossing the Australian continent in a couchsurfer's campervan without even meeting her until the last day of the trip. Trusting my intuition and staying in Australia for work.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you some language skills, to listen to other people and to learn something from them. You can probably teach me something similar too... I like cooking without recipes and I know something about yoga and physics too. But above all I hope I can make clear that couchsurfing is a unique way to meet people from countries you might never visit yourself and learn something from them.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Netherlands, Spain

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