CURRENT MISSION

Read the pile of books I collected during the year next to my bed

ABOUT ME

Hello there everyone! I am Marijke, a belgian girl blessed with an amazingly internationally sounding name (thank you parents!). I am a student of English and Spanish literture and linguistics and will be studying Western Literature next year.

I have been travelling Europe for quite a while now, first with my parents and now with a group of crazy friends. I've also lived in Portugal (Coimbra) for 5 months as an Erasmus student, which was a great experience for me! I arrived there all on my own with a suitcase that was way to heavy, but it amazed me how quickly I got to know more people from all over the world. This experience triggered my longing for traveling and meeting new people even more.

PHILOSOPHY

Mmmm, difficult. It's hard to define yourself and I actually don't like that because it changes so quickly. One day, I am the most talkative person on the northern hemisphere, and the next I'm in my rather shy mood. Nevertheless, if you have something interesting to say, I will always listen to you!
As for the rest, I dicovered I'm quite of a 'control freak' that prefers organisation and thinks maybe a bit too much. Nevertheless, I'm trying to change this attitude because I've found out (thank you Erasmus experience once again!) that last-minute decisions can also be big fun!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am a completely new CS'er. I've joined this group because I think that it is a great way of meeting people from literally all over the world (the thought alone is giving me the feeling of just jumping on a plane and gogogo!) And the cool thing is that you can meet the world just by inviting people to your couch. Genious!

visited 13 states (5.77%)Create your own visited map of The World

Interests

I am generally interested in everything that has to do with 'culture' in a broad and narrow sense. I love to go to theater, contemporary dance, concerts (classical music and 'non-classical), festivals (music, theater, ...) I am also a library and book addict and have the strange habit of visiting the local library of the places I am visiting and wander there for hours. Since I study languages, I also like to listen to locals and trying to understand what they are saying (and if not, creating the dialogue in my head, although that version is probably far more unrealistic as I have brain that makes strange connections, hihi).
I love meeting new people and just listening to their stories. My love-hate relationship with cooking is currently more tending to be a loving one as I am trying out new recipes that I actually am able to prepare instead of some chique-sounding poshy dish.
I am not that much of a party-person, although this really depends on the company and mood I'm in. When I'm visiting cities, I prefer putting my energy in visiting museums, parks, or just wandering around. However, you can find me in the evening with a beer on a nice and cosy terrace ;)

• culture
• books
• literature
• theater
• concerts
• festivals
• dancing
• cooking
• recipes
• beer
• partying
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• music
• classical music
• languages
• study abroad
• parks
• last minute travel

Music, Movies, and Books

"Music is my boyfriend. Music is my girlfriend. Music is my dead end. Music is my imaginary friend. Music is my brother. Music is my great-grand-daughter. Music is my sister. Music is my favorite mistress"
I'm reallyreallyreally a music lover, and writing down all the bands I adore over here would be something impossible. So, last.fm is your best friend!
http://www.last.fm/user/twoforyourshoes

Books: I'm a big fan of American literature (which will probably be the topic of my thesis). I adore Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Fitzgerald, John Cheever, Hemingway, and so on. It would be more appropriate to say that I'm a fan of 'letters' since I read everything that crosses my eyes, going from the text on cereal boxes, manuals to, yes, real magazines!

Movies: this is where the part "shame" comes in. I haven't seen a lot of movies, but am trying to gradually change that. I like Woody Allen (I think, because I haven't seen all his movies yet, but "Annie Hall" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" were quite fun), Almodovar, but for the rest I'm not into director-namedropping, sorry. Series that I like are mostly HBO-products (Sopranos! Six Feet Under! True Blood! Flight of the Conchords!)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Erasmus is my man!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can learn you some basic Dutch/French/Spanish/Portuguese, juggling (with three balls!), ... Things I cannot teach you are cardgames (I'm actually really bad in strategical games in general), except for Uno and Jungle Speed
I would like to be able to play the f-chord and learn how to throw a forehand frisbee

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Portugal