The greatest joy of my life is when I’m immersed into nature long enough that I’m able to disconnect from people and my daily routine.

Where I feel the most calm and safe is when I’m in high altitudes and surrounded with mountains.

My dream is to fly like birds and by that I do NOT mean airplanes. My other dream and at the same time my fear is to go to space.

I don’t consider myself sociable or extrovert enough to be able to make a connection or even maintain a 10mins conversation with just anyone. However, I’d love to meet new interesting people and I can enjoy the company of my friends for as long as it takes.

Me and my partner (Kaveh) have moved to London in 2016. Before that we used to live in different places such as Norway, Myanmar and my home country Iran. Here, I work as an architect and Kaveh is a PhD student at UCL.

Besides my professional career, I enjoy learning contemporary dance. Back in Iran, I started to learn Persian calligraphy “Nasta’liq” since I felt like I haven’t written words in ages. It’s a contemplative hobby. I also do water colour drawings once in a while. I enjoy creating accidental skies on paper.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

During the past several years I have led a semi-nomad life, not remaining in one country longer than two years. Although moving and starting over has been daunting and overwhelming, it has increased my knowledge of different cultures and made me to crave for even more. At the same time, I have started to lose the excitement/interest of visiting new places just for the sake of checking something new. I’d rather have a good reason to travel such as visiting friends. I guess CS can help me to get to know random people from random places, exchange ideas and ideally make friendships.

I have been a member of couch surfing since 2011, but I have not used it much. Main reason was the fact that I could not host guests and I didn’t feel comfortable to be a guest while I couldn’t offer the same in return. However, from the few experiences I have had so far, I have made two wonderful friends that has kept CS on the back of my mind all these years. Now that I’m finally able to host, I would welcome guests (Needless to say only those who are really interested in getting to know me and my partner and not in finding a free bed).

Interests

A few things that I enjoy:
- Taking a siesta on a cold sunny day.
- Making a fire.
- Swimming in the sea.
- Listening to radio, and sometimes discovering a new song.
- Ride my bicycle downhill while standing (this is the closest experience I’ve had to flying).
- Playing boardgame with friends.
- Making physical architecture models.

• cycling
• camping
• calligraphy
• nature
• comedy
• contemporary dance
• standup comedy
• boardgames

Music, Movies, and Books

I can mention a few books:
- In praise of shadows by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.
- Thinking Architecture by Peter Zumthor.
- Tropic of cancer, Tropic of capricorn by Henry Miller. He is a man I’d love to spend time with. I feel he writes what I think or I like to think.
- A farewell to arms, For whom the bell tolls and many other books by Hemingway. I just love him, although he was a well-off son of a bitch.
- The remains of the day, Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. He is able to capture in words the tinniest human feelings that last less than a fraction of a second.

A few movies that I’m willing to watch again (it doesn’t happen often to me): - My neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki.
- The unbearable lightness of being Philip Kaufman.
- Taste of cherry by Abbas Kiarostami

With music it’s not that easy to list artists or songs. But generally, I think I can enjoy all styles if it’s played at the right time and mood :).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Living in a vacant boarding school in a remote place in Iceland for 10 days.
Catching my bicycle’s thief thanks to a pair of broken brakes and luck.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you some Farsi just to help passing time if you get bored. Most probably, you would never find a chance to use it.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Iraq, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates

Countries I’ve Lived In

Iran, Myanmar, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom