I'm an open-minded, curious and cheerful person who loves to meet new people and get to know new places. I discovered my passion for travelling at the age of 15 when I decided to do an exchange year in Turkey. Living one year with my wonderful Turkish host family and attending a Turkish high school was an exceptional experience which opened my eyes in various ways. Since then a great desire to get to know new places, people, cultures, lifestyles and worldviews has overcome me quite often. This desire to travel has led me to trips like Interrail journeys (travelling by train through Europe), visits to friends from all over the world (whether trips to as close as Germany and Italy, or to my friends and host family in Turkey or to one of my best friends in Argentina) and finally to me doing my bachelor's programme and thus living in the Netherlands.

My favourite way of travelling is being with local people and dipping (at least a little bit) into the culture of the country I am visiting. I want to get to know the people the way they really are and live because I think the variety of people and perspectives our world offers is overwhelming and the more different worldviews you try to understand the more flexible you get and the easier you accept people the way they are.

PHILOSOPHY

Don't be sad because it's over, smile because it happened.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Intercultural exchange is of great importance in my opinion and couchsurfing is a great opportunity to fuel such an exchange. As mentioned above, my favourite way of travelling is dipping as deep as possible into the local customs and culture. When doing a short trip only, it's not easy to dip deep into the local culture. However, when being hosted by a person who lives in the country I visit, I feel at least a little closer to the local customs. I think it's amazing when people are so open-minded that they want to host people from all over the world!!!

Moreover, from the perspective as a hosting couchsurfer, I think couchsurfing is a great opportunity to bring some change and variation and new influences and perspectives to my home when I am not able to travel myself.

Interests

Travelling, exploring new places, meeting new people, languages, singing, acting, music, badminton, snowboarding, swimming, cycling, running, cultural studies, history, politics, philosophy, being with the people I love

• culture
• singing
• acting
• cooking
• running
• politics
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• snowboarding
• swimming
• badminton
• cultural studies
• economics
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: It's hard to define my favourite genre. I love Jazz and Reggae but in general I love a little bit of everything and it really depends on the song and situation. Some examples are Bilderbuch, Lake Street Dive, Norah Jones, Milky Chance, John Butler, Bob Marley, Millions of Dreads, Die Ärzte, Boy, Avenged Sevenfold, Ella Fitzgerald (as I said, very diverse ;-))
Books: Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East (by Adam Hanieh), A Thousand Splendid Suns (by Khaled Hosseini), The Host (by Stephenie Meyer), etc.
Movies: The Pink Panther, Arna's Children, Serial (Bad) Weddings, Hangover, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I was 15 I lived as an exchange student in Turkey for one year. A great impressive and priceless experience!

I did interrail two times. - A really nice opportunity!

Teach, Learn, Share

I love to share and exchange opinions and experiences. Moreover, I love to discuss about politics, economics and philosophical topics. And I am curious to get to know personal stories.

I love to learn different languages and I am more than willing to teach words in the languages I know.

I would love to learn to cook some local dishes and I would love to cook with couchsurfers I host too.

Finally, a very wise saying I would like to share:
Don't be sad because it's over, smile because it happened. :-)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Egypt, Netherlands, Turkey