Koen van Aken's Photo

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  • Last login about 11 years ago

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Overview

  • 27 references 20 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in Dutch, English; learning French, German
  • 37, Male
  • Member since 2008
  • Six months of unpaid leave.
  • MSc in nanotechnology
  • From Zwolle, Overijssel, Netherlands
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

Three month trip to Thailand, New Zealand and Australia!

ABOUT ME

I studied Nanotechnology, which is basically the physics of the atomic world. During my last year at uni, I worked in a lab with high power lasers which could burn a hole in your hand, a vacuum system with a pressure lower than the atmosphere of the moon and power sources that could basically evaporate a metal rod when short-circuited. Pretty cool. The goal of the entire thing was to create the coldest place on earth; a cloud of atoms with a temperature of a few nanoKelvin (colder than outer space). And we did!

After my studies I decided I did not want to spend the rest of my years in a dark lab and applied for a job as a consultant at Capgemini and ING Bank. After 2 years I was fed up with the financial world and decided to take half a year of unpaid leave to travel to Thailand, New Zealand and Australia with my girlfriend Carmen.

PHILOSOPHY

Do unto others what you would have them do to you.

I am trying to get a little more 4 hour workweek and a little less eating meat in there too.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I host and surf whenever time allows it.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

May 2008: Surfed Sibelius' in Berlin, GER
May 2008: Hosted Aaron, Dustin and Tyler, CAN
June 2008: Hosted Aaron and Tyler again
June 2008: Surfed Damon's in New York City, USA
July 2008: Surfed John and Annies' in Ottawa, CAN
July 2008: Surfed Michael's in Montreal, CAN
August 2008: Surfed Maeghen and Ramin's in Toronto, CAN
August 2008: Hosted Hannes, GER
August 2008: Hosted Brendan, USA
September 2008: Surfed Christoph's in Hamburg, GER
September 2008: Hosted Ben and Benjamin, GER
September 2008: Hosted Michael, UK
September 2008: Hosted Pierluigi and Marco, ITA
January 2009: Hosted Dror and Yaniv, ISR
April 2009: Hosted Melissa, Matt and Jackson, USA
April 2009: Hosted Mattheusz, Sabina, Hubert and Eva, POL
April 2009: Hosted Vera and Aneta, BUL
May 2009: Hosted Tereza and Veronica, CZE
September 2009: Hosted Chrystal, NL
May 2010: Hosted Niko and Chris, GER
August 2010: Surfed Claud and Amanda's, FRA
September 2010: Hosted Luca, Angelo, Lucia and Arianna, ITA
October 2010: hosted Gerald, FRA
2013: Couchsurfing revival after I quit my 40+ hr job and start travelling and hosting again.

Interests

Music, friends, movies, physics, games, snowboarding, animals, everything on the Discovery Channel/National Geographic (except for that lousy wreckdiving/ancient egyptians crap), travelling, adventure, bungee jumping, rollercoasters, high things of which you can jump off onto/into something that doesn't hurt you. Etc.

  • animals
  • movies
  • traveling
  • music
  • bungee jumping
  • snowboarding
  • physics

Music, Movies, and Books

Walking Dead, Mythbusters, Game of Thrones, Scrubs, Blockbusters.

Basically anything that triggers an emotion, from Jazz to Dubstep and from Singer/Songwriter to Metal; Incubus, Tool, Fever Ray, Jose Gonzalez, Thomas Dvorak, Avishai Cohen trio, NERO, Bon Iver, Meshuggah etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I fed and washed a crippled 70 year old elephant in Thailand that had stepped on a land mine in Myanmar when she was younger.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands

Old School Badges

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