After a disastrous four years studying a subject I had absolutely no interest in, I decided to take a leap of faith and traveled to the land down under, hoping to mend what damage French law had caused me. Some fourteen months later, after what has been, and remains, the best experience of my life I still wasn't any closer to any spiritual enlightenment (or more importantly, financial stability) but holy shit was that a fun way to learn more about others and thus, myself!

So here I am, Australia was two years ago, a lot has happened in the meantime, some more minor travels in Europe and now over Brazil and Argentina. As I am typing this message, I have no concrete idea how to go about this thing we call life, but try to make the most out of this unusual path I have taken thus far.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing has been the theatre of a few outstanding experiences (especially in Argentina) using my girlfriend's account. I finally decided it was time to create and complete mine, to allow future hosts to know more about the other part of our joint requests, as well as setting up some hosting of my own further down the road.

Hopefully in the future I will be able to give back to the CS community an ounce of what it has given us, but for now I unfortunately do not have a proper place to host anyone.

Interests

This has the potential to be a bit of a bore, I'll do my best to be concise. Literature, as well as its less reputable brethren comic-books (bande dessinées!) and more particularly mangas are the one constant in my life, my very own oxygen. I try to be eclectic in my readings but novels and fiction form the core of my library.

Other than gathering knowledge out of great books, I passionately enjoy meeting people from varied backgrounds, learning more about this vast world of ours through their stories and experiences.

Most of all I am extremely curious and interested in almost anything conceivable under the sun, I thrive the most in exchanges with passionate people, no matter the object of their passion.

• books
• literature
• chess
• traveling
• basketball
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

My musical tastes have always been eclectic and subject to the whims of my encounters and random chance on youtube. Lately I've been listening a lot to the following: Black Sabbath, Porcupine Tree, AnnenMayKantereit, Gorillaz, Leonard Cohen, Colour Haze, Bob Dylan, Kyuss, Kasabian... But again, it's been mostly scattered tracks from different artists here and there!

As to movies, off the top of my head: Ex Machina, Watchmen, Donnie Darko, Interstellar, Jagten, Moon, Whiplash, The man from the earth, Nightcrawler, Moonrise Kingdom, Grave of the Fireflies, What we do in the shadows...

Finally we arrive at the arduous task of not listing too many books. Let's go with five that have resonated deeply with me as of late: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (addictions to a T, language in all its beauty), Don Quixote by Cervantes (heralded forth a new author-reader relationship literally centuries before its age, plus a comic masterpiece), Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (speaking of comic masterpiece, glorious, necessary absurdity in an unforgiving war background), Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (awe-inspiring collection of some of the best and most inventive short stories of one of the uncontested best), A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (a chillingly accurate vision of a -then- bleak future).
Manga and comics-wise, again in no particular order: Thorgall, Vagabond, Vinland Saga, Berserk, Kingdom, Slam Dunk, Tower of God, 20th Century Boys, Blade of the Immortal, Watchmen, Calvin and Hobbes, Planetes, Parasyte, Onani Master, Suicide Island.

Try any of these recommendations, hopefully you won't be disappointed!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Many things come to mind during my travels, but one stands out to me. I worked 12 weeks in the middle of nowhere (Arnhem Land in Australia, roughly 400kms from the closest aboriginal settlement of 100people, 1000km from the closest city), 12 hours a day, 7days a week, in sets of 3 or 4 weeks straight, building a bridge in the 40 degrees heat as a basic construction worker and helping out around a 60 person camp.

Over the course of these 12 weeks I have learned an incalculable amount of things about myself and about people, as well as many new skills (as I bounced around from station to station, from job to job and finally got to appreciate my versatility and adaptation skills) and to me it simply topps off in intensity anything else I have ever done!

Teach, Learn, Share

Outside of languages, of which I am an endless student and a glad teacher I am hopelessly curious. To gather knowledge in (almost) every field is my main goal in life, and if said field is not my cup of tea, observing and, sharing with and learning from passionate people is one of my favourite things to do. I've said that already haven't I? Oh well...

What I Can Share with Hosts

Stories, time, and a passion for all the intricacies of this wonderful and neutral world! Plus you know, the usual, food, drinks, chilling and the likes, not everything has to be philosophical all the time :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, France