CURRENT MISSION

Travelling Europe with my husband and 2 toddler daughters, to expand our view of people and to develop empathy with the world and people around us.

ABOUT ME

I'm a playful and adventurous person. I love stories! The way people think and live in different places - these are stories. So meeting new people is connected to my core interest - that's storytelling!

Most of all, I like to laugh.

Some of my favorite things in the world are - a good book; an uplifting, happy song; a singer's soothing voice; the smell of chocolate; green tea; a mild coffee; a sunny afternoon; crayon boxes; any water body; old silk; a theatre; a laughing face.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is short, let's make it sweet.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I participate with compassion, respect, curiosity and mostly also happiness!

I share stories in the form of past experiences, shared cooking, cultural folklore and a curiosity about your life.

Interests

I love storytelling. That is mostly story-hearing + a little bit story-telling. And this I love to do with words or music, dance, puppets or art. So books, singing, dance, theatre, are all beautiful tools to that end. I'm really interested to hear your story! What have you seen? Where have you been? How does a country look in your eyes?

I love languages and I speak dutch like a blonde, blue eyed milkmaid. I find languages really show the character and traditions of any culture so I love learning them. They tell me about the history of a culture and people.

I sing classical Indian music and classical Indian dance, also salsa. I get a lot of insight into the culture of the countries where these dances come from by learning and interacting with these dancers. And dancing makes me happy!!

Books. I love the smell and sounds of a well worn book.

I like cooking for friends very much. I cook vegetarian Indian food of course and a bit of Indonesian and Western food. I like to keep it simple. I am writing a cookbook for a friend - How to cook Indian food with 5 spices. So that everyone can cook real home-style Indian food and you don't need curry powder which does not exist even in India. If you send me a request, please add the words Chicken Madras - then I know you are a person who cares about who he/she is staying with and has been through my profile! Of course, if you like, I can show you too some ideas for Indian cooking.

In the next year, I really want to explore the culture and history of france, the charming stories of everyday life in it's little villages and huge cities, on the coast, in tiny apartments, by the river banks, in crowded cafes, in lonely chalets, oh it's a whole world of stories!

I enjoy meditating and yoga because it gives me a lot of relief from stress and makes me wide awake in the morning! I am trying an idea called Mindfulness. It makes me think of all my thoughts as traffic on a road. I'm sitting next to the road, watching the traffic and just letting it be. Not interfering. Not judging. Just being. It's very peaceful.

• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• singing
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• indian food
• yoga
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• history
• languages
• carpooling
• beaches
• rivers
• cooking and eating

Music, Movies, and Books

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Vikram Seth, Amit Chaudhuri, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Alexander McCall Smith - among my favorite writers.

music - depending on my mood, i listen to different kinds of popular and dance music, as well as some western and indian classical music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Giving birth to strong, beautiful and intelligent girls. I did it twice, actually!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach english, dutch and hindi. I can teach writing. basic, healthy cooking and I can teach even a monkey to dance.

I can help reflect on your mind's thoughts/stress in an easy way for you.

I'd love to hear your travelling stories and experiences.

What I Can Share with Hosts

My time and my empathy.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Norway, Oman, Spain, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates