CURRENT MISSION

Live, discover, listen and learn.

ABOUT ME

I love to travel and discover new places, which is probably why I lived in three different countries over the last three years, Toronto being the place I would currently call my home, but which unfortunately I have to leave behind soon to finish my degree in Germany.

A big part of my life is social justice/equity activism. I have been vegan for a couple of years now and believe in the necessity of doing intersectional activism, taking into account different forms of oppression and injustices and how they are entwined with one another, if we really want to challenge the status-quo and create a different kind of world.
In Toronto, I live in a vegan/social justice house that´s part of a coop where I learned so much and had such an inspirational time so far.

I love to read, discuss literature and articles I´ve read with other people, watch good drama series or movies, listen to melancholic music, spend time outside, try out different jobs and activities to learn more about the systems we live in and myself, cook and bake, swim, dance and sing.

Community is very important to me, which is why I love the idea of things like couchsurfing or wwoofing.

I currently study psychology, but I am very critical towards its leading paradigms and the way it is used to diagnose people and force individual experiences into certain boundaries that are then called "normal".
I am way more interested in philosophical and sociological approaches, as well as psychoanalysis, in particular Jungian psychoanalysis. Taking courses in Equity Studies, Anthropology and Literature at the U of T made me realize that I want to go in this direction in the future.

PHILOSOPHY

“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I live in an intentional community that does potlucks every week and other events that strive towards building community, connecting activists and discussing what´s going on and wrong in our communities and the world.
We frequently host couchsurfers and I really enjoy meeting so many people and have interesting discussions.
In Toronto, I am volunteering for a cooperative serving cheap delicious local vegan lunch, am part of a food coop, and volunteer in a solidarity project between Mexico and Toronto, promoting sustainable farming and doing reasearch around the traditions of cacao while creating the best chocolate on the planet.
I also frequently attend demonstrationsor other events related to equity and social justice issues.
Right now, I am learning more about organic farming while wwoofing on a farm in British Columbia.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Except for co-hosting, I don´t really have couchsurfing experiences myself, as I usually camped, stayed at friends´s or friend´s friend´s places, as well as in hostels, because for some reason I was always too last-minute to organize it. But I hope this will change now, when I travel through the US.

My hosting experiences were all good. I met some really nice people.

Interests

Activism
Books
Writing
Art
Philosophy
Anthropology (especially Ant of the contemporary world)
Food
Farming
Scandinavia
Hiking
Toronto
Berlin
Gardening
Jungian Psychology
Travelling
Music
Movies
Museums
Farmer´s Markets
Dancing

• arts
• writing
• books
• literature
• poetry
• singing
• dancing
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• vegan
• gardening
• movies
• traveling
• drawing
• music
• hiking
• swimming
• anthropology
• psychology
• volunteering
• last minute travel

Music, Movies, and Books

Books
Hesse: Steppenwolf, Demian, Siddartha
Kafka: The Trial, The Castle
Goethe: Faust
Nietzsche: Thus spoke Zarathustra
Woolf: To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway
Süskind: The Perfume, The Pidgeon
Schlink: The Reader
Fitch: White Oleander
Saint-Exupery: The Little Prince
Beckett: Waiting for Godot

Movies
Black Swan
The Hours
Girl Interrupted
Fight Club
American Beauty
Frida
Benjamin Button
Crash
Mary and Max
The Perks of being a Wallflower
Im Winter ein Jahr
Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei
Mr Nobody

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Become vegan and learn to appreciate and respect other beings, the environment and my body in a new way.

A voluntary service in Denmark during which I spent a lot of time in nature and learned to be alone with myself and appreciate quietness.

I did a roadtrip through Denmark, Sweden and Norway, where we met incredibly friendly people and appreciated the freedom of being on the road and not having to plan anything in advance - just us, a car and a tent, and the world felt like ours.

Climbed up the Preikestolen in Norway and slept next to a waterfall close to the Trollstigen - just beautiful.

Went to Rome - the most beautiful city

Did an exchange in Toronto and had the most amazing year in a great city, an inspiring community and at a really good university.

Teach, Learn, Share

I would love to learn more about (urban) gardening, as well as how to fix stuff myself. I also always wanted to get better in drawing faces and would be happy for some advice.
Moreover, I am always interested in philosophical, sociological etc. theories, arguments and good discussion.

I am a pretty good cook and baker and could teach you some skills in this area, as well as tell you more about veganism and vegan nutrition.

I love sending letters (in which I always include poems, quotes and collages made from images and pieces I found in free newspapers, magazines, and flyers) - so if you always dreamed of getting a really nice letter - if you host me or couchsurf at my place, I might send you one afterwards;)