CURRENT MISSION

To get back into Couchsurfing after a long time being absent!

ABOUT ME

OK, below is long and detailed description of the things I think are most important about me. For brevity, I shall just say that I am an honest guy with no agenda in the world other than to actively leave it a better place than when I arrived.

I love traveling and I also get bored easily, so I like to not only change my environment frequently, but also my lifestyle, too. I'm idealistic in what I feel is important. I dislike the difference between theory and reality. I ask 'why not' more than 'why'.

I like honesty, but I also love reading between the lines. I like honest people who know the difference between honesty and impoliteness.

I am constantly learning and like others who genuinely feel the same way. I feel learning comes from taking in things like a child would€œ innocently and without thinking €œ and reflecting on them as an adult later.

Music is important to me, but the lyrics not so much. I don't listen to music to give me an identity, nor for the emotion the artist is trying to evoke, rather I like the memories associated with it. I prefer cheesey, unserious music to someone trying to make a serious point and the language of the music isn't important, but French songs have a certain something.

I think logically in the grand scheme of things, but fill in the blanks with anything that comes my way. I like to spend my time using my brain: playing games, joking, debating, thinking, reading, writing, experiencing, living, eating and if your there to it with me, I like to think it can be fun!

I hate housework, but I am very domestic and well housetrained. I refuse to iron anything unless absolutely necessary as I can only view it as a sheer and utter waste of time. I am an excellent cook.

I have had lots of different jobs: working in warehouses in France, America and Britain, waiter, glass collector/bar back, barman, lying bastard in a call centre, (head) chef, English teacher, part-time Army officer (in the university-based reserves - UTOC), delivery driver, tropical fish shop manager, IT Sales person... I have gained so many different skills and had amazingly different experiences from all of them.

I am good at languages. I pride myself on my ability to speak a language like a native, even if my vocabulary or grammar suffer as a result. My knowledge of 'useless' Aleppian Arabic phrases is unlikely to be matched by others, though I am still yet to be any where close to good in Turkish!

PHILOSOPHY

For me, as long as I have good food and the prospect of travel over a not too distant horizon, I'm happy. Love, in some form or another, helps keep me going, too.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Well, at first I just used this site to avoid paying for a hotel in Milan, but having forged the best friendship possible through the site, I guess you could say I am heavily involved.

In 2007, I stayed with Jamal in Aleppo, Syria for three months in his family's home, after one simple email. If this doesn't describe the spirit of CS, then I think I am missing something... A few years later, he is now in the US and I have sought him out to take him skiing for the first time as I promised him I would.

I remember when I had to leave Syria for all of five minutes in order to renew my visa (I am really biting my tongue so that I don't complain about the bureaucracy there). On the way back in, a Syrian taxi driver offered to take me back over the border in his cab with the German traveler he was already taking. I accepted and began the fight to pay my $100 visa fee to get back into the country. The girl who had hired the taxi waited patiently for a good two hours while I tried to avoid questions I didn't want to answer to get back in, despite the fact that she was already cleared to go through.

When we arrived at Aleppo, I walked her to the place she was meeting her friends. We didn't talk about much, mainly me swearing in Arabic, but I tried to show her the main sights, etc. Suddenly it struck me that she had helped for no reason and that she had been quite vague about who she was meeting, so I asked if she knew CS. No surprises, she was a member...

I guess for me that this is how I contribute. I give and take and hope that friendships are formed. If they happen to be through CS, great, if not, no worries.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

What is CS experience? Hmmm...

Well here is it for me: I lived in Syria for a year and was heavily involved as there were quite a lot of travelers coming though. So, In Syria, quite a lot, as a host, a surfer and a friend. It's funny really, I didn't really know what I was in for when I signed up for this site.

When I was living in Yemen, I was chatting with a friend about making traveling easier. We were sat planning a trip together to Switzerland from London and she remembered this site. I always call her a hippie (which I think she considers a put-down, but she couldn't be more wrong) and at that time I couldn't have imagined another of my friends offering something which sounded so crazy to my British mind, but it made sense then and even more now.

When the same friend and I had traveled in Morocco the previous year, we had basically been what is now termed 'free-style couchsurfers', so I guess that is when it all started.

Since then, I have spent lovely summer nights on the back of a Vespa in Milan, late nights in a Syrian family, played cards while smoking sheesha in Istanbul and been part of so many CS experiences.

For me it seems that not everyone has had the same experience or has the same idea of what CS should be, but the majority of CSers who have had positive experiences could pick each other out of a crowd of people within five minutes of entering the room. Okay, slightly romanticised, I know, but it isn't that far from the truth!

Interests

Apart from the obvious as you can see on the profile - films, books, languages - the following are some of my favorite things:

Coffee
Food - cooking, eating, growing
Sport - football, cycling (not so much in Istanbul)
Singing (terribly) and dancing (worse)
Board/Card games - Carcassonne, Poker, Rummy, Risk, Monopoly, Scrabble, Bridge

• fish
• writing
• books
• singing
• dancing
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• coffee
• partying
• drinking
• clubbing
• pub crawls
• shopping
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• poker
• music
• fishing
• skiing
• sports
• golf
• teaching
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

I love films and when they're not available I keep myself entertained with the usual rehashed drivel that comes from Hollywood. Black Cat, White Cat was my favorite film for a long time, but there are other blockbusters I have enjoyed:

Everything is Illuminated (wow!), Pulp Fiction, all three Monty Pythons, The Big Lebowski, Casablanca, Taxi Driver, Scarface, Forest Gump, Full Metal Jacket, Mr. Deeds (the modern version), The Graduate, Rain Man, The Jungle Book (Disney cartoon), Little Miss Sunshine, Office Space, Broken Flowers, Casino, the three orignal Star Wars movies, Being John Malkovich, the James Bond series (except Casino Royale), Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp and, of course, any action movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Recently, I have seen and loved: The Skin I live In, The Separation, This Must Be the Place, Persepolis, A Separation

I like stories with good endings and most of my favorite boos reflect this: Around the World in 80 Days, Catch 22, Animal Farm and 1984; The Portrait of Dorian Gray, The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Catcher in the Rye, Treasure Island, Dracula (for its awful ending among other things) and A Clockwork Orange (with the British ending).

As for modern literature, I read White Teeth by Zadie Smith recently, which I really enjoyed and I am also a massive fan of the Potter series. I also love Kipling for his children's stories. Books like The Life of Pi, The Alchemist and The Five People You Meet in Heaven do nothing for me.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Couchsurfing Meeting in Montpellier (Oct 2011):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpKCrfaJ-14

Check out 1.10 and 3.48 to see me tricycle racing!!

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: English, Arabic, French, cooking and anything I can.
Learn: Languages, customs, jokes!
Share: Food, coffee, good times, bad times, love, hate, any emotion, in fact!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Morocco, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Yemen

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