Hello! Self descriptions are difficult but let's give this a shot. I'm a traveller, a photographer, vegetarian and mostly a little strange. I live in Finland with my husband and our pets, a dog and a cat (who are best friends with each other). I love travelling and it is my goal to at least once a year go somewhere where I've never been before. I'm also a photographer, I do some kind of freelance photographing for a website, photographing the live shows of various Japanese bands when ever they happen to play in Finland. Other than that, I like to take a lot of pictures on my travels. Some may be seen here: http://purplemonky.wordpress.com/

My hobbies include yoga, reading and recently also jogging. I love to cook and bake and my specialty is all kinds of glutenfree and vegan cakes, pastries and breads. Also a huge fan of chocolate.

I love Japanese music and I'm very interested in the culture and keep studying the language. I'm nowhere near fluent yet but atleast I'll manage the basic things by now!

Generally I'm a positive and open-minded person and have learned to appreciate life as it is.

PHILOSOPHY

Remember to live everyday. Try not to fear for the future and do not dwell in the past. And no matter how hard life might sometimes be, never give up.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Both surfing and hosting myself. We've recently move to a bigger house so there's more space for guests :) So anybody interested in seeing the Finnish countryside, this is your place to go!

Interests

Music, visual arts, literature, cultures, psychology, history, politics, languages (I've studied English, Swedish, Spanish, German, Japanese and Russian over the years.. though please don't ask me to say anything in Russian cause I can't!)

• pets
• cats
• dogs
• arts
• culture
• literature
• cooking
• chocolate
• baking
• vegetarian
• vegan
• yoga
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• music
• surfing
• freelancing
• history
• languages
• psychology
• visual arts
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Are you sure you are ready for this conversation, it could get long..

I love music, many kinds of music. I listen to a whole bunch of Japanese bands no one's ever heard of. To mention some of my more commonly known favourites; MUSE, Placebo, The Smiths, David Bowie, Frank Turner, The Decemberists, Mumford and Sons, Emilie Autumn, Arctic Monkeys, Bastille..
I'm also one of those people who still buys cds and vinyls so I'm always interested in taking a look at a local record store when travelling. From Japan both me and my husband returned with suitcases full of music.

Movies. I like watching them occasionally but I'm more of a tv-show kind of person. Generally I only watch movies when I actually go see them at the cinema or if someone's managed to talk me into sitting down for long enough to watch a whole film. I absolutely love Studio Ghibli films. Lately I've mostly watched "superhero" movies.. Avengers, Mad Max... :P Actiooon! I do like the more artistic stuff as well. I'm a Whovian. Huge Doctor Who fan, ok. I love that show! Other tv-shows I really like are Game of Thrones, The Office, Community, Silicon Valley, 30 Rock, Supernatural, Merlin..... the list goes on and I forgot about half.

As for books. I've loved reading since I was 5 years old and first learned to read. My favourite author is Haruki Murakami, I also like John Irving's books a lot and also a big fan of JK Rowling's Harry Potter books (which I've listened as audiobooks at work three times within a year..oops). I've read a lot of books and I don't limit myself to one genre, I read fantasy, science fiction, general literature, old classics, non-fiction... almost anything goes as long as it's not horror.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One of the most amazing things in my life was our month spent in Nepal. The mountains are so beautiful I will never forget them and I can't wait to return.
Also both of my visits to Japan have been amazing and I will most certainly go back.

Teach, Learn, Share

Well, I'm pretty good at vegan and glutenfree baking so always happy to give some tips :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malta, Nepal, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, United Kingdom