CURRENT MISSION

Graduate from the school of life (impossible I know)

ABOUT ME

I like to see things from every part of life. I like the natural and the artificial. People are my hobby.

PHILOSOPHY

I could write a series of books about this so instead I engage you, the reader, to ask me a more particular question.

I'd like to be a vegetarian, but, being a poor student I'm forced to be a freegan.

"Give me a freegan sandwich!!"

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've used CS.com to travel but I've never hosted before. I am really looking forward to doing so.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I don't know how best to explain this in this format but here's part of a letter I wrote about my only trip to use couchsurfing.org:

I actually had just recently found out about this website but from the moment that I heard about it, I was hooked. I actually planned a trip around it almost immediately. I could see the value of getting verified so I did it immediately. The postcard came in no time and I was quickly registered.

Some friends of mine from St. Pete, my hometown, were working on a whitewater rafting resort in North Carolina. They invited me up towards the end of the season to stay in the employee dorms for free. So with this in mind, I already had the couch-surfing mentality down. With the newly discovered couchsurfing.org website in my arsenal, I didn't see any reason to go straight to NC and back again. I figured that as long as I was going halfway to Toronto, I might as well finish the drive. (I have family in Toronto)

So my first day leaving the Nantahala Gorge I got stuck in a fascinating town called Cherokee. Without a plan on where to stay the night, I just figured that I'd camp that night. Dubiously enough the weather picked that night to shift into winter. Without having a previously arranged place to sleep, and no money to stay in a hotel, I would have to stay in my car.

I really didn't want to be forced into sleeping in the same place that I would be spending the next couple of days driving in, so I found some free wi-fi at a rest stop and logged in to couchsurfing.org. I didn't really expect a response so quickly but within the hour I had a place to stay. The rules were that I had to leave in the morning so that he could go to work. That was perfect with me because I wanted to get an early start on my traveling; I had a long distance to cover.

The response came from a town one hour of driving down the road I was already driving on so it was more than convenient for me. It wasn't very difficult to find the place, especially with help from a cell phone. I was a little apprehensive of meeting this total stranger but he sounded like a great guy and I could tell that he was just as worried as I was. Within the first ten minutes of the both of us relaxing and chatting in his living room we both knew right away that this would work out. We were both on such similar levels and had so much to share. I asked him all sorts of questions about his work which fascinated me so much. I also found out that he had been in the Nantahala Gorge as well during the time that I had just been there. It had been like we were just old friends that were catching up.

When eventually the time came for me to leave in the morning, we said our goodbyes and hoped that we would see each other again. I know that we will and I invited him to come down to Florida to stay on my couch. I warned him that it might not be as comfortable as the bed that he supplied me with but I promised to be as entertaining as I could.

I spent a very long day driving to Ohio where some friends of mine had moved a year before from back home in St. Pete. Through some same-day emailing, I had managed to get a hold of them and arrange a place to spend that night and possibly the next if everything worked out.

Well, it did and I managed to take a day out of my travels to visit with some great friends. I even managed to stay the second night and start my next day of solid driving early in the morning again. I was back on schedule.

I made it into Toronto later that night and celebrated my twenty-first birthday with my family for dinner. I spent the next two weeks in Toronto and had such a great time that I was forced to make promises to new friends that I would be back to stay. When I finally was forced to leave my second home, I was heartbroken but homesick and ready to start my journey back.

I stopped in Washington D.C. to visit an Aunt and Uncle that I had missed in Toronto and to stop for the night. After a very relaxing night and a delicious breakfast, I started home once more.

I didn't know how far I'd make it in a day but Savanna, Georgia sounded like a good stopping point. It also had a ridiculous amount of couch-surfers. Before I had even made it half-way there, I already had three invites from eager hosts. It was so hard to have to turn down any of them as they all sounded like such great individuals.

I knew right away that I had gotten so lucky with the host that I chose. She was already celebrating a great day with some friends at dinner when I arrived. I met up with them at the restaurant they were at and joined them for the end of their meal. They were already in such high spirits and their enthusiasm was so contagious that even having already been exhausted from spending the day driving I was ready for a night on the town.

What a night it was. They took me from bar to bar in such an energetic town. Did you know that Savanna is one of the few towns in the US where it is legal to have an open container in public? We had so much fun that I didn't want to leave. In the morning, it seemed only natural to stick around and see the town in the daytime.

See it we did, my tour guide knew all about this wonderful town. She took me to some of the most magical scenes in this historical city. All this, and by foot no less. By the end of a hard day of exploring, I was too exhausted to leave. I had made such a great friend that I wanted to take her home with me. There was just no way that I would be able to say my goodbyes so quickly. She agreed to let me stay the night but she had to get up early the next day for an interview. Once again, that was great with me as I like to start my day of driving early. In the morning, we said our goodbyes and wished each other good luck. I had one last solid day of driving until I could sleep in my bed and she had an interview that I knew she would ace. (She did)

Couch surfing offered me opportunities that I would never have been able to act on without such a powerful people searching engine behind me. I have not had the opportunity to host a surfer yet but I hope for one every day. I hope that I can repay the graciousness and generosity offered to me from total strangers transmuted into family by fostering my own couch surfing family.

Interests

No order: Traveling, Learning, Doing, Reading, Talking, Expanding ;-), etc...

• books
• breakfast
• vegetarian
• working out
• reading
• traveling
• camping
• whitewater rafting
• surfing
• law
• tourism

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Stood on top of a mountain and let the wind hold me from falling off. Amazing.

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