I love eating and cooking, getting lost in cities, trains (including the metro), hiking (especially the bit where you eat delicious pastry on the mountain top), swimming in seas and rivers, going on meditation retreats, and learning new languages. I work as a professor and I'm a scholar trained in feminist theory, literature, film, and philosophy; I've written a book about women's cinema and philosophy, and I'm preparing a new one about plants, gardens and our relation to the natural world.
I'm originally from Belgium but lived in the US for nine years; I settled back in Brussels almost four years ago and I'm glad I did, but I still often feel strangely American.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

My first Couchsurfing experience (in 2006) was amazing – a wonderful woman in Vancouver let me stay in her guest room for five nights. She didn't have a spare key so she just didn't lock her front door the whole time I was there so I could come and go without trouble. It was amazing. Then graduate school hit me with a vengeance, and I hibernated for many years. I'm so glad to be able to do some serious travelling again.
I'll look forward to hosting folks at my place once I'm done renovating my apartment :)

Interests

Everything. Except maybe for shopping malls, but even those can be fun in a weird way sometimes. I'm particularly interested in all foods, all countries, all languages.

• literature
• meditation
• walking
• drinking
• shopping
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• hiking
• swimming
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Too many to list! These days I'm listening to whatever jazz or classical music is playing on the radio (I love many other music styles but I'm too lazy to change the station). I've been reading a surprisingly deep and interesting book by an American woman who calls herself Starhawk; a clever feminist witch. I love all films by Claire Denis, Agnès Varda, Jane Campion and Lucrecia Martel.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I spent one night gazing at the stars at an astronomical observatory ran by an eccentric octuagenarian in the middle of the Argentine desert.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, United States