CURRENT MISSION

Make the most of myself

ABOUT ME

Who am I? Still don't know, which is quite annoying sometimes, I must say. However, throughout the years, I've managed to find out the following:

-I travel to get in touch with other people and cultures as much as with myself.

-I am a deeply visceral person who needs big doses of unexpected and unplanned situations in her life. I cannot understand it in any other way. Also, I am a convinced dreamer and a believer in the power of the self.

-I am a good observer and listener. You can always learn from others and from everything that surrounds you; you only need to be attentive and receptive.

Apart from all this, I am a bit lost in this beautiful, amazing and very much crazy world of ours...

PHILOSOPHY

Traveling nourishes and opens up your mind, warms your heart, makes yourself stronger and gives the right dose of perspective to your own existence. Great company also makes great travels.Learning is the greatest treasure and the only one that cannot be taken away from you.My heart beats faster with this thought: "Never is too late and there's always a solution." Wouldn't it be great? I'm working on this at the moment.Smile (a true, real smile) and the world will smile back at you.Persevere and you'll get there. Passion. Enthusiasm. Patience. Excitement.Enjoy the moment, tomorrow is still far away.Little things make huge joy.Even though the shortest way between two points is a straight line, the journey is a lot more interesting if done in zigzag.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

-I've just started. However, I expect loads of nice things from this collaboration.

-Also, I'll make myself available to show my town and/or have a coffee over a chat.

-By letting all my friends know about the CouchSurfing project and encourage them to be part of it so as to make the community bigger.

-I find CS groups really interesting and helpful. I am active in a bunch of them and so far I've found some travel companions and someone to meet up with near my hometown who will be so kind as to give me some tips on my imminent travel to New Zealand. Just fantastic!

-I'm in CS to make friends, plain and simple. I intend to keep in touch with everybody I get to know. Not interested in just traveling cheap or being a hostel. If you feel alike about it, let's meet!

-On 18th August 2011, I was invited to talk about my CouchSurfing experience and the CouchSurfing project in general by Tarragona RÃ dio, the local radio station in Tarragona city (Catalonia). It was great fun. Check it out (in Catalan): http://www.tarragonaradio.cat/descarregaMP3.php?fileName=ID20102_188201110950.mp3

-Updating, 23rd March 2012: I have just joined CouchSurfing Tarragona Group. We meet on Friday evenings and plan activities. Tonight has been my first time with them and I liked it a lot!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

visited 31 states (13.7%)Create your own visited map of The World or Triposo world travel guide for Android

*NETTA, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) - surfed her couch for 2 days (13, 14 November 2008); my first experience ever in CS!*BRUNO, Budapest (Hungary) - surfed his couch for 3 days (18-21 February 2009)*JULIA, Berlin (Germany) - we met up in my town, had a drink and dinner together (5 August 2009)*AGITA & JAGGER, Dublin (Ireland) - they came into my town for a week; did some chatting and had an evening meal with other CSrs (15 - 22 August 2009)*JORDI, Vila-seca (Catalonia) - came to a little gathering / evening meal in Cambrils with Sonja, the CS he was hosting (21 August 2009)*SONJA, Aachen (Germany) - came to that meeting in my town (21 August 2009)*NÚRIA, Tarragona (Catalonia) - answered my call for people joining a little evening meal in my town; we are traveling together in December! (21 August 2009) *URSULA, Salzburg (Austria) - exchanged many sms about travelling (August 2009)*BEA, Poznan (Poland) - surfed her couch for 2 days (24 & 25 August 2009)*MONA, Warsaw (Poland) - surfed her couch for 1 day (28 August 2009) and repeated in February 2010*ÀNGELS, Girona (Catalonia) - picked me up at the airport and kept me company till my train left for home (1 September 2009)*THRAINN, Egilsstadir (Iceland) - surfed his couch for 1 night together with a friend of mine (17 September 2009)*HEIDI, London (England) - surfed her couch for 2 nights (30 September, 1 October 2009)*GEERT, Utrecht (The Netherlands) - surfed my couch on 16 October 2009*SILJE, Larvik (Norway) - surfed my couch on 18 October 2009*OLIVER, Geneva (Switzerland) - travelled with him for 2 days in Portugal; April 2010 // surfed his couch in Geneva on 6 and 11 March 2011*JORGE, Lisbon (Portugal) - joined him and his CSr (Oliver) for some drinks in Bairro Alto (April 2010)*NADINE, Bern (Switzerland) - surfed her couch on 9 March 2011*MARTHA, St Paul's Bay (Malta) - surfed her couch for 5 days (27 April - 2 May 2011)*ELIZABETH, Washington DC (USA) - spent evening with her and took me out for a meal (11 June 2011)*APRIL, Washington DC (USA) - surfed her couch for 2 days (10 - 12 June 2011) even though we did not get to meet up; took care of her doggie and plants in her lovely home*VERONICA, Chicago (USA) - surfed her couch for 6 days (12 - 18 June 2011) *LISA, Boston (USA) - surfed her couch for 2 days (18 - 20 June 2011) *SERGI, Viladecans (Catalonia) - met in Vilanova i la Geltrú for an evening of information exchange about experiences and traveling (19 May 2012)*GIOVANNI, Rome (Italy) - met in Reus and spent a night out with another local Couchsurfer (20 June 2012)*MONTSANT, Reus (Catalonia) - spent a night out in Reus on the first evening of "les barraques" (20 June 2012)*SERGIO, València (Spain) - contacted me whilst both in Dubai to spend some time together touring the Emirate (Sept'2012)*VICENÇ, Barcelona (Catalonia) - met for a drink and a chat in my city on a Thursday evening (21 February 2013)

Interests

My family, literature in general and British Literature in particular, Catalan language and culture, languages, photography, writing, translating, interpreting, coffee and tea, partying with good company and good friends not for the sake of it, visiting, knowing, exploring, talking over a nice meal or a nice coffee, wine, cheese!, bubble-wrap, swimming, Tintin comics, dancing, being a good heart-warmed person, trying not to waste time (which I find extremely difficult!), films (especially old Hollywood ones), theatre (love it!), figure out how to start saving money, riding horses and motorcycles, driving, sitting anywhere with a book as my only company, olives (mmmmmm....) and rice (not necessarily at the same time, though), feel attracted to Oriental cultures, Europe, museums, opera, interior design, painting... Enough to start with, isn't it?

• cats
• horses
• culture
• writing
• books
• literature
• design
• interior design
• photography
• dancing
• wine
• cheese
• coffee
• partying
• drinking
• motorcycles
• comics
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• painting
• survival
• opera
• skydiving
• swimming
• languages
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

-Movies/Actors/Actresses/Film directors/TV Series: Mystic River, Gone with the wind, Madame X, Pulp Fiction, Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Trainspotting, Bette Davis, Paul Newman, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Vivien Leigh, Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, James Stewart, Katherine Hepburn, Queer As Folk, Abre los Ojos, Tesis, Brazil, Lost, Six Feet Under, The Clockwork Orange, Absolutely Fabulous, Rude Awakening, Il y a longtemps que je t'aime, The Savages, Peeping Tom, The French Lieutenent's Woman, No Way Out, Body Heat, Gosford Park, Another Year, Amour, Arcadia, Prisoners,/em>etc.-Music: REM, The Cure, U2, Ben Harper, Leonard Cohen, Finley Quaye, Coldplay, Suede, The Cult, Richard Ashcroft, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Morcheeba, Juliette and the Licks, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Muse, The Clash, Pulp, Billie Holiday, David Bowie, Everything but the Girl, P. J. Harvey, opera, Macaco, Gossos, Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Gnarls Barkley, Mary J. Blige, The Smiths, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Bruce Springsteen, Danko Jones, Front 242, Mando Diao, Mumford & Sons, etc.-Favourite live shows attended: U2 Opening Concert Tour (30th June'09, Barcelona), Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals (6th October'06, Barcelona), R.E.M. (9th January'05, Barcelona), The Cure (1st April 2000, Barcelona), Radiohead (25th August 2009, Poznan - Poland), Leonard Cohen (3rd October 2012, Barcelona).-Books/Writers/Playwrights: 84 Charing Cross Road, The Comfort of Strangers, Shakespeare, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, Angela Carter, The Citadel, The End of the Affair, Tennessee Williams, Bonfire of Vanities, Felicia's Journey, Mercè Rodoreda, Agatha Christie, Herman Hesse, Thomas & Heinrich Mann, Harold Pinter, the Russians, Charles Dickens, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-Isn't it amazing enough to meet people around the world, host and be hosted and end up being buddies all through a webpage?-Leaving everything aside to travel the world and figure out why we behave the way we do. -Falling in love with London from the very moment I got off the plane and decided to turn a 3-week study travel into a 3-year stay. That was pretty amazing to me at that moment as was 20 and that was my first time away from home on my own. The love story is still on!-When I could finally admire The Scream painting in Norway, the Acropolis of Athens, the Meteora monasteries in Greece, the Sistine Chapel, the Guernica, sunset from Poseidon Temple - Cape Sunion (Greece). They all left me breathless!!! -Yesterday's theatre evening in Barcelona. Simply AMAZING! Some of my favourite Catalan actors/actresses (i.e. Emma Vilarasau, Pere Arquillué) in one of my favourite plays (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf). Superb! (15/01/2012).
-Went skydiving in Empuriabrava (Girona, Catalonia) last Friday (30/03/2012) and it is one of the best decisions I made in my life. Absolutely awesome!
-Being in Japan at the moment, I am seeing and doing amazing things all the time. My highlights are, though: having spotted & taken pics of geisha + maiko in Kyoto, attending a tea ceremony in Tokyo and seeing kabuki, noh theatre, and bunraku in Tachikawa, Kyoto, and Tokyo respectively (21/09/2012).

Iceland Slide from nainonai on Vimeo.

Teach, Learn, Share

-Can teach you Spanish and Catalan (teaching qualifications) at any level. Check out my survival kit!
-I am ready to learn anything: cultures, languages, local cuisine... Anything at all!
-Share experiences, exchange our cultural/country background.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom

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