I am originally from a city in the southern part of Ukraine that used to be famous for its shipbuilding industry. That is why I love to spend time near the water and interested in the marine theme. Moreover, when I was a child I associated myself with either a pirate or a mermaid.

After graduating from school, I moved to Poland and lived there in three different cities (Lublin, Krakow, Warsaw) for almost five years. Also, I experimented with one-month life in Western European cities such as Lille, Bordeaux, and Valencia. This allowed me to experience the French and Spanish cultures in a deeper way than the average traveler does. I look forward to becoming a local somewhere else on Earth.

I have a very diverse career experience. When I was 15, I worked as a social media manager for a dance studio in my city and also helped them with administrative work offline. As a student, I started working as a freelance translator combining this with a part-time job in an advertising agency as a social media manager and content designer. Later, I realised that I prefer to communicate with people not through words, but visually. So I began to study graphic design on my own and recently made a jump to the UI/UX design. It was such a long but exciting journey.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I found out about this amazing community through a Ukrainian travel show called Orel i Reshka. I was a teenager at that time and had no opportunity to travel at all, I just dreamed of starting it once. Later, I saw a wedding photo of people who met thanks to Couchsurfing and I thought wow, this is crazy! When I finished school, I won the video contest and was invited to Poland for the award ceremony. I was 17 and this was my first solo trip abroad. At the very beginning, I met a guy who became my friend, a year later we became a couple, and now we have been married for almost two years. Wow, this is crazy, right?

Interests

• design
• contemporary art
• pottery
• hiking
• snorkeling
• skydiving
• paragliding
• solo travel
• cinema
• culinary
• self-development
• scandinavia
• vintage
• urbanism
• mobile photography
• yoga and meditation
• pescetarian
• third wave coffee
• ui/ux
• low waste

Music, Movies, and Books

To listen to:

I make playlists every month

https://open.spotify.com/user/emeraldlina

To watch:

Leon
Mulholland Dr.
Pulp Fiction
The Elephant Man
Frances Ha
Nocturnal Animals
The Dreamers
Dead Poets Society
Joker
Human

To binge:

Twin Peaks, because they got a cherry pie that will kill you.

To read:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'm not lucky to have a panic fear of heights. But I’m lucky enough to have an irresistible desire to face my fear.

Best hikes I've done:

8 km Suicide Cliff in Hong Kong
27 km Trolltunga in Norway
42 km Berg Lake in Canada

I still can't believe I did these two things:

Skydiving in Australia
Paragliding in Taiwan

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm really passionate about mobile photography, so I will be glad to share some tips

https://www.instagram.com/emeralddove/

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Poland, Spain, Ukraine