Hi! I’m Charis :) I’m having a hard time describing myself at the moment, I seem to be in constant flux lately. I’m currently in a transition phase, finishing up my studies and figuring out life after. I got somewhat obsessed with climate change and our role as humans in it, especially how we deal with it psychologically. That’s the kind of research I’ve been conducting in the past months for my masters thesis. But what I can say is I'm German-American and spent the last years studying psychology and public policy in Maastricht, the Netherlands. I came to the Olympic Peninsula in August to stay with my grandparents and do my research here. Now that I’m done with that, I’m trying to explore the area and getting to know it’s people and spending as much time in the nature here as possible.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I think traveling is all about connecting, and staying with others or having people over enables just that, to make a deeper connection with others while traveling.

Interests

• arts
• poetry
• photography
• cooking
• pilates
• raves
• reading
• music
• philosophy
• psychology
• social work
• exploring
• existing

Music, Movies, and Books

Freud in the German original version has been on my to-read list for the longest time but I never get around to reading him. Last year on a trip to Berlin I bought a notebook with a title of a literary classic on it, “In search of lost time” by Marcel Proust. If you get to know me, I’ll have you draw or write something in it, I use it as a ‘public’, collaborative journal. Weirdly enough, soon after I arrived in Sequim I found a book in which the main character had a journal made of an old book cover of the same book, in search of lost time. And that story also takes place in the Pacific Northwest, somewhere on an isolated Canadian Island. I’m still figuring out what it all means, but I think it shows that I’m in the right place at the right time.

Current music: Massive Attack, Big Thief, Kompakt, Moderat, Bonobo, Nichole Dollanganger, Nick Cave, Black Marble, La Femme

What I Can Share with Hosts

I really like to make art, especially collages. I also like cooking, wandering around aimlessly as a means to getting to know a new place, and I really like reading poetry I’ve written out loud to other people. Or just reflecting together on life over a glass of wine. I also like just enjoying each other’s presence while involved in other things.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, China, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Macao, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Russian Federation, South Korea, United States