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Overview

  • 6 references 3 Confirmed & Positive
  • No languages listed
  • 31, Male
  • Member since 2023
  • No occupation listed
  • No education listed
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About Me

Hello! My name’s Chris. I am passionate about walking, mountains and rivers, classical music, trying the traditional food of wherever I am at the moment and long conversations.

I never know what to put in this section so I guess I’ll just tell the story of my life! I’m from London - grew up on the outskirts (in a town called Twickenham) and lived there all my life, apart from university. I studied art history, which was super interesting (particularly architecture) but doesn’t have great job prospects so I was an actor for seven years, and a teacher alongside to support it. After quitting my job last year i thought it was a great chance to do a very long trip and so at the moment I’m travelling from London to Singapore as much by land as possible.

I’ve been very lucky to go to some amazing places and see some amazing things. My favourites have probably been the Westfjords of Iceland, the Haute Route trail in Switzerland, being in Jerusalem during Ramadan/Pesach/Easter and all of the highlands of Scotland, but there are so many more on that list.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

One of the most surprising things about this trip is how important for me it has been to meet people unexpectedly. I think there’s some truth in the idea that we should all have a ‘travelling mindset’ to be as open as possible to encounters with new people, and I feel like Couchsurfing embodies that. The times when I have stayed in someone’s home when away from London have always been infinitely more interesting and fulfilling.

I also find that receiving others’ generosity and being more generous go hand in hand. Being able to share things with other people makes me calmer, more present and more curious about the world.

The main reason is just that meeting people from all over the world makes me a more energetic, interested and open-minded person!

Interests

  • culture
  • architecture
  • cooking
  • socializing
  • cycling
  • hiking
  • camping
  • art history
  • history
  • languages
  • social science
  • cinema
  • railways
  • wild swimming
  • paychology

Music, Movies, and Books

I love movies. Like I could (and do) frigging talk about them all day. I watch countless YouTube videos analysing and discussing films. Probably my favourite director is Martin Scorsese. For me he’s like the equivalent of a comfort meal - I can always depend on his films to put me at ease and ensure a good time. I’m also slightly obsessed with media about the American mafia (massive Sopranos fan!) so that helps. I’ll watch pretty much anything though, especially films set in the past.

When it comes to music, I guess I’m pretty eclectic. I probably listen to European classical music more than any other kind but I love big band jazz, folk singer songwriter, 70s rock, the Beatles and a ton of other artists. Friends would probably describe my tastes as like an old man’s because I don’t really listen to anything after 2010 (but I’ve liked a lot of what I’ve heard!).

I never really read for pleasure until my housemate gave me a copy of Stoner by William James a couple of years ago. Reading that book was such an amazing experience that I’ve tried to keep the momentum up ever since. If I had to sum up the ones I like it would probably be those that are philosophical? Herman Hesse, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But I’m a noob in this area.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Making a movie in Bulgaria in 2018. It’s called The Outpost and I think it’s on Netflix? If not then Amazon Prime. It’s a war movie about a bunch of American soldiers in a part of Afghanistan that’s very hostile to the American presence, their life in the camp and a terrible battle that happened in 2008.

The film is not very good but the experience of making it was amazing. We all became close as a cast and got to be on holiday basically for ten weeks. While filming I met another actor who is now one of my closest friends. Most of the crew was Bulgarian so we got to know some of them quite well.

We had a lot of army veterans working as advisors on the film (including some actual veterans of the battle in the film!) and speaking to them throughout made the whole experience way more meaningful. The highlight of the whole thing was probably being told by one of the veterans that watching footage of me made him reflect on one of his fellow soldiers who had died. It was such a rush to give someone that feeling! It sums up why I wanted to act in the first place.

Teach, Learn, Share

The funnest part about going to different countries for me is learning about the history and the food traditions (and the history of food traditions) of wherever I’m going. If I had a holiday of doing just these two things it would be a good holiday. So if I could learn anything about this stuff I’d be in heaven.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Bike building/repairing skills. I did this for a hobby for the last seven years or so and so I know some stuff about the mechanics of bikes, how to fix problems and (most importantly) how to make do if you don’t have the exact right tools. I also think I’m relatively strong/handy with DIY so if there are any jobs that need doing around the house I would love to pitch in. It always makes me feel better to do stuff for people in return for generosity so you’d be helping me out!

I would say I’m a pretty good cook. Importantly I find it really relaxing so I’m very content to spend an evening cooking and chatting away. I would say I’m particularly good at making something tasty out of a strange combination of ingredients. My process is to combine the basic idea of a recipe with my own knowledge of cooking and whatever ingredients are on hand at the time.

English language improvement as well. Because I was a teacher before I’ve picked up a few tricks about using materials to demonstrate stuff, seeing the subject from the student’s perspective and speaking/explaining things clearly. Similarly I love helping people out with essay writing, resumes and job applications if this would be helpful.

Beyond that - curiosity, patience, kindness, open-mindedness. All that good stuff!

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