CURRENT MISSION

be good, it's never too late

ABOUT ME

What formed me most, what lead me here?
Dunno. Grew up in Autria in a village. Was a happy child and went to see the cows at the neighbor's farm when I liked. Always loved to build something out of Lego and when I had no toys I detached screws from our furniture with a screwdriver from our toolbox to reattach them afterwards.
My first sentence transported my insight that "the tree stings" (=a pine at the local swimming pool) to my mom.
Was in school, was fun but lots of booze during the last years.

Army: Drove a tank up and down a hill and with infantry in the back. Vroom Vroom. Bang bang. Sweat, stink, and being bawled at for not doing what I should.

Started studying, quit to work and travel, started again later.
Was in the fun business and worked in tourism in Spain, guided tourists, went kayaking with them, worked as a skiing instructor in Austria, teaching children (and adults) to ski and to snowboard.
Worked as a souvenir salesman in London, as a tour guide, as an engineer for the government and in a civil engineering office, as a tour manager for ski trips and as a engineer for engineers without borders.

My higher education: Medicine, Law, but finally settled for environmental/civil engineering and water management.
I'm more the field scientist. I like the direct experience, to feel the environment.
My brain is a bee-hive and always developing theories about almost everything.
It can be a bit demanding sometimes.
I take photos, but barely arty stuff. Travel photography and landscape. Sometimes people.
I can play the drums and want to learn to play the guitar.

Sports, although lazy when I have to learn a lot. Work as a skiing instructor sometimes. If there is time I go rock-climbing with friends but this hardly ever happens. Not so many rocks in Vienna. I just can't handle football, what is to be honest some kind of disadvantage but I'm pretty bad at it and maybe at any other ball-game.

Traveling helped me to get a better understanding of how things work differently around the world. Different cultures and their priorities. It's so beautiful. No space to write down all that here. What one definitely can take home with him from everywhere is the art of cooking. Except from England. :-P
And respect for all the people and their way to live.

I didn't mention before, but I love languages. My own language, German, then Spanish, English, French, Arabic... It's fun to express oneself, looking up weird words in dictionaries, fool around with language.

visited 28 states

PHILOSOPHY

be good

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING
I am now traveling myself and cannot host!

I think, CS is a good way to facilitate the idea of hosting and surfing. On the other hand, it could also act counterproductively. Mind-narrowing instead of broadening.
Figure out what i mean or ask me when we meet :)

I've been to many countries before I heard of CS. Well, I surfed couches too, but not on purpose and not via CS but just because people invited me to stay.
I also hosted people who I met travelling. This all happended long before I started this account.
Unfortunately, my hosts from less developed countries have no easy access to the internet, let alone this network.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Only good ones. After doing 2 "official" surfs I continued with inofficial couchsurfing.. what I've already done before. Just by visiting people or take advantage of the fact, that somebody knew somebody who knew somebody somewhere. I also had guests, I've met on my journeys, visiting me in Austria.

Now in Mexico I had more unofficial surfing experiences than official CS surfs. Meeting people on evening events or on tourist sites, talking with them I was invited a few times to just stay with them. Great thing, great mentality here.

Interests

Making the best out of any situation, humans, animals, nature, yoga , "dao" , psychology, learning by doing, languages + etymology, environmental science, cultures - especially those with no (big) wars emanating from them

• animals
• arts
• photography
• education
• environment
• cooking
• baking
• yoga
• instructor
• gardening
• technology
• traveling
• billiards
• music
• guitar
• drums
• hiking
• kayaking
• surfing
• skiing
• snowboarding
• sports
• rock climbing
• soccer
• swimming
• business
• teaching
• engineering
• etymology
• languages
• law
• medicine
• psychology
• science
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

stopped watching movies and TV. A bit old school in that way. I like some classics like Pulp Fiction, the Big Lebowsky, Thank you for smoking, Napoleon Dynamite, There Will be Blood, .. but I don't have a up to date list of the last great movies.

www.listenlive.eu shows interesting online radios.

i don't like this "which philosophy inspires you?" thing. I think all ideologies are BS and somehow made to expand the own territory.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

the hatching of a turtle.
hiking in india, crossing a 4900m pass.
the sunrise on an island in the caribbean sea,
climbed some mountains, skied down the slopes

Teach, Learn, Share

Yoga, funny stuff, repairing bikes, baking a bread (needs flour, leaven/sourdough, salt and an oven,
but this can be arranged usually)
organic gardening methods, tech stuff,
language(-learning) and proper methods to succeed with it.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Cooking skills (if you have a kitchen), Cookie skills. I can really do some decent Mehlspeisen (sweet dish) but it's an awful lot of work.
If you can get your a** up from the sofa, I'm always up for exploring something - I'm good company, but not when it's only about killing time...

Countries I’ve Visited

China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, Switzerland, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, United Kingdom