Hi, my name is Daniel! I'm beginning my couchsurfing journey with 4 close four friends, Andrew, Belina, Marcus, and Alina, planning to travel in December 2022. We are a fun, diverse bunch (a Russian, two Nepalese, a Singaporean, and a Kenyan all traveling together) we are obsessed with learning/growth, and are excited to find new friends to share experiences with. If you'd like to experience the world in one room, we'd love the opportunity to potentially stay a few days with you! :)

Here are our profiles below:
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Hello! My name is Daniel, and I'm from Singapore 🇸🇬! Well, to be more specific, i'm American born, Chinese Indonesian who grew up in Singapore! I believe that a stranger is just a friend that you've not met yet, so hi friend!

I'm an introvert that believes that no one grows when they are comfortable. Thankfully, as an introvert, there is plenty to push me out of my comfort zone. This is the reason why I've eaten a fried tarantula, arm wrestled a security guard at a shopping mall, jumped out of a plane skydiving, sat with a homeless person for a couple of hours in Chicago, and why I'm currently trying to learn swing dancing!

I've also had some neat experiences under my belt: Before moving to the United States in 2018 for college, I spent 2 years in the Singapore military and police force where I got a chance to throw a grenade, respond to 911 calls, and march in a parade for 50,000 people. All glamorous stuff, until I tell you about why there was a time I needed to watch literally a thousand people pee (fun story for another time 😉).

I have a big heart for adventure, but not to chase superficial highs. Instead, I believe that every interaction with a stranger, and every adventurous moment refines us to become better people. I also believe attaining perfection through self-improvement should not be the goal. The forming of deep human connection and mutual understanding between people is a beautiful end in itself. We are all trying to figure life out as sojourners after all! 😁

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Hi, my name is Andrew Kornilov.
I am a 22 year old Russian, working as a genetics researcher. I studied Biochemistry and Neuroscience in school, and I really enjoy doing scientific research and learning new things. The process of discovery and finding something new are very exciting to me. This is why I have always loved traveling.

So far I have been to Budapest, Prague, Kiev, Turkey, Egypt, Adygea, Ural Mountains, Saint Petersburg, New York, Los Angeles, Norfolk, Washington D.C., Chicago. I have not yet seen as much of United States as I want to, so this is why I am traveling right now.

For highschool, I went an international school in Moscow, and for college I went to Calvin University. Both of these places have a lot of international students coming from different parts of the world. I find it interesting to learn about who they are and where they come from. Having such international and diverse experiences and stories has made me want to travel around even more.

I like reading science fiction and self-improvment books. Right now I am in the middle of reading the Dune saga and various other books like "12 Rules for Life" and "Can't Hurt Me".
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My name is Belina Sainju and Alina Sainju. We are sisters from Nepal and I (Belina) am working as a software engineer and Alina is currently studying Engineering at Calvin University in Michigan. The culture we come from is very different from American culture and it has been exciting to explore our way here.

We are choosing to couchsurf because we enjoy learning about people. We love listening to what they have learned from their mistakes and experiences in their lives. We gain lots of energy from having a down time and deep conversations with a small group of people.

One thing we've always valued is to keep learning something new and we have found that the best way to learn is to get out of our comfort zones. This past summer, I (Belina) went skydiving to put myself in an uncomfortable situation and it has made me understand my fear a little more.

We love adventurous activities like rafting, hiking, and other outdoor activities. We am both introverts and enjoy our alone time painting, cooking, and reading books. Some of our favorite non fiction books are Power of Now, Atomic Habits and 12 Rules of Life. I also love fictional books by JK Rowling, Dan Brown, and Sidney Sheldon.
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Why I’m on Couchsurfing

🌎 The more I learn about the world, the more I learn how much I don't know about the world. I would love to make friends from around the world and share about what we think it means to be human. I think a person's life story usually encapsulates this pretty well!

Interests

• culture
• dancing
• coffee
• board games
• reading
• live music
• jazz
• hiking
• backpacking
• snowboarding
• table tennis
• badminton
• food
• nature
• adventure
• outdoors
• ultimate frisbee
• christianity
• journaling
• singapore
• social entrepreneurship

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - I'm an old soul. I love old swing and jazz artists like Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald. Newer artists you should check out are Laufey, Maya Delilah, Bruno Major, Sleeping at Last to name a few. I also went through an ambient music phase, and an emo punk rock phase at some point haha.
Check out my spotify playlists here: https://open.spotify.com/user/1194566968?si=c1LRZHL7Rs-kaBE-uSxDtg&dl_branch=1

Books - I love to read books, a lot of personal development & nonfiction books. Here are 6 of the 19 books i've read this year so far: Designing Your Life, Liturgy of the Ordinary, Atomic Habits, The Great Divorce, A Man Called Ove, Don't Know Much About Geography.

Movies - Interstellar, Hacksaw Ridge, Marvel films, LoTR, Star Wars are just a sampling of what I love. A nostalgic childhood one is Bridge to Terabithia.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I backpacked New Zealand with two friends for a month, and documented the trip by doing silly dances at different places! Zero skills, but i think we make up for it with commitment! Check out my adventure here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znWGNnbF3QI&t=1s

Teach, Learn, Share

I'd love to share with you about Singapore culture and making cook you a local meal or two! If you want to learn our colloquial language, Singlish, that combines English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, Hokkien, and Cantonese together, I'm your guy.

I am also a journaling junkie (bet you never heard that one before), and can teach you how to effectively document your life with technology so you can remember everything that happened every single day of your life (with a tool called Remnote). I've thought hard about how to remember everything you learn, and how to always have clarity in your thoughts.

I have so many things I want to learn! If you invite me to do something new with you, chances are I'll say yes. My current things I'm learning are freestyle rapping, swing dancing.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Cambodia, China, Denmark, England, Finland, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Singapore, United States