Born and raised in a beautiful sunny city with stunning beaches called Caparica, usually simply referred to as "the other side of the river" by the millions of tourists that visit Lisbon every year! I'd say about a third of my family is in Virginia US, and I spent a stint there myself. I also have some family in France and Switzerland, things weren't so great for most people in Portugal back in the days. It's a good thing that it all ends well and now we're happy and in debt!
Getting back on track on the about me, I could say that I'm exploring, regarding almost everything really, even religion. My whole family is catholic, but on my mother's side, word has it that my great grandfather was a Moroccan Muslim apostate and my grandmother swears she had jewish relatives, the cherry on top of the cake is that my mother is turning Buddist. As for me, I just need time to process all that, I can choose a God later. Since I've been told that "About Me's" should probably be shorter than this, may I finish finally on topic and saying that I love sports, history and politics. Oh yeah and children, they're cute and my two nieces sure are one of the things that keeps me going! Them and travelling of course. As for the rest I'll test my luck in the other sections!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Well, I saw this TV show that pointed here and said there was free accomodation. I mean, why else? I really hope they're right though, I wrote a huge "About Me" section!
On a more serious note though, there is just something that I feel while both travelling and volunteering that has its very own transcendency. Specially if you have that special sensibility that makes up actual humanly significant connection, and that can be hard to find, I'm hoping that while both hosting and travelling, Couchsurfing will put some of those people in my way, well, at least I'll let him try!

Music, Movies, and Books

God I could spend a whole day writing on this section, but for the sake of synthesis let's talk genders. I have a vast collection of Spotify Playlist (Oh yeah, self-made), I'd say American Soul would be the favorite because it helps me get through my mornings, specially "Keep on Looking (Kenny Dope Remix)", Smooth Sailin', and a lot of Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Al Green! I also have a thing for Jazz because I play sax and the trumpet, so yeah, it would be rather awkward if I didn't like Jazz! You can throw in Indie Rock, Regular Rock, oh Latin dance hits, God do I love dancing them! Kizomba, Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, you name it!
Ok I'll be short with movies, I'll just go ahead and recommend Inception, Whiplash, The Godfather, City of God and I'll stop with hollywood there! Wait not yet, there's also a good movie from Scorcese about Portuguese Missionaries that has a bunch of actual historical facts, it's called Silence. I can't move on to Books without mentioning my very favourite movie. It's Argentinian and it's brilliant! It's called 'El Ciudadano Ilustre'.
Since I guess that very few people have actually read or heard about my favourite books, I'll just name four popular ones that I liked: 1984 by Orwell; The Process by Kafka; 11/22/63 by Stephen King and the Bible, by loads of people really!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Finally a section that I can keep short: I founded a whole local branch of an NGO called ReFood. It was a hell of a battle, it was unbelievably hard, from the very first steps of meeting with 10 or 15 people a time, to our outstanding inauguration greeted by over 400. It was certainly worth all the work and the long hours though, it's a real beauty what people can do when they get together for common good. Sure there were lots of obstacles but also adventures. I certainly met awful people in the process, with shady agendas, but most importantly I met the most amazing pure hearted people in the process too. I'm still connected to the project on a regional level!

Teach, Learn, Share

I guess we can save this one for when we meet or chat, right?

What I Can Share with Hosts

At this point I'm a bit tired of writing, but I know a lot about history and geopolitics, I also believe that I have some good stories to tell but mostly I can share some ecstatic good mood, super welcome to meeting new people and knowing more things. I also know a couple of jokes too, if that adds anything to my Couchsurfing CV!

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

Portugal, United States