CURRENT MISSION

Looking for meaningful, interesting travel experiences for the next 6 months

ABOUT ME

I still don't know how to describe myself what I like and what not. I'm full of contradiction. Many adjectives you find about me, you might as well think of their antonyms :-)

photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlakme
website: http://www.traveljo.com

PHILOSOPHY

I believe in random, "Butterfly effect" and "Pay it forward"

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

My friend, Miriam, introduced me to the website. I was with her when she met her first CSers from Paris.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I started by hosting people from Globalfreeloaders and Play2stay. hosted friends, their friends who are not willing to join couchsurfing.com b/c they are still suspicious if we are a bunch of con artists or ax murderers. :-)

Interests

blogging, photography, writing, literature, making websites, music, singing, reading, traveling, psychology, personality types, learning about culture, meeting interesting people (that is everybody until they decide to be boring), volunteer, news or input junks, play various sport depending on my mood/weather and who ask me at the time, going to the coffee/beer/anything drinkable bars (depend of the location) to a small group of people I really enjoy.

• culture
• writing
• literature
• singing
• photography
• dancing
• cooking
• beer
• coffee
• zumba
• news
• reading
• traveling
• blogging
• music
• sports
• business
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

BOOKS: Tipping point, The world is flat, Microtrend, Collapsed, Guns germ and steel, Freakonomics, Tales in two pockets, Life of Pi, Totochan, Little Prince, From Berus to Jerusalem, four-hour work week, I served the King of England, Tuesday with Morrie, any books from Malcolm Gladwell, Jared Diamonds, Asne Seierstad

MOVIE: Amelie, Moulin Rouge, La vie en rose, Monster inc., Chocolate, the Royal Tanenbaum, I served the king of England, crouching tiger hidden dragon, into the wild, mama mia, Zelery, Czech films, documentaries ...

MUSIC: world music (Chinese, French, Vietnamese, Bosnian, Serbian, Turkish, Arab...), ABBA, Carpenters, Cranberries, Dixie Chicks, Patricia Kaas, gypsy.cz, Cechomor, Ace of Base, Modern Talking, c.c. catch, Sarah Brightman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Opera Babes, Roxette, Elsa, Classical...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- I have seen all 50 countries of Europe.
- I lived in Sarajevo.
- I lived among the Muslims (I had known only a few before this).
- I taught high school.
- I won 1st in a sports competition (given I was sliding down to the couch potato zone at the time)
- I hiked for many days through a forest and steep hill and eventually in the last few days kept up with people who were always in the front. (it was biggie for me b/c before the trip, I fantasize about being short-of-breath, opting to stay on the bus, embarrassed myself to death seeing other on their feet).
- I got paid for my photos, and no I'm not a photographer.
- I have not driven a car for three years and counting.
- I feel that I have begun to see the world.
- I finally met the gypsies. Don't laugh! They are not what I imagined (as a child) how they would be. But a childhood dream fulfilled nonetheless.

Teach, Learn, Share

TEACH: I can show you how to make a very nice website using Wordpress; the wonder of eating sour fruit with salt (i put it here b/c many people seem to be put off with this idea), make a Vietnamese noodle meal.
LEARN: photography, want to be a better cook, dance Czech, Spanish, better time management, internet business how to read maps, simplicity, how to be patient.
PLAY: squash, pools.
SHARE: just ask!

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Poland, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

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