CURRENT MISSION

Live life to the fullest

ABOUT ME

I am an outgoing, easy going, true people's person, who also loves her privacy from time to time. Communicative, eclectic, philosophic, curious, playful, an eager beaver, emphatic & caring. I get carried away by my enthousiasm sometimes and then I tend to talk a lot.
I used to work as a tourguide/tourleader and after that I worked for the Royal Dutch Airline for 10 years, before going back to my original profession of being a teacher. That is how I acquired the taste of being in contact with people from all over the world. That and the fact that my mother was Canadian and my father was half Indonesian, I was married to a Cuban and my sister in law is Polish, so our family is like the United Nations in miniature!

PHILOSOPHY

"I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish€¦ You see, it is difficult to get all which I want."
(Simone de Beauvoir)
"You can't add days to your life, but you can add life to your days."
"I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
(William Penn)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Started hosting years ago and have surfed 8 times so far. I love it!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

In the old days, before computers and CS existed I had many friends from all over the world staying at my place. Since I joined CS I've hosted twelve times, which is not bad considering that Gorinchem isn't (yet) well known among tourists! Meanwhile I have also surfed eight times and those were equally rewarding experiences.

Interests

Life is a big canvas and you should throw all the paint you can on it ! (Danny Kaye). I love travelling, languages, spending time with family and (new) friends, reading, NLP, sailing, skiing, scuba-diving, music, singing (I am a first-soprano in a choir and sing in a vocal group) and playing the guitar (beginner) and dancing (salsa a.o.), cooking, photography, painting, sculpturing, playing board games.

• books
• singing
• photography
• dancing
• cooking
• flying
• board games
• reading
• traveling
• painting
• music
• guitar
• scuba diving
• sailing
• skiing
• teaching
• languages
• law

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Intouchables (The French movie), Freedom Writers, Pay It Forward, The Blind Side, Good Will Hunting, The Shawshank Redemption, Detachment, As it is in heaven (Swedish), Slumdog Millionaire.
Books: Eckhardt Tolle, Paolo Coelho, Deepak Chopra, The Celestine Prophecies-James Redfield, The Fifth Agreement-Miguel Ruiz, The Go~Giver-Rob Burg & John David Mann, Umberto Eco, Ken Follett
Music: Luis Miguel (Romance), Celia Cruz (and other salsamusicians), Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Amr Diab, Katie Melua, Queen, Supertramp, Billy Joel, Styx, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Pink Martini, Petra Berger, Emma Shaplin, Andrea Bocelli, Camané, Mariza, Oliver Dragojevic, Goran Bregovic, Alkistis Protopsaltis, Xaris Alexiou, Giorgos Dalaras, etc..

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Seen: Acts of random kindness by people all over the world / The breaking of the ice of the Perrito Moreno glacier in Calafate, Argentina/ The sunrise as seen from the Bromo vulcano in East Java, Indonesia/ Flying through the Grand Canyon in a helicopter....
Done: A 138m bungy jump from the bridge in Aradaina, Crete!

Teach, Learn, Share

I am willing to share whatever knowledge you're interested in...
Basically I like to learn (about) everything that arouses my curiosity (which is a lot). I believe I can learn something from everybody!

What I Can Share with Hosts

If I can bring ingredients with me (depends how I travel), or buy them locally, I could cook something special. I can teach languages or tell about NLP. It depends on our encounter basically....

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands

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