CURRENT MISSION

to do all i can to live and create a peaceful and happy life for myself and others

ABOUT ME

Hi all. We are now married and planing our honeymoon trip and future memories together. We look forward to surfing together around the globe and hopefully hosting more in the future. - Gandhi

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I enjoy telling people about CS and the concept, some understand and some think we are crazy. I love to show people around LA and help others in any way possible. Hit me up!

I hope to really get out and meet CS people while on my future journeys. I think I need some CS business cards to share the word a little easier.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_7735161

The new wave of hospitality
By Andrea Woodhouse Staff Writer
Article Launched: 12/16/2007 12:45:17 AM PST

Click photo to enlarge

Erin Fisher of Torrance is part of an online network of nearly... (Sean Hiller / Staff Photographer)

» PHOTOS: Pictures of local couch surfers
Expect an eyeful of morning sunshine, the rustle of children playing and the toot of a passing train, but you're welcome to crash on the green leather couch inside Carmen Rosas'cq Redondo Beach living room.

Sure, the married mother of two doesn't know you - but the dozen or so travelers Rosas has put up in the past three years were once strangers, too.

And that's exactly the point.

Rosas, 42, is among a worldwide network of nearly 400,000 "couch surfers" - people who offer their sofa to a perfect stranger for a few days for free, or trade hotel reservations for a scrap of foreign upholstery on the other side of the world.

An electronic cousin of hitchhiking with about 200 South Bay participants, couch surfing, veterans say, is a life-changing experience that goes far beyond spending a night on a friend's davenport.

"It makes the world smaller," said Erin Fishercq, a Torrance resident fresh off a 10-week tour of Europe, during which she visited nearly 2016 countries and slept on almost as many couches.

"The world is at your fingertips. Couch surfing makes the world so much more accessible."

Fisher and Rosas met their respective hosts and travelers through the 3-year-old Couch Surfing Project at www.couchsurfing.com,cq

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an online networking site that connects like-minded explorers looking to travel and meet new people.
Similar to MySpace or Facebook, travelers create profiles, make online "friends," and search for couches all over the world - even in Antarctica, home to about 25 surfers.

The project's mission is a modern take on the age-old practice of hospitality: "Couch surfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding," the Web site states.

Fisher, a sunny 27-year-old, dabbled on the site for about a year before she started planning her summer trip in May.

She redeemed frequent-flier miles for a plane ticket, bought a Europass train ticket, and secured a vacant couch in Belgium.

From there, she wound her way through 16countries, finding available sofas along the way, or sleeping in hostels if necessary.

Despite a lifelong free-spirit status, Fisher still got curious expressions from friends when she explained her European accommodations.

Her mother demanded a weekly check-in telephone call.

"When I tell my friends, they think I'm nuts," Fisher said. "They want to know what the bathrooms are like, if the houses are weird."

Indeed, she encountered some dodgy bathrooms, layers of dust and cramped quarters during her travels.

While staying in a Dublin flat, she shared with another surfer a room just wide enough for a tiny love seat and a twin-sized mattress crammed on the floor.

But for the most part, Fisher felt more like visiting royalty than a nomadic squatter.

Her hosts prepared local cuisine, showed her the hidden shops and attractions, and welcomed her with open arms, often giving her a room and a key.

"The whole trip was amazing," she said. "I never had a bad experience - I loved every host. They cooked for me and showed me around. I always felt like a princess."

Rancho Palos Verdes resident Alexandra Schleichercq spent a month couch surfing solo through eight European countries last spring.

The 19-year-old's only moment of discomfort was in Venice, Italy, where her host tried to coax her into going topless at the beach, she said.

Schleicher chalked it up to a cultural difference, and said her couch-surfing experience was good - empowering, even.

"It was just kind of a liberating womanhood type of thing," she said. "(Couch surfing is "not typical, and it's not something a lot of women are brave enough for."

The most common question about couch surfing is safety, said Crystal Murphycq, a 24-year-old surfer in Birmingham, Ala., who volunteers as a project spokeswoman.

To keep surfers safe, the Web site has created a series of checks that help travelers vet their potential hosts and visitors, she said.

For one, Members can pay a small fee for project administrators to verify their identity and location.

The network also builds trust by "vouching" for surfers. Through written testimonies, registered members can attest that other surfers aren't killers, or at least have fun personalities.

"No one anywhere anyway can guarantee safety 100 percent," Murphy said. "You can't guarantee when you walk out your front door a meteorite isn't going to crash on your head. But we do take extreme safety precautions."

No homicide or rape has been reported between surfers, she said.

"I would say, like, every day we have 8,000 to 10,000 people meeting in real life, and out of those, 34 are negative experiences," Murphy said. "And usually when it is reported as a negative experience, they had a conflict of personalities."

Exercising good judgment is crucial for a pleasant couch-surfing experience, said El Segundo resident John Pesusichcq.

Since joining the project in July, the 36-year-old averages about four requests a week for his beige couch a week; so far, he's hosted three surfers, and his fourth is set to arrive tonight12/16 for a quick one-day stay.

The Los Angeles police crime analyst closely examines the online profiles of potential boarders and looks for similar interests before taking in a surfer, he said.

And Rosas takes a more lighthearted approach.

She figures if a German tourist traveled all the way to Redondo Beach to steal her television set, he probably needed it more than she did.

"What's the worst that can happen? They finish your milk?" she asked.

Couch surfing began in theory nearly seven years ago when a New Hampshire man in his early 20s had a cheap ticket to Iceland, but no place to stay, Murphy said.

Casey Fentoncq sent an e-mail blast to more than 1,500 students in Reykjavikcq asking if anyone could spare a couch during his upcoming trip, Murphy said.

But Fenton found more than a place to stay - he exchanged e-mails with many of the locals natives who offered to give him the low-down on their city, she said.

"And from there, he thought, 'If these people are so receptive, wouldn't it be great to have this community of people willing to host around the world?'" Murphy said.

As of last weekweekof12/10, the project had more than 381,000 participants, with about 5,000 new surfers signing up, according to the site's statistics.

Project leaders are currentlygathering in Thailand for a four-month "collective," a convention of sorts where surfers gather to advance the project.

With just three paid employees, the Couch Surfing Project applied for nonprofit status in November.

Though born out of a means to travel for cheap, couch surfing in its current form is about more than finding inexpensive accommodations, surfers said.

Instead, participants get a travel experience richer than the sanitized worldview from a hotel room window and travel guide, and really see how people live around the world, Fisher said.

"You're no longer a tourist - you're a guest," she said. "It's a very personal thing. You meet their family, go to local restaurants, local shops."

Pesusich said he's shown his surfing guests the nooks and crannies of Los Angeles that most travelers would probably miss - like a bike ride along The Strand to the Manhattan Beach Pier, or checking out poet Charles Bukowski's grave in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Hosting couch surfers broadened the San Pedro native's own perspective of Los Angeles, he said: At the request of a surfer from South Africa, Pesusich got his first taste of a hot Hollywood nightclub.

"Couch surfing makes the trip more interesting," Pesusich said. "You meet actual Los Angeles people. They meet my neighbors, they met my friends, and they get to see the odds and ends of the city."

For many experienced sofa surfers, the project has evolved into a philosophy that shapes their daily lives, even when tethered to home.

Temporarily couch surfing in her parents' guest room, Fisher is factoring the project into how she'll decorate her dream apartment - which naturally will include a "big and comfy" sofa.

"I can't wait to have my own place to accommodate couch surfers," she said. "I want to have the flags of the places I've been to, a giant map for surfers to mark where they're from, a place for gifts from surfers."

Her new place will include a couch surfer roommate she met in Paris this summer, and she's dating a Miami resident she met on the site and later surfed with in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

"Couch surfing totally changed my life," Fisher said. "I've always been open and had a sense of adventure, but this made my trust level even higher."

Torrance resident Kevin Millercq believes couch surfing gave him lifelong friends.

The people who hosted the 40-year-old on his recent couch-surfing jaunt to the United Kingdom might find something special from him later this month.

"I'm adding them to my Christmas list and hope if they come back to the States, they stop and visit," Miller said. "Even if you don't crash on their couch, you just meet someone new, and that right there gives you a whole new perspective."

Fisher dreams of incorporating couch surfing into a community service project - possibly working with other surfers to help build homes in New Orleans early next year.

And of course, she wants to travel some more herself.

Fisher plans to spend New Year's Eve surfing in New York City, but dreams of visiting Thailand, Costa Rica and India - anyplace, really.

"I'm committed to traveling, and this is one way to make it happen," Fisher said.

I have been hosted in a few homes when I was in Australia, again through Rotary connections. I love socializing, hostels and making new friends so couch surfing is perfect. i have also taken in people from Amsterdam, Australia, Lebanon, India, Italy, Brazil, and various states.

I had the most amazing 10 weeks with couchsurfing. Each host I had was beyond wonderful. CS made traveling alone very easy because I had immediate friends wherever I went. I will miss each and everyone so much, I certainly hope they visit me in LA!

***********SURFED*************
JULY
2-4 Brugge - with FILIP - wonderful host
4-6 Brussels - with Manuel and Andrea - amazing!!!
6-8 London - K. West Hotel with Monte *
8-10 London - John in Kingston
10-16 Cambridge - stay with Julie
16-18 Djamal - Dublin
18-19 KINLAY HOUSE hostel - Cork
19-20 Allie River Hostel - Doolin
20-21 Killronan house hostel - Inismore- Aran Island
21-22 Glen - Mainistir house - Inismore - Aran Island
22-23 some shit hostel in Sligo
23-24 some rad place (steves hostel???) - Derry
24-25 - WEE JOHN - Armaugh - Northern Ireland
25-28 - MEREL - Utrecht, Holland w/Liber
28-2 Berlin

AUGUST
2-5 Woodstock in Poland - Agnieszka, Sibelius, Rhiannon, Alex, Agata
5-7 Radom - Agnieszka
7-10 Krakow = Michael Kemp
11-13 Prague - Hostel Jednota (total shit)
13-15 Czesky Krumlov - Hostel 99 AMAZING!
15-17 Budapest - Locomotive Light Hostel - Like home..
17-19 Zagreb - with Ana, Mario and Viktoria
19-21 Porec - some old womans flat for 50 euro a night
21-22 Venice Italy - no named hostel/hotel
22-23 Pisa - Francesco
24-25 Milan - HI hostel with Prostitues outside
25-26 Zurich - HI Hostel - TOO EXPENSIVE
26-28 Helmlingen Germany - Alex
28-2 Paris - BVJ Louvre and Natalie

SEPTEMBER
2-7 Nantes - Eric the Prince - Lovely host
8-11 Barcelona - an HI near Parc guell, it was alright once I figured out the transportation to the city
11-15 Porto - Carlos
15-19 Lisbon - Lisbon Poets Hostel FANTASTIC! and with Joao
19- to Los Angeles so sad to be home!

**************HOSTED****************

December 18 2007 - Hephaistion Munes (turned out to be not so nice)
January 27-29 2008 - MIKEYM (lovely friend)

Interests

THINGS I WANT TO LEARN TO DO.. MAYBE YOU CAN HELP?:::
1. Knit/Crochet - Beanies and blankets (I want to give them to kids and homeless for the winters)
2. Play guitar (I have one that came with my VW, it sits in my trunk)
3. Make something yummy and vegetarian
4. Henna
5. CPR
6. Scrapbook
7. stuff on my MAC

LOVE- Something I want to do and have already started... give children a half sheet of paper and some pencils, crayons... ask them to draw or write what love is... That is it. I want to see what kids think of love, from their hearts and eyes... in imagery or words... I collect them, someday I hope to put them to use to benefit other children. (I would like to start an NPO someday)... If you work with kids and would like to do this as one of their projects, I would love to collect more. (on each page in the bottom corner I put first name, city and their age... other corner, the year they did it in...

Hockey

secluded beaches

sunsets

www.rotary.org
Rotaract
Country Music
Volunteer service
Children
Education
Myspace
Yelp
Craigslist
Friends
Dancing
Family
Music
Movies
LOVE

• writing
• dancing
• education
• vegetarian
• exercise
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• crochet
• knitting
• scrapbooking
• drawing
• music
• country music
• guitar
• cycling
• fishing
• surfing
• hockey
• business
• teaching
• emergency services
• statistics
• tourism
• hitchhiking
• volunteering
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Too many to list, I love a lot of stuff! lol

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Led 25 students to China to teach English to children age 5-18 for one month. :) Played with children for a month in a village in Botswana. Been to the Great Wall. Dived in the Great Barrier Reef. Eaten gelato in Italy 3 times in one day. lol

Teach, Learn, Share

I enjoy meeting those that have traveled and getting their insight to their experiences. Finding out about favorite spots and the must do and sees... I love meeting smart and entertaining people.

I have taught English to students in China and I would certainly love to help with conversational English to others.

I would like to learn anything, knowledge is power and I am intrigued by many things, try me!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, United States

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