ABOUT ME

I’m a Brazilian living in Barcelona, Spain, where I just finished my PhD in International Relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. I love capturing moments with my camera and, if you are interested, some of the photos can be seen at
http://umbuphotography.com/

I really enjoy walking around, getting to know different places and people. I like to practice capoeira, open air activities such as cycling, hiking and so on. I love being in the country side. At the same time, I enjoy things like going to museums, theatres, cooking together with friends, guests, hosts and having a beer in the bar around the corner. If there is live music, even better! Cultural diversity is something that really fascinates me.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Couch surfing when I travel, hosting people at my place, spreading the word around, sharing with people the beauty of the couch surfing project

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

The experiences through couch surfing I have had either as a guest or a host were great, with interesting talks, easy going attitude, amazing moments and a fun environment.I discovered couch surfing in 2007 when I moved to Spain. Since then, I have couch surfed in almost every country I’ve been in Europe. Also, I have hosted many people from all over. Since I moved to Barcelona a couple years ago I have been hosting a lot more than surfing. Some of the guests: Karin, Sarah, Marlene, Elke(Austria), Carolina, Silvina (Argentina),Melanie (France), Jana (Germany), Tommy , Fabio, Antonio (Italy), Ilze (Latvia),Cecilia (Norway), Laura (Spain), Kasia (Poland), Soraya(England),Katie (U.S.) Malgosia, Mateusz(Poland), Rafael (Spain)Erika (Italia),Hamid (Iran), Annika (Germany), Janina and Dace (Latvia), Eliza (France), Nataliiya and Slavy (Bulgaria), Janina and Dace (Latvia) and the list goes on and on...

Interests

Something that really interests me is to be in touch with different cultures, to be in a place and have the opportunity to feel the place, interact with people, listen to their stories and thoughts, share thoughts,laughs,stories, try to understand how people live and think in certain ways.
Art,literature, photography, music, politics, wondering around, a nice conversation

• arts
• literature
• photography
• dancing
• capoeira
• environment
• cooking
• walking
• politics
• traveling
• music
• live music
• hiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: I love reading. Amongst Brazilian authors, I really like Carlos Drummond de Andrade, socially engaged poetry. Machado de Assis, Graciliano Ramos and Clarisse Linspector are a must within Brazilian literature. Regarding international ones, the list is long, but in a nutshell, I would mention some of my favourite authors, such as Albert Camus, Kafka, Sartre, Gerge Orwell, Kundera, Dostoevsky, etc.
Movies: regarding directors, I would mention a few, such as, Kieslowski, Ki-duk Kim, Almodovar, ™David Lynch, Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles, Alejandro Gonzales, Sofia coppola.
There many movies I appreciate from many other directors, such as "Biutiful", "Dolls", directed by Takeshi Kitano, El abrazo partido" directed by Daniel Burman. Some other examples of movies I like are "the Secret Life of words", "requiem for a dream", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" , "La soledad" .The list is long...
Music: I like a diversity of rhythms, depending on the context and mood. I do like a lot of Brazilian styles, such as MPB (Brazilian Popular Music), samba. I would mention Chico Buarque, Cartola, for example. Also, In some moments I like listening to indie music such as Beirute, others some good rock like Pink Floyd, it all depends. A short list would include Chopin, Tchaikovsky, some jazz and funk-groove.
There is a lot more, but we can talk about that when we meet up.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Going down hill in the pre alpes in Italy using garbage plastic bags as sleds; dancing in the rain in a mountain in Innsbruck (Austria); swimming at night in Mombasa (Kenya), The amazing view and silence in the alps in Switzerland; Riding a bike in the country side in the south of Poland; the sunset in Riga (Latvia); the view in the grand Canyon (USA); experimenting the local life in Zane, a really small town in Italy; camping in the desierto de las palmas (las palmas desert) close to castellón (Spain); Going to the Petrolia Hot springs (Italy) at night; sharing a meal with my family and friends in Brazil after one year without seen them; having breakfast in front of a lake in Brazil; getting a sincere hug.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Argentina, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Mauritius, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Brazil, Spain, United States

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