the local weirdo and restless wanderer

-----------

After graduating from my masters in July 2022 I decided to take a gap year and travel the world. So far I have been in South East Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand) and Oceania (New Zealand and Australia). I love getting to know a country by connecting with locals, their traditions, food and going off the beaten track.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

After a 5-year break from the Couchsurfing community I am back to connect with locals and other like-minded travellers during my travels. I love making connections with people and getting inspired by their travel stories as well as learning about a countries culture from locals.

As much as I like staying in hostels with fellow travellers, I much more enjoy connecting with locals to get a better feeling for the country and see the place from a local perspective.

Interests

Long kept interests

- Reading
- Food and coffee
- Machine learning/Artificial Intelligence (yes I am a bit of a nerd)
- Languages
- Volleyball

Newly discovered interests

- History
- Nature documentaries

• cooking
• hiking
• volleyball
• swimming
• languages
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Just a selection of my favourites :)

BOOKS

- Pachinko (Min Jin Lee)
- Educated (Tara Westoever)

MUSIC

- ODEZA
- Netsky
- Tame Impala

MOVIES

- My neighbour totoro

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

After my graduation I have been offered a PhD position at my university. The offer was great: I would be able to continue working with my supervisor which I had a great connection with and given a lot of freedom in what kind of research I want to do. However, it would require me to start in February and commit to living in the same place (Delft, The Netherlands) for another four years.

After one month of thinking back and forth I reclined the position to give myself the opportunity for a full gap year. I know (at least I try to convince myself) that another equally good PhD position will become available but who knows if I ever have that much freedom and time again to travel the world.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love sharing food! So I am excited to cook for you any of my favourite vegetarian dishes (wide selection from Italian cuisine to Vietnamese with an extension to baking goods like banana bread).

Also I am a big coffee enthusiast! Having lived in Italy, I have to say that no coffee so far has been as good as a simple café/esspresso or cappuccino (only in the morning of course) - even though Vietnamese coffee (Coconut and salted coffee!) has come really close to my top's.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Italy, Netherlands