CURRENT MISSION

To find interesting couches to sleep upon while meeting even more interesting people

ABOUT ME

My husband, Randy, and I become world traveler four and a half years ago. After retiring (from dentistry and teaching), we discovered a love of travel. We sold almost everything and set off to explore the world (to the great envy of our grown children). We are open, enthusiastic, excited about life and learning, and passionately in love with each other.

To learn more about us, please visit our house sitting site (https://gailrandy.wordpress.com) or our workaway profile (https://www.workaway.info/workawayerprofile.html?w=gaildrharrison).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

At this point we are travellers using house sitting, workaways and couch surfing to help us explore the world. We enjoy couch surfing as it allows us to meet people in the areas we are visiting. We see ourselves as travellers not tourists and what we don't enjoy is staying in hotels completely out of touch with locals.

Once we finish our own travels, we will be offering a couch.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have only couchsurfed officially a few times, but found each time very interesting. We have met some incredible people through couch surfing, some of whom will remain lifelong friends. Each experience we has been unique and has truly added to our adventure.

We have also found couch surfers among people we have met in other ways - a workaway host, a fellow traveller and even our son! LOL

Interests

One of our favourite pastimes is cooking, especially when we have grown some of the ingredients. We love trying new recipes, sampling and savouring new foods and discovering new tastes. Food is one of the best ways of learning about a culture and sharing food is one of the best ways of getting to know people.

We are constantly learning as we feel this is one way to stay young. Presently we are learning about building, especially natural building, and have just helped with two projects - an earthship and a straw bale raising. What we enjoyed most about them was the camaraderie, laughter and sense of community - not to mention getting our hands dirty! We may, at some point, decide to build or renovate our own home - when we settle down again.

We both love music - of almost all genres - and rediscovered our love of singing in a choir while living in Ajijic, Mexico. Music, like food, is a link connecting humanity, and is one which we enjoy experiencing wherever we are.

While I am more of a listener, Randy is a passionate lover of discussing ideas who will enjoy conversing with you about almost any topic.

We both enjoy being outdoors - camping has been a lifelong part of our lives. While we no longer hike or ski for days, we still enjoy good rambles. Randy is an avid birder (as well as amateur geologist, arborist, entomologist - in short anything and everything to do with nature).

• singing
• dancing
• cooking
• reading
• traveling
• music
• outdoor activities
• camping
• history
• philosophy
• religion
• food
• nature
• life
• people
• learning
• ideas
• community
• natural building
• birding

Music, Movies, and Books

We enjoy almost any type of music; classical (Dvorák, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius); k.d.lang, Beatles, Boz Scaggs, Eagles, Diana Krall, music to dance to ...

For movies, we have many old favourites like Pretty Woman , You've Got Mail, A Fish Called Wanda, Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump; almost anything with Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep, almost any movie by Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, or Rob Reiner.

Books - I read good fiction for relaxation: (Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth George are two favourite authors) Recent fiction reads include All the Light We Cannot See, and When God Was a Rabbit

Presently, in an attempt to understand a sad part of Canadian history, I've been reading literature about and by First Nations authors; The Way You Walk' (Wab Kinew) , Indian Horse (Richard Wagamese) , The Inconvenient Indian (Thomas King).

Randy enjoys reading a variety of non-fiction. His recent reads include: Enlightenment Now (Steven Pinker), Eat to Live (Joel Fuhrman), and The Bonobo and the Athiest (Frans de Wall).

Books that have changed us profoundly include: Chasing the Scream; the war on drugs (Johann Hari), The Omnivore's Dilemna (Michael Pollen), Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think (Peter Diamandis)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I travelled from Kathmandu to London in the back of a Bedford army truck over the course of 93 days in 1976! That was the beginning of my wanderlust.

We raised three wonderful children who have become three incredible adults.

We have been married for almost twelve years; the last four and a half years we have been together basically 24/7 and are still married and still passionately in love with each other and life. That is amazing!

Teach, Learn, Share

Having taught for almost 30 years, I somehow have almost an aversion to the word 'teach'. I believe that we all learn from each other and that the best teaching comes incidentally rather than purposefully.

That being said, I am very good at helping people improve their English (or even French) and would be pleased to help you if you ask.

Randy has a wealth of knowledge about almost any topic from history to nature to economics; he would truly enjoy sharing this with you.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Our passion for life and living
Our cooking skills
Our optimism about the world and its future
Stories about our adventures as grey nomads

Countries I’ve Visited

Afghanistan, Anguilla, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Fiji, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Singapore, Thailand, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, New Zealand, United States