I'm a recent arrival from Australia, currently based in central Oxford. I enjoy board games, crosswords, reading, learning languages, and interesting conversation. Also, be warned, I make lots of terrible puns!

When it comes to surfing, I'm pretty self-sufficient and try not to be a burden. If I'm staying with a host and they're busy, that's okay, I have no trouble looking after myself.

Also, I LOVE FEEDBACK. If there's some way in which I could have been a better host or a better guest, I want to know about it (as in I REALLY want to know - otherwise I'll never know if I'm doing something wrong). You can leave me anonymous feedback at admonymous.com/haydenw without it affecting couchsurfing references or anything :) Thank you in advance for helping make me a better couchsurfer!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To help out travellers who want a place to stay and also occasionally to find a place to stay myself. And meeting lovely people from all over the world is a huge bonus. (I've met some absolutely wonderful people through couchsurfing so it's been well worth it just for that).

That said, I don't really care whether a guest is "looking for a free hostel" (as so many couchsurfers call it). They want a place to stay, and I happen to have a place to host people at no great cost to myself. As long as someone's courteous, considerate, and tidy, then I'm happy to help them save on accommodation (and I know just how expensive the hostels and hotels in Australia are). And that's without any pressure to hang out together the whole time or provide a mindblowing cultural exchange or anything like that. Sure, if you'd like to hang out that's great, but if you'd rather have time to yourself and recharge a bit that's totally fine too. No pressure either way :)

Interests

• cats
• books
• ethics
• vegetarian
• running
• board games
• reading
• hiking
• trail running
• languages
• philosophy
• chinese
• freeganism
• esperanto
• rationality
• effective altruism
• mandarin

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - The National, Daughter, The Jezabels, The Xx, Phoria, 冷酷仙境, and whatever else Spotify throws at me

Movies - anything that's a bit original or tackles some sort of interesting philosophical/ethical issue (e.g., Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

TV - Spooks, Hustle, Jonathan Creek, Poirot, Breaking Bad, Orphan Black, the obligatory Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Borgen, 流星花园, 马永贞, Darker Than Black

Books (the most important thing) - Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss, Cecilia Dart-Thornton's Bitterbynde saga, Robin Hobb, Stieg Larsson, Jung Zhang, John Wyndham, Peter Singer, Douglas Adams, Frank Herbert, and K.A. Applegate for nostalgia

And I've got to admit, I've been getting pretty into Pokemon GO since it came out.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

(After being abandoned by a dodgy taxi driver) Hitchhiking over the mountains in SE Myanmar with two lovely guys called Dancing and Fatty

And, less amazingly, I have been known to eat 20 plates of food in a single sitting at a buffet.

Teach, Learn, Share

I've done a bit of ESL tutoring, if that's a plus? If English isn't your native language, I'm more than happy to help you practice. Or if you're thinking of ever taking a trip to Australia in future, I can give you some great tips (go to both Canberra and the Northern Territory, the nicest city and the best place for amazing scenery, respectively) and explain the intricacies of Australian culture.

I can also give you tips for the other countries I've visited, especially China and the South-East Asian countries, and especially for ways to get around extremely cheaply. Or if you want to practice some Mandarin, I'd be very keen to do so (I need some practice myself)!

If you've read this far through my profile, put the word 'shibboleth' in your request and you'll get serious bonus points :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm very happy to clean and help out around the house. I don't like to be a burden on hosts so, whatever I can do to help, I'm glad to do it. Walking dogs, doing a bit of gardening for you, whatever might be helpful.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Japan, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China, United Kingdom