CURRENT MISSION

Find beauty in all this chaos.
Get things DONE!
To find balance between work and fun, because all work and no fun makes Raquel a dull girl.

ABOUT ME

I am an almost hyperactive girl who loves to learn, observe, and have new experiences. I feel like life is very short, and as the great wise Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
So, basically, I feel like traveling is when I am truly fulfilling my will of taking it all in. Especially because, for me, it's all about the journey, the people you meet on the way, and the things you do that would have never happened if you had stayed home.

PHILOSOPHY

"Happiness only real when shared" (Into the wild)
"It's getting better all the time" (Paul McCartney & John Lennon)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

So good! I've traveled a lot and in each place I went, my couchsurfers surprised me by being even cooler and more wonderful people!
Some of a few memorable things I've done with my couchsurfers:
Got really high and paranoid in Amsterdam and thought they were trying to hypnotize me.
Helped to dig a big hole in the garden to put the pool.
Went strawberry picking outside Vienna.
Watched Hitchcock Presents while having breakfast in Croatia.
Went to a quiz night in Edinburgh and won!

Interests

Cinema, photography, reading, sleeping, dancing, going out in the rain, hot chocolate, tasteful food, stretching, learning, falling in love, and PANCAKES.
I love spending time with friends, just hanging out, watching a great classic movie or a very silly and funny one.
I have developed a great interest in teas. Every time I travel I bring some different teas home.

I am deeply interested in arts, alternative ways of living, sustainable lifestyle, and education. I am always in the process of improving my knowledge on photography, even more so analogic photography. I love cameras and lenses and all that stuff.

• arts
• photography
• concerts
• dancing
• dining
• chocolate
• yoga
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• eating
• cinema
• tea
• playing cards
• wandering around

Music, Movies, and Books

Recent update: Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most amazing filmmakers ever.
There are so many... But I guess that the directors that have blown my mind more often are: John Ford, Yasujiro Ozu, Jean Pierre Jeunet, Woody Allen, Wong Kar Wai, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Jim Jarmush, Win Wenders, Fritz Lang, Herzog, Bergman, Godard, Michael Haneke, Luis Fernando Carvalho, Guel Arraes, Marcelo Gomes, Karim Ainouz, Hitchcock, Cohen Brothers, Sergio Leone, Rohmer, Tarantino, Nanni Moretti, Billy Wilder, Sam Peckinpah.....
but even though they are amazing, sometimes I just love watching some good old John Hughes, Monthy Python, films like Superbad and Adventureland and also Mission Impossible 4 and Super8!!

On literature, my favorites are Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, Camus, Clarice Lispector, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Machado de Assis, Drummond, Shakespeare, Vonnegut, Fante, Graciliano Ramos, Kafka, Borges, Cortazar, ...

Music: oh well... I love jazz and blues. Coltrane, Miles, Armstrong. The great women like Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holliday. The great R&B / soul /phunk Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. Rock is hard to tell, it depends on how I'm feeling. I love the Black Keys, the Beatles, the Who, Rolling Stones, and there are sometimes that an ACDC song is just what you need. But I also like very different bands such as Coldplay or Dave Matthews Band.
Of course, there are also lots of brazilian music that don't get around so much I guess, such as Nação Zumbi, Lenine, Criolo, Karnak, Caetano Veloso.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have directed a few short films, which is cool. =)
I´ve been to an Ennio Morricone´s concert.
I have spoken to the great filmmaker Agnes Varda.

Teach, Learn, Share

I could try to teach a bit of portuguese. And show a lot of great brazilian music and films. And how to make pancakes. =)

What I Can Share with Hosts

Experiences, laughs and photography tips.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, France, Portugal

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