STATUS

"Maybe Accepting Guests" because some periods are better than others and because I admit to being rather picky about hosting people--which is a good sign, is it not?

CURRENT MISSION

Encounter, experience, understand, enjoy!

ABOUT ME

After studying pure and applied sciences at Dawson College then comparative literature and Spanish culture for a long while at the Université de Montréal, I now work at the latter as a shipping and receiving clerk for the bookstore. I'm not one who defines himself by his work, since it largely depends on circumstances rather than actual desires, but it's something most people feel it's important to know so I say it right off the bat.

I'm a very open and respectful person, always eager to talk, share, help, and understand. I love to read, write, discuss, play guitar, listen to music, watch movies and TV series, surf the Web (mostly to get lost in Wikipedia), and discover new things. I don't go out much since I'm a pretty laid-back person, but some turbulence is always welcome in my rather quiet life!

I've had the immense privilege to travel around Western Europe, South America, Pakistan, India and Iceland so far, and sincerely hope to set foot in many other places in the future, as well as revisiting some of these amazing areas with which I fell in love.

PHILOSOPHY

Experience life, travel around, meet people, understand humanity, attain enlightenment -- why not?

Life is short, so we ought to make the most of it, all the while striving daily to become truer to ourselves and others.

Albert Camus: "La vraie générosité envers l'avenir consiste à tout donner au présent." [True generosity towards the future consists in giving it all in the present.]

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Intro: A nice Austrian girl -- named Alice, if I'm not mistaken -- told me about CouchSurfing while I was travelling through South America back in 2006, and I looked it up two years later while preparing for my Indo-Pakistani trip.

Meeting: As for my first CS meeting, despite feeling a tad nervous about meeting a whole bunch of strangers (from home, of all places! -- I'm kind of helpless...), I went to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with the CS members of Montreal in 2008. Needless to say, it was great fun and I worried for nothing! Oh, and at that very same party I met Roxanne D'Aoust, which would become my flatmate for three years!

Surfing: I tried surfing for the first time in Pakistan and LOVED it! Thanks to CS, I met Mudassar Shah, a great and generous man who welcomed me as a brother in Islamabad and helped me tremendously throughout my lengthy stay in Pakistan.

Hosting: I hosted for the first time in September 2010 when I welcomed Radoslava and Peter (from Slovakia) at my parents' home. It was a genuinely great experience and I was eager to host (them or any good person) again! While living with Roxanne, we've hosted a few people over our three years together and it's always been a pleasurable and enriching experience, which explains why we kept on doing it. I love offering to others that hospitality which I've received on numerous occasions in the past; it's my way of paying it forward.

Conclusion: Long live CouchSurfing!

Interests

In general, CULTURE in all its multifaceted glory: popular culture, literature, music, language, philosophy, religion, history, politics, etc. I'm a sucker for learning! But above all, HUMANS: their simplicity, complexity, and diversity.

Music, Movies, and Books

- Literature: Borges, Kundera, Gombrowicz, Camus, Sabato, Hesse, Tavares, Kafka, Mishima, Büchner, Pessoa, Petrarch, Étiemble, Vonnegut, Cervantes, Ghalib, Poe, Saint-Exupéry, Miron and so many more...

- Music: Dream Theater, The Tea Party, Max Richter, Nine Inch Nails, Estrella Morente, Karnivool, Daran, Muse, Arvo Pärt, The Gathering, Frédéric Chopin, Björk, Anathema, Alban Berg, Lacuna Coil, etc. I love so many different styles of music -- from Western and Indian classical music to mathcore, fado and drum & bass -- that it's hard to decide.

- Movies: "Cyrano de Bergerac", "Before Sunset", "Apocalypse Now", "Requiem for a Dream", "Being John Malkovich", "Cube", "Waking Life", "Gladiator", "Noriko's Dinner Table", "Diarios de motocicleta", "In The Mood for Love", "Dark City", "The Hours", "Inception", Japanese animation and... Bollywood!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

1. During the summer of 2006, every moment spent on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) was won-der-ful!

2. Living in Pakistan with my friend's family over the course of 11 weeks in the summer of 2008 was a blessing and a life-altering experience for me.

3. Trekking alone in Iceland was a blissful thing to do, both demanding and exhilarating.

Teach, Learn, Share

I LOVE to teach and learn!

I know my share of anything related to:
- Guitar and music in general
- Literature, philosophy, history
- Religion, mythology and spirituality
- Martial arts and Argentinean tango

I'd appreciate learning more about:
- You!
- Any rewarding personal and/or travel stories
- Music, always more music
- Photography
- History and politics
- All the wonderful books you've found interesting!

What I Can Share with Hosts

- An authentic welcome, a solid roof and a pleasant couch, some modest measure of peace and comfort in Montreal.
- Anything related to culture, arts and letters, travel, etc.
- To the best of my quite limited knowledge: some tips about travelling around Montreal, Quebec and Canada.
- Most certainly a few meals!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Pakistan

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