CURRENT MISSION

Get the most out of our time as students to travel the world and experience life

ABOUT ME

Harriet Barham and I (Ilona de Haas) are two very good friends that have just graduated and are taking a gap year this year. During our gap year we want to gain work experience as well as travel to South America to volunteer, explore and become fluent in Spanish. The most important dimension of our trip is cultural exchange and couchsurfing seems like a very good way to meet interesting people.We are leaving on the 11th of January for Argentina before volunteering in an ophanage in Lima, Peru.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe that the highest acheivement of the self is to be able to live the present moment and to give more importance to the path than to the goal itself. Happiness is not a goal it is the way.

I live my life to gain experiences and am still too young to know where im heading. At the moment im just enjoying the road and learning from others as I go.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We love travelling and couchsurfing seems like a great community to allow us to meet people from all over the world. We are looking forward to surfing during our gap year and would be delighted to show people around our city when we get back or before we go.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have not had any coushsurfing experiences yet but are looking forward to having some ...

Interests

(Ilona) I have many intersts and my whole life ahead of me to discover more or them. However my priority for the moment is to learn languages. I am also interested in economics which is why I am going to start an economics course at the university of Nottingham in 2011. Horse riding and music are my hobbies.
(Harriet) I am interested in journalism and am planning on studying International Relations at Sussex University in 2011 as I am yet unsure about what direction I really want to take. My hobbies are horse-riding, hockey and I love making things whether its clothes, gifts or baking (im still working on real food).

• arts
• dancing
• tango
• dining
• cooking
• baking
• clothing
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• surfing
• hockey
• economics
• international relations
• journalism
• languages
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Music is very important in my life, I listen to rock and pop but also to jazz. I don’t really have a favourite band or a favourite movie. I am fan of nobody but I just enjoy good music, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Kaiser Chiefs, Supertramp, and Mickael Jackson are examples of music I listen to regularly. Regarding movies, my preferences are thrillers, crime mysteries and romantic movies. Books, I love to read crime mysteries or breathtaking adventures with a lot of movement.
I love adventure and crime movies and adore a good comedy or a soppy chic flic every now and again. I listen to The Killers, The Streets, I like indie pop but my Mp3 is full of everything. I enjoy reading classic novels but love crime thrillers and often get really into books and cant put them down.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Too much to write, we'll explain when we get there...

Teach, Learn, Share

My strong point is languages and I am always delighted to help people learn english, french or dutch. I would really like to learn to read music quicker and learn to dance the salsa as well as other couple dances.

I really enjoy sharing with people through art and creativity, and although I have two left feet I love to dance and Soth America is the perfect place to experience the passion of salsa and tango. I love to bake but cant cook real food so would love to share and learn!

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