My name is Ilmari. I'm from Tampere, Finland. I often travel because of my research on the meditation cultures (including critical social scientific perspectives on the issue), but I usually combine travel and holiday trips. Nowadays, I mainly try to travel more or less ecological, using train and busses. Flying only if its reallyreally needed for the sake of work.

I love going hole in the ice in the winter time. I do Yi quan, sometimes running, Finnish baseball, some forms of yoga, emotionally open Zen-meditation in the school of Ordinary Mind Zen. Recently I have aquainted myself with climbing. In sum: I like to move, and not move.

I like to experiencing what I haven't experienced before. I love art, especially Marina Abramović, whom I'm going to see soon in Stockholm.

Living in the centre of Tampere, and like to show the Town. Pispala and Tahmela, Rauhaniemi, and Ylöjärvi's smoke sauna are must seen in Tampere. Kauppi's forests and local restaurats as well.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I like travelling slow, and meeting people, and I can discus about any subject from heating a smoke sauna six hours and old forests of Finland to commodification (and other aspects) of a cosmetology's working life, and especially I can speak about the taste of a sencha Kura, the thing that really does not need words. Usually I don't have hurry. I want to enjoy this life, and ath the moment, I can do it, most of the time.

- At the moment I'm planning a joint work/ holiday trip to Copenhagen.

I'm not sure, if we always know, why are we doing things, such as Couchsurfing.

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Most of the sounds, Drums, horns, birds,
Maybe also Eivør, Circle (Finnish band), Massive Attack, The Knife, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, Kraftwerk, L.cohen, Anna Calvi, Jefferson Airplane, Emma Salokoski...

Grande Bellezza, Divines, Enter the Void, David Fincher's &Chronenberg's&Lynch movies.

E. Jelinek, Barry Magid's Ending the Pursuit of Happiness, Alan W. Watts, Gunter Grass, Alice Munro's Away From her.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Travelling in Norther parts of India, and staying at a peculiar Tibetan Buddhist Monastery at Bodh Gaya near to mahabodhi temple was interesting, Two weeks zen-sesshin at Lammi, Travelling at Big Sur road, Napoli's and Sorrento's roads... In a very certain sense, the most boring moments are equal to most amazing ones, aren't they?

Teach, Learn, Share

I just saw superb gig from Eivor at Tampere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsl-KHGe4Kk

My work site on meditation and stuff:

http://www.uta.fi/yky/en/research/tasti/Staff/kortelainen.html

What I Can Share with Hosts

My travelling experience, discussion on Any subject, well, all of my experiences.

If asked three times, I can also show/ guide simple (or more complicated) body-awareness practices such as Yi quan, Tension Release Exercises (TRE) or some other somatic stuff.

I can share food.
- To be honest, I'm might not be the best cook in the world, but I can, and want to, learn more.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Finland, United Kingdom, United States