I have way too many useless hobbies: I tried sumi-e, playing all kinds of flutes, saxophone, climbing, playing Go, piano (failed miserably, but did not give up!), organizing scientific conferences and schools, teaching, studying Elfish language, teaching programming, teaching languages.

While that did not promote my career much, now at least I can amuse you by talking about something interesting. Right now I'm obsessed with Asia.

I want to know everything about Japan, China, and Vietnam.

I'm learning Japanese as a start.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Mostly I want to meet local people, help them with what they need, learning about their hometowns, spending time together and exploring the world through friendship.

Staying at someone's place is also great: there's something magical about waking up somewhere you've never been before.

Finally, me and my wife always wanted to have tons of guests in our place. Our flat is not big, but we know the surroundings very well.

Interests

• anime
• painting
• bouldering
• music
• calligraphy
• tea
• trekking
• flute
• biking
• bike
• programming
• language learning
• saxophone
• russian
• japanese
• go
• tea ceremony
• immersion
• shinto
• mia
• refold

Music, Movies, and Books

Progressive rock like Van der Graaf Generator, Yes, Camel.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I was doing my Ph.D. I organized several conferences and summer schools.

I'm writing in Wikipedia, and my article reached the Moon!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach languages, and I know a lot of tricks to make language learning effective.

Programming and computers - doing it for work since forever.

I can explain how people live in Europe, how they work in France, Switzeland, Germany, and Russia.

I want to learn about local customs and hard-to-find locations.

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Russian Federation, Switzerland, Ukraine