If you don't mind that I'm sitting in a wheelchair and cannot walk or stand a very long time then go on reading:

On 7th of July 2017 I will celebrate my 11th anniversary to be a member of CS!!!
Wish it would not be commercial now....

CURRENT MISSION: "Learn to walk again properly!"

To let you know in advance:
1. My newest negative reference from Linda Merck is of course retaliatory.
Maybe you read my reference for her first. She and her husband were cheating me. (https://www.couchsurfing.org/people/rnlmerck/)
2. The other negative was written from a highly addicted female alcoholic. Also retaliatory.

And NOW to something completely different:
(love the Monty Pythions)

ABOUT ME:
- "Actions speak louder than words."

- "The man with a new idea is a Crank until the idea succeeds."

- "I don't believe there is anything in the whole earth that you can't learn in Berlin except the German language."
>>>all by Mark Twain<<<
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- Anti-fascist

- Feminist

- Active against injustice, censorship, gag orders, racism, anti-semitism, discriminations, against homophobia and mobbing of ALL sorts

- Active standing up and state my opinions openly against everything attacking these believes above - even here on CS
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I love to laugh and have a good time.
But on the other side I know my responsibility for myself and my health and my needs to rest enaugh.
You should know: In the moment I am not able to walk for long times or distances because a surgery where I've got an artificial knee went wrong. I'm able to walk down and up the steps slowly and I have a wheelchair. ...

I'm usually a person without fear.
Sometimes I feel sad and depressed about the behaviour of people, of their disability to think and feel with others.

I love personal freedom and free speech for everybody!!!

I reject unfairness, injustice, censorship and power misusage.

I hate the fact that obviously only money rules the world and human brains.

I don't like "bosses". Never did.

I'm very curious about nearly everything. Communications about this and that is very important for me. Behind every face there is a story.

I can discuss and chat about everything for hours.

I like to talk also about politics, worlds enviroment, work circumstances and education, social problems, german history, psychology, philosophy, relationships and religion.

I love to cook and I'm good in it, when I have something to cook.

I'm interested in people with a high IQ and EQ.

I like to share my travel experiences and funny stories.

I'm not very interested in "making party" and "hanging out".

I do not like freeloaders and people who have no interests and feelings for others circumstances.

PHILOSOPHY

1. Be useful for the world community
2. "I have a dream" - according Martin Luther King speech
3. Kunst ist schön. macht aber viel Arbeit. (Karl Valentin)
Means: Art is beautiful, but takes a lot of work.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Lately I organized the 2014BERLIN-Meeting for the 50+group-members.
It took place from 6th till 12th of June 2014.
28 people from all over the world attented and stayed for 6 days in Berlin.

I was mostly hosting since July 2006.
I surfed seven times myself since then.

I was organising official CS-meetings in Berlin and try to join the others when I have the time and money for it.

I was one of the organizers of the famous BerlinWinterCamp 2008:
An event for 450 people from all over the world,
5 days with program from 10:00 AM in the morning till 02:00 AM in the night.
With a lot of workshops, sightseeings, meetings, learning and parties.

I was creating additional and smaller meetings to cultural events and international restaurants.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Since 2006:
Mainly good with my surfing guests and CS-members,
- but definately not with the CS-headquarters and the new materialistic philosophy of commerce.

I hosted quite a lot of people from everywhere and have been hosted myself
2006 in Paris: by xyz
2007 in Paris: by Isa
2008 in Stockholm: by Elina
2009 in Vienna: by Gundl 2 (Helga)
2010 at Oslo-Fjord: by Tull (Bente Brenna)
2010 in Portugal: by Rety and Bruce
2012 in Brussels: by Floki (Ingrid)
2013 in Vienna: by Gundl 2 (Helga)
2017 in Broughshane, Northern Ireland by Yaks (Kev)

ALL my hosts have been great, except one (xyz), and I'm very thankful for this opportunity to travel and get an insight for so different places.

The best thing for me is, if my guests are communicative and know what they want to do in Berlin and why they want to visit me.
But I am mostly hosting now with BeWelcome.
http://www.bewelcome.org/members/JanaBerlin

My actual circumstances do not allow me to go out very much, because I live on a very low budget.
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UPDATE 6th of March, 2013
As my opinion has changed in the same dramatic bad way I allow myself to quote some parts of an opinion another CS-member has also and I also hope it's a clear message.

Since 2006 I liked Couchsurfing very much and convinced everybody that it is a great project and they should join definately.

I have met hundreds - if not a thousands - of people with CS. I have enjoyed almost every single contact with other CSers if it was hosting, surfing, on a small event or on a mass-event like BerlinWintercamp 2008 which I helped to put up and organized over nearly 4 months of work.

Since 2012 CS has lost a lot of it's old sharing charme, of dignity and respect by the HQ for the members and their concerns. Actually it was never having a lot of that in the past too.

2012 CS developed into a corporation only running for profit, after being a non-profit organisation for many years and strong promises it would never change this state.
A big lie we can see now!

Then it changed its terms of use, making all info from members on CS the property of CS-company, including personal pictures and statements, including also information on the various city-group-sites.
The investors gave out a lot of money (25 Mill. Dollars) to update the site "technically" - so they said, but in the background choosing a strategy to be able to make even more profit in the end, a strategy to rise the number of members even more.

Proof: I watched CEO Tony Espinoza's speech on a Tourism Conference from last year.

Look yourself on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/csxqg7e

The last months new people are signing in on CS, who only think that CS is about free accomodation.
One only get requests of people that did not take the time to read my profile or fill out theirs. Engaged members are feeling like a hostel. Also thes people only surf, but never host others. A whole lot of freeloaders, I'm sorry.
They do not know any better and this has to do with the new programmers of CS removing all information, all guidelines in the city-groupsites and 'sacked' the volunteers who have sent welcoming messages involving some guidelines and tips.
Furthermore, CS doesn't do enough to guarantee the safety of its users, for example by allowing people to write very personal information on public pages, making public posting the website's default and not filtering out phone numbers or e-mailaddresses.
The most ugly part to destroy the CS-COMMUNITY started just recently by deleting the profiles of critical members. I AM PROTESTING AGAINST THIS!!! Those are people who have been members for long years, deticating a lot of heart-blood and work into the CS-community, bringing people together, had a lot of positive references and vouches, were city ambassadors.
The big >mistake< what they made was to criticise the new policies of Couchsurfing. That's why they were deleted. And they didn't even been given a warning or a reason why by the HQ /saftey team. In old Nazi-Germany there was the possibility of a >Standgericht< (drumhead court-martial). It reminds me a bit of that!
Also the impossibility to confess ones ideas and feedback on the new CS is reminding me of a >gag order< which we had in Nazi-Germany and in former East-Germany dictatorship.
There are people misusing CS to act as freeloader or even worse, are out to steal/abuse people. Nothing much happens to them, if there is no police-report.
BUT the ones that criticise are being profiles removed. I have decided to not actively use Couchsurfing anymore.
I'm going to keep my profile / account a bit longer to stay in contact with members and some groups of the community (the part that's still left). I also want to see how long it takes before CS decides to virtually kill me also by removing my account, because I also will not stop to speaking up what I want to say. I will NOT change a lifetime habit now!

Interests

Travelling,
photographing,
riding with my bicycle through Berlin and surroundings,
talking about this and that,
saving energy and looking after our "mother earth" as much as I can,
visiting museums, art exhibitions, galleries,
visiting concerts: meeting interesting people,
sailing on a traditional sailingship (windjammer) as a crewmember,
writing,
painting,
reading,
learning,
computer and technical stuff,
and a lot more.

• arts
• writing
• concerts
• festivals
• education
• cooking
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• painting
• sailing
• communications
• teaching
• history
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Mostly jazz, blues and worldmusic, but also classic.

Books: I've got about 2.300 in the shelves (a friend counted them). I'm edicted to books of all kinds. I love books about travelling, if I'm not "on the road" myself, auto/biographics, fiction and novels, science fiction, the "DARKOVER"-cycle, mythology, detective stories, a.m.m.

MOVIES: "Enemy mine" - this film shows a lot of tolerance between two characters, who can't be more different; "Diva" - unbelievable colours, beautiful music, strange story; "Blues Brothers" - I love the Blues and the humor in this movie; "West Side Story" - wonderful music and dance; "2001: A Space Odyssey" - IMHO Kubricks best movie; to many movies to mention all ;-)))

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have been several times in India and Sri Lanka, first in 1981. Then again 1982, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2003 the last time. Alltogether I travelled approx. 18 months on the indian subcontinent.

I joined the biggest religious festival in Allahabad in the year 2001.

It was the "Maha Kumbh Mela" ('Great' Kumbh Mela) which comes after 12 times of 'Purna Kumbh Melas' which is after every 144 years.
The 2001, Maha Kumbh Mela was attended by around 60 million people, making it the largest gathering anywhere in the world.

I bathed in the holy "Triveni Sangham" what means that the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and invisible river Sarasvati meet. I also had a little sip of the holy waters - and I survived very healthy to continue my travels in India.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: How to stay young, if you grow older.
Share: Experiences while travelling.
Learn: To many things to write down.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I could cook for you
and I can teach you to take better photographs.
I'm able to show you your own city in a different light.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany

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