Welcome to my profile, wonderful stranger! :)
My name is Jasmin Bataille (call me Jas or Jazz) and, as you may have guessed, I'm not actually 110, nor am I biologically female - this is actually a bug from the website, I checked "other" when asked my gender and got female...?? Who knows... Anyhow, I don't mind, as I am non-binary. ;)
So right away, if you have negative feelings y this statement, I would politely ask to go on your way... Hopefully, that's not the case! :D
Oh and I really don't mind which pronoun you use, "he" or "she", doesn't matter...
Now that's been said, who am I?

I think that's a question all of us have to ask themselves, a lot.
And the answer ain't always easy.
First of all, I am a grateful, happy human being in love with Life and all that is as to offer. I'm spiritual, but *not* religious, and the number one thing that makes me cringe the most are elitist people who think of themselves as superior and who think they're here to "enlighten us"... and all day long, brag about how sacred their crystals are and what kind of pants they wear at yoga - which is traditionally not practiced with pants on (and no, not naked either... *sigh*) but I digress...

I'm an artist in music and photography. I am learning cinema, and trying to make a living from my passions.
I'm a real photography junkie and I don't just "walk around" with my camera : I plan photography expeditions, I don't mind scouting locations (including rooftops), and sometimes exceptional weather decide if I wake up at 3 in the morning to catch that sunrise up, or perhaps stay all night long shooting a timelapse.

N.B. : *I am a complete ninja at night. Really do. You can kick me out if I wake you up!* ;)
And yes, I sometimes ask complete strangers if I can take their portraits and shit!
Having said that, I DO know *when to put the camera away* and just to appreciate the beauty with my eyes. I do NOT take selfies (the picture shown here is a particular exception), and if I take a picture it's for the beauty not for the likes...!

Also, I've been drumming for over 12 years (starting at 8, and I'm "the first number in this sentence in reverse" years old xD). So, if you find me taping on shit all day long, and this makes you want to hit me really hard in the face - please *say so*. I am more than often unaware that I'm doing it a lot of the time! xD

Another important thing to know is that I'm asperger. So you can keep the "you're a little weird hey!" to yourself, thank you. And I'm not a "little weird" : *I am really, really fucking weird.* But not in a creepy way, relax! ;)

I LOVE helping others. I actually don't mind washing dishes, cleaning rooms, repairing stuff (to the best of my capacity), painting walls (but not much else in that field), cooking vegetarian food - salmon being an exception, I love salmon, sorry poor salmons RIP :( - taking your portrait the best I can for free and lit up the house on fire with a drum solo during a party!
Actually, all the things I am not really a fan of when I'm home, but suddenly became very keen about when traveling abroad. The travel magic...! :O

On top of that... well I had a pretty fucked-up past: I suffer from a mild for of complex PTSD (Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder), which gets into effect with my autism because of cancer (don't worry, I was a little child), constant bullying during school years, paranoïa, etc
However, *don't panic*. It's not PTSD like seeing ghosts from the past and shit, I'm ain't paranoid no more, and I won't mistake you for Donal Trump and won't attack you with your kitchen knife.
Actually, more often than not it's *me* who help people calming down. I have years of experience in dealing with this on my own, it's been about a year I didn't had a panic crisis, I meditate, do yoga, swim and practice my art everyday so I'm good! :)
Just know that, some things can trigger me. I try to warn people as much as possible, but I prefer to talk about specific triggers face to face and in private.

Again, as I stated in the beginning regarding my gender orientation, if you have negative feeling with me being autistic or treat me in a condescendant way (if you're thinking "poor little lonely dude", that's NOT a good sign) this won't work out for us... again, hopefully you truly are open minded :)

I can along just about anyone politically. But be warned : if you start the conversation, you're in for one HELL of a ride.
You have been WARNED. xD
Finally, english is my second langage. I can teach you french! :)

So if you're eager to know me more, I am looking for hosts in different countries :
- Iceland 11-18 of October 2018
- India during 2019 (not specifically planned)
- Hawaii during 2019
... well see ...

As always, have a good one!
Namaste,
JB

P.S.: Make yourself a great day.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I want to travel the world to experience Life to it's fullest, and to establish my business as a travel photographer. Granted, I'm not there yet - but this is what I want to accomplish and, trust me... I will!
I do have some money put aside, but I don't like hotels. I'm a loner at home - and loving it - but when I travel, it's not to get alone in a giant room somewhere artificial keeping me from experiencing the real local lifestyle.

I love meeting new people all the time and to grow alongside others :)

Interests

• photography
• music
• food
• nature
• anarchy
• spiritual growth
• philosophy of life
• political philosophy

Music, Movies, and Books

... This will be one hell of a ride, here we go!!!
Music :
The Beatles is MY band <333
I'm a big lover of funk and know how to groove. So everything Tower of Power, Michael Jackson, Bill Withers, Prince (PRINCE!!! 3...RIP... D:),Christine and the Queens, Parcels, some Daft Punk... but also Queen, Boston in classic rock... I'm a jazzman as well so Snarky Puppy, Zappa, Miles, Collier, ... Indie : Tame Impala, Glass animals, Radiohead, Artic Monkeys, Depeche Mode...
French poetic pop and rap, like Chaton, Stromae, Odezenne... in terms of classical, I love Vivaldi the most, Chopin always as must (!), Beethoven 9th symphony and Mozart's requiem are my favorite orchestral pieces.
Danny Elfman and Ennio Morricone for soundtracks.
I'll could go and on and on, I am a HUGE fan of music and musician, you get it ;)

Cinema :
... where to start? I'm a cinephile as well so ... I said you were in it for a ride ;)
All of Tarantino's movies. Especially Kill Bill. What a masterpiece :O This movie is responsible for my love of cinema. I watched it when I was 11. My mom was afraid - ironically enough - that I got traumatized because of it and for years warned me about violence in movies - I was not the slightest bit traumatized, but fascinated.

All of Tim Burton's. Mars Attack will take you 3 days of massaging your mouth to recover from it! Big Fish is THE fantastic film in my book. A nightmare before Christmas is always classic!

Forest Gump is my favorite movie of all time. Perhaps as an autistic person with physical problems, although I have no intellectual deficiency, makes me relate to it. Robert Zemeckis and Winston Groom, you guys are the men! :O

Denis Villeneuve is my idol. He is the ultimate psychological drama guy in this century, I believe he'll became as big a legend as Coppola in this genre. You need to watch "Incendie", one of his genre feature a few years prior to him breaching into Hollywood like a hot knife spreading butter. However, I must warn you, that movie was the hardest to watch of all the movies I saw... yes, even harder than The Pianist. I meat it. And Blade Runner 2049.... Deakins and Villeneuve are shaping 21th century cinema and hopefully will collaborate on a lot of great movies in the future :D

Appart of that, I love myself some good ol' Sergio Leone westerns. Ain't nothing quite like that!
Also watching out Yan England's new directing career and Xavier Dolan. Québec cinema is great, and yes, I'm from Montreal and I'm proud of it. That does NOT mean in any way, shape or form, that it is superior to other countries' cinema, at all - just so we're clear ;)

Oh and Shaolin by Benny Chan is my favorite for photo direction, appart of Blade Runner 2049 of course. Anthony Pun is a true master of light, like 9000 Shaolin level master of light...! It's very theatrical, but for those of you who like old kung-fu movies you'll love this one!

In terms of series, Cowboy Bebop by Shinichiro Watanabe is a MUST. I'm not even a big an of anime but, seriously, this might be my favorite *story* of all time - of all books, films, series I've ever seen and read. Period. And I never seen such reactions about anything else -seriously, a LOT of people me included say that it changed our lives plain and simple. I also learned english this way - luckily for me, the dubbing is excellent! xD
Also in terms of series I recommend Sherlock Holmes (indeed!), Sacred Games, The Black List, and Altered Carbon.
I WILL watch Games of Thrones. But... I don't binge watch stuff, so I'll take a long time LOL ;)

Books :

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is my boï! Yes, his name is hideous, that's why we says J. R. R. but I like to show I know his full name xD
LOTR... you need to READ it.
The movies... haven't included LOTR in my list of favorite movies BUT the 3rd is a must watch, seriously. The other two, you can pass. And only in the full like 4 hours version is this really gonna give you the real deal - for hardcore geeks of course. I am one as you might have noticed already. ;)
The Hobbits, skip the hideous movies, read the books. And Faërie and all that other great stuff from him!

Roal Dahl is one of my favorites as well. Mathilda is a pure classic and I relate to it a lot, although I wasn't nearly as gifted as the character - I was still diagnosed with being "over-gifted" at 7 years old, which is mostly BS to say that you're gonna be bullied and bored at school for the rest of your life until you grow skin thicker than the fucking Mount Everest.
Charlie and the Chocolate factory is just a pure delight. The movie is terrible...

Jules Verne, indeed. Classic.

Big fan of comics as well...
Anyway the list could go on forever, you get the point. ;)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I performed at the Montreal International Jazz Festival at 16 years old despite suffering from terrible, terrible anxiety non-stop during rehearsals for one week straight before the show.
I did recover from that before the final performance.

Video here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toilaeuHbBI

This is the one thing I have done that I'm the most proud of. This might surprise people that I didn't chose surviving cancer, but there are a lot of reasons why cancer survivors don't usually attach nearly as much prestige and shit to surviving - I can talk about this a lot but here is not the right place... ;)

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you :
- La langue française (french)
- Photography
- Drumming
- Some insane dance moves that can be performed by almost anyone (I myself have limited physical capacities)
- How to set a KILLER workflow on Mac OS
- A little bit of acting (I did that for a long time when I was a kid from 6 to 14 actually)
- Meditation
- Basic video editing on FCPX and basic photo editing
- The Sacred and Lost Art of Not Giving a Fuck. I'm a master at this. After some classes, you will never give a fuck again about something you don't have a fuck to give to, and will recover from your fucks debt forever! :D

I want to learn :
- Icelandic and any nordic langages. Just because it sounds badass - and because I'll come to iceland soon! :D
- Skateboarding
- Bass guitar
- Saxophone
- Photoshop manipulations and VFXs

I am learning :
- Finance, business and entrepreneurship
- Script writing
- Yoga

What I Can Share with Hosts

My happiness and general good vibes :D

My vegetarian cooking - my tofu is really, really fucking good, and yes, I AM bragging about it. K? xD

My best to clean, fix, and help with anything in your house or apartment, dishes are absolutely included. Toilet is well... not impossible xD

My groove, if you're a musician, we HAVE to jam and will have a great time! \m/

My photography skills, let me set up a mini studio in your home and I'll give you the best portraits of you I can so you'll rock on with a great profile pic around here and more!

Countries I’ve Visited

France, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada