CURRENT MISSION

Listen to understand, love difference, embrace complexity, write!

ABOUT ME

Open, friendly, honest (to a fault), full of energy, I enjoy a drink, I love roadtrips, I care about the environment, I love food and eat everything. Oh, I'm Australian/English. I was born in Sydney and had a fantastic time living there for years but London turned out to be the place I chose to call home for 12 years. Great people, excellent art and culture, and an exciting city to be a part of. I've now thrown myself into the sea pool at Walpole Bay and a new home with a very long garden in Margate with husband Dominic.

PHILOSOPHY

Educate. Teach, learn, open yourself up to new ideas. Make ideas happen. I'm a big picture person trying to do my bit for the world, and do some little bits of good along the way. Home for me is somewhere that welcomes friends and anyone needing refuge.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've hosted probably about 40 couchsurfers through this website and whether it's friends or new acquaintances, we've always had somebody staying on our couch! Now we've got a house we can usually offer a room with a proper bed. I've also had some great couchsurfing experiences staying with people from this site.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

In the States: stayed with a gay couple in Memphis, was shown around the blues bars of Chicago, stayed with a ski instructor housesitting a $3 million mansion in Jackson Hole, stayed with a fire fighter we met in the Grand Canyon who invited us to his place in Salt Lake City.
Then there's the London experiences in amazing group houses, warehouses and friend's flats. And all this without the aid of this excellent website.

I've been overwhelmed by the generosity of people and now I get to reciprocate.

Interests

People mostly. Music, art, literature, road trips, skiing, hiking, water sports, events and festivals, communication and contemplation. I write - poetry, articles and social media. Find me @jessicatroses

• arts
• culture
• writing
• literature
• singing
• festivals
• environment
• dining
• running
• instructor
• drinking
• clubbing
• pub crawls
• music
• jazz
• blues
• hiking
• skiing
• sports
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

Books - anything by George Orwell, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S Thompson, Jack Kerouac or JD Salinger (just to name a few).

Poetry by T.S Eliot, Coleridge, Louis MacNeice, Alan Ginsberg, Philip Larkin, EE Cummings, Maya Angelou AND contemporary poets Hannah Lowe, Amy Key, Roddie Lumsden, Niall Campbell and Sarah Tait.

Also really appreciating Will Hutton, Margaret Heffernan and Ian Dent to help make sense of the politics of our time.

Music - Radio 6 - especially Cerys Matthews on a Sunday, jazz, blues, 90s. Pretty eclectic tastes.

Movies - arthouse, strange, suprising, confounding, like life.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Flown across Australia and to Papua New Guinea in a 10-seater private plane.
Lived for one month in a village in remote East Timor. OK, that's two things. I'll stop there.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm an editor - I can definitely help you with writing and editing English.

I'm pretty good at helping with job applications. Anything communications and social media (apart from Facebook).

I'm trying to learning French, African drumming and jazz singing so maybe you can help with those (I'm not very good at any of them).

What I Can Share with Hosts

Local knowledge of Hackney, learning more about Margate, lots of information on social enterprise and homelessness, some great pubs, beaches, a love of good food; interesting people, places and experiences.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Spain, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, France, United Kingdom

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