We're a Polish-belgian couple that caught fire some 5 years ago in Leipzig (Germany). Since then we have been living in all kind of constellations, but mostly together in Gdansk (Poland). We love spending time travelling (and more of the adventurous type), reading books, hanging out with friends, hiking and trying out all kind of hobbies like bouldering, tango, ... (and then giving up after some time)
Maybe a bit about ourselves:
Rutger is not a very pronouncable name, so I'm also know by all kind of equivalents: Rudi, Rutx, Rüdiger, Roger, ... I'm a quite restless person, having too many plans and once in a while actually living them out. My main ambition is to finish a piece of writing and getting it published (but I'm a long way from there) and to be able do that I'm trying to 'live' as much as possible. Maybe most of all I could be described as a sponge, trying to absorp everything on my way and hopefully once I can make something out of all of that.

Joanna has just quited her job and is now experiencing the journey of her life. Educated as a psychologist, working in business, thinking of changing her path for something more meaningful (does not know the exact thing yet). Trying to learn something new every day and getting to know new people and their stories. Generally a warm, enthusiastic and positive person.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because it's an amazing opportunity to get to know locals, to have a glimpse of the real life in a country, to break out of the tourist bulb, to share ideas, opinions, or stories, to create stories, to help out a stranger, to be surprised, to feel at home abroad, etc.
Rutger also has already a quite long career in CS: https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/poncho_vdw (personal profile)

Interests

Rutger: interested in literature, writing (my hot topics nowadays are time, consciousness, ontology, loneliness...), late night philosophical discussions, soups, music in all sort of shapes an sizes (both listening and to some amateur extend playing it), all kind of sports - football, table tennis, swimming, running ..., absurd humor, good anecdotes, learning languages, observing people in public transport, ...

Joanna: reading, great fan of cinematography (specially European cinema) - compulsively watching a few movies per week, learning languages, having cosy evenings with friends, enjoying camping and kayaking, spending time in the nature, dreaming of working with elephants.

Music, Movies, and Books

Rutger:
Some of my favorite authors: Borges, Dostojewski, Marquez, Kundera, Gogol, and then I have a whole list of books which I could add to that: The Discovery of Heaven (Mulisch), Paradise Lost (Milton), Hero of Our Time (Lermontov), The Confessions of Zeno (Italo Svevo), .... When it comes to music, I can not even start to sum things up. My appetite is huge and crosses a few ages of music. I listen to quite a lot of classical music, then all kind of pop- and rock music from the 60's, 70's and 80's, jazz (but rather just from the local scene in Gdansk), folk of all sorts, ....

Joanna:
Among favourite writers - Dumas, Murakami, Ferrante, Bulgakov, Roth, Puzo. I love Scandinavian cinema, specially movies by Liars von Trier and Suzanne Bier. A fan of all kind of music-jazz, folk, rock, classical etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

To have met each other of course!

Teach, Learn, Share

As language enthusiasts were always willing to share our experience in learning languages, recommend some methods, apps, ... as well as just sharing the languages that we know: Polish, Dutch, and then to a lesser extend also English, German our French.
We like to share our experience in travelling as well and also get some tips what do, or what to do better.
And last but not least we would just like to share moments in spirit of friendship - get to know you, what's on your mind, what are your hopes and dreams, etc.

Of course when we return from our trip, when we find a place to settle down, we want to participate as well on the hosting part and welcome strangers in our home.

What I Can Share with Hosts

A few good anecdotes and travel stories, some secret recipes (which we could prepare), cosy time and a lot of laugh.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Germany, Poland