🇹🇩Romanian expat working and living in the Netherlands together with my wife, Anca (also Romanian, expat, 31), and our baby daughter Abigail (born 2024).
We're relatively new to the CS experience in this family 👨‍👩‍👦format slowly kicking it off as of May '24, however, as you will be able to read through most of the accumulated references, Iosif holds a vast CS experience in both hosting & surfing as well as international CS events, ambassadorship, peer network with fellow CS alumni etc. experience accumulated since 2013 (super active especially between 2014-2019) in several places/countries. Anca also has individual experience from the time she has lived in UK (2y), and India (5y), but has no individual CS profile.

(HOSTING) 🏠 EXPERIENCE & PHILOSOPHY
Iosif hosted 200+ fellow CS travelers in different homes and different scenarios, and surfed with a dozen hosts, whilst Anca has accumulated experience as a female solo traveler & surfer in both good/normal/modern as well as challenging/primitive/dangerous scenarios and places. From the above-mentioned, we take one main cluster learning in our journey further: gut feeling, common sense and good manners are the foundation for all our experiences, and we'd appreciate if we can expect the same from you.
With this in mind, if you consider 🛋 SURFING WITH US:
# please read the information on this profile and try getting the big picture - will it work for your needs and be comfortable for us in the process? Will there be added value coming out of this experience for both sides?
# please have a Complete Profile (transparency): fair share of personal information / experience / intentions, social pictures (meaning not only selfies but within social environments / surrounded by friends, family, pets; hosting, surfing, cooking), couple References resembling past experiences would be highly appreciated, some CS friends.
# write a Personalized Request: keep it simple and be yourself, but show that you take some interest in us as a host whatsoever.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing - and generally connecting with people of this world in a semi-familiar environment such as hostels, while hosting or surfing, over a BBQ etc.- has brought some of the best experiencies in our individual lives so far, and going forward we want to give it a try as a family format as well, with a silver lining / the aim to offer our daughter 🙇‍♀️ the possibility to grow up surrounded by new, diverse, beautiful people and (what is our hope as parents) develop a great character and contribute to this world with kindness.

Both of us are down to earth kind of people, being born and raised in modest, extended families with numerous siblings, in a poor part of Romania (we come from the same hometown) during a relatively challenging period for Romania in the 90s (post Revolution re-build period). Once we've established ourselves as adults, with a big focus on higher education, genuine curiousity and traveling as much and as often as possible, we eventually joined the way of the modern world by entering the corporate life and putting our efforts into developing & fine-tune our career paths - changing already 2 countries as expats (in 2019 we were located in Romania, then relocated & lived in Poland during 2020-2021, then again relocated to the Netherlands since 2022). We can be fancy at times, but deep down it's more natural to us to remain humble and live a frugal/modest life, DIY-ing around our cosy little place, cooking hearty meals, discover new people and their stories and offering our place to fellow travelers.

As a host, Iosif has often walked the extra mile and made his surfers' experience unique, resulting in them visiting again or becoming lifetime friends - you can read in the references about Airport/Bus station/Train station/Hitchhiking spots pick-ups/drop-offs, offering his room for bigger families/groupw and instead him sleeping on the couch etc. and to the level that we will be guided by our values, we plan to carry on that also as a family format.

Interests

Discovering the CS world in the family format, while enjoying the opportunities coming our way from the beautiful people and feelings we will experience. Constant learning and development would be also an interest, including foreign languages, new / traditional dishes, and all types of self-development skills.

• diy
• traveling
• cycling
• business
• hosting
• personal development
• europe
• family
• finance
• amsterdam
• rotterdam
• logistics
• multiculturalism
• brussels
• montessori
• cooking and baking
• concerts and festivals
• european culture
• poland
• romania
• netherlands
• tilburg
• eindhoven
• reggio emilia
• den bosch
• eurostar
• romanian culture
• efteling (kaatsheuvel)
• waalwijk
• schiphol airport

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC
Mostly techno (Deep Tech and Minimal) but generally all good & chill music, to name a few: Glass Animals, Cult of Luna, Alternosfera, Dub FX (Iosif); Harry Styles (Anca).

MOVIES
Mostly dramas. Some good series, too.

BOOKS
Flow, Overprocessed People, Montessori Baby/Toddler/Child (currently)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Driving journey from West coast to East coast in the US.

Teach, Learn, Share

Open for all.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Our time and never ending crave for curiosity = this includes our well developed listening skills.
We can share our life experience, some cooking skills, knowledge about Romania and personal views on the World, and even know-how from our professional experience.
We can cook some delicious dishes and don't mind helping out with dish-washing or general house cleaning.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, Poland, Romania, United States, Wales

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