CURRENT MISSION

walking the end of the Camino de Santiago!

ABOUT ME

Kathy: I'm an Irish youth worker living in Cork and studying Irish literature in my spare time. I have a small garden with two hens and as many fruit and vegetable plants as i can squash into it, and I'm working hard to get better acquainted with nature and how I can work with it. I write a little bit and enjoy reading, travelling and adventures in general!

Ronan: I'm an Irish musician also living in Cork. Music is my passion and I have played it almost all my life both as a solo performer and in bands. I have my own small home recording studio where I spend most of my time! I studied Spanish and Sociology in University College Cork. I also studied for a year in Bilbao in the Basque region of Spain. My other interests include films, and reading.

PHILOSOPHY

Kathy: I suppose like my original mission statement, "getting more self-sufficient" is still my personal philosophy right now. I'm striving to make as little impact on the planet as I can, and to try to live sustainably and positively with the people around me. Also to throw off the modern needs for constant hyperstimulation, tv, processed food and nonsense! I feel like I'm improving every day, be it in very small ways, and it's really rewarding.

Ronan: Treat others you would like to be treated, Surround yourself with good people and try to learn from them.. and don't suffer fools because life is too short.

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We're brand new to couchsurfing and are looking forward to learning more and exploring this amazing community to find our place within it!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We were introduced to Couchsurfing through Ronan's sister, whose fantastic experiences surfing and hosting made us eager to find out more and to join the community.

Intereses

Kathy: I'm interested in all kinds of performance and creativity including poetry, street theatre and dance. At the moment I'm also getting more and more involved in sustainable living, and am trying to put what I learn into practice. I'm also interested in building better communities to share this kind of learning and get some love and friendship back into society! I play a little piano and sing a bit, and I do some dressmaking (very basic!) and cooking (getting better...). I recently became addicted to running and am now up to ten miles, and I also love all kinds of outdoor pursuits like hillwalking, sea-swimming, rock-climbing and so on.
Ronan: I am interested in all things artistic! Especially music. I sing, play guitar, bass, and a little bit of drums and piano. I write and record my own music and have released 2 CDs with my band. I have also performed many live shows throughout Ireland (and a few in Spain!). I am also very interested in films, and reading.

• chickens
• arts
• writing
• literature
• poetry
• singing
• performing arts
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• running
• walking
• gardening
• movies
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• drums
• outdoor activities
• surfing
• rock climbing
• racquetball
• swimming
• engineering
• medicine
• sociology
• rivers
• mountains
• squash

Música, películas y libros

Kathy: favourite movie directors are PT Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Steven Soderbergh and Michel Gondry. Just realised these are all men - aren't there any good women directors?? Music I like Pixies, REM, Sufjan Stevens, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Air, Neil Young... and books Louis-Ferdinand Celine's Journey to the End of the Night, Sarah Kane's plays (is that a book?) Feynman's physics stuff, LeGuin's Wizard of Earthsea Quartet, Neil Gaiman, the Dune books, His Dark Materials (lot of sci-fi in here, i keep forgetting I'm a geek...) biography and autobiography, Paulo Coelho, POETRY (reading Mina Loy at the moment) and everything that comes in print basically.

Ronan: Love too many movies and too much music to mention. Music is my main passion though and I have pretty eclectic taste. I don't discriminate when it comes to genre... Alt Rock, Electronica, Punk, New Wave, Folk, Pop, Jazz, Bluegrass, etc etc etc... if it has something unique and comes from a genuine place I usually like it.

Algo increíble que he hecho

Kathy:

Last year my father, my sister and I walked the final six days of the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain - from Sarria to the doors of the beautiful cathedral in Saltiago, carrying all our possessions on our backs. Every day we woke at sunrise and just walked, through fields and forests, up and down hills, across rivers, through villages and towns, watching the sun move across the sky until we reached our destination. None of us wanted to ever stop walking.

Ronan:

I still have a lot of adventures to set out on I hope. But up this point the highlights of my life were my time living in Spain (a beautiful country!) and the many many great gigs I have been lucky enough to attend. Pretty nerdy I know!

Enseña, aprende, comparte

I used to be a doctor which taught me lots about how bad government healthcare can be for people. Now I'm a youth worker, and think I know a lot about human relations and (as I said) being honest and working through interpersonal crises. I also teach english literature in university, and am hoping to start teaching creative writing this year (I've been writing poetry since I was a child). I try to grow as much of my own food as I can, and also tend two chickens in return for their eggs! I know a little bit about seed-saving, composting, dressmaking and other self-sufficient arts, and hope to learn about bee-keeping and polytunnel and forest gardening. I am interested in learning EVERYTHING.

Ronan: I know a fair bit about music (writing, playing, sound engineering and production), but am by no means an expert. I also have a good grasp of Spanish and taught it for a while a few years back.

Países que he visitado

Cuba, Ghana, Netherlands, Spain

Países en los que he vivido

Ireland

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