I studied biology and love nature and wildlife. I'm currently working at the educational services of the natural sciences museum in Brussels (https://www.naturalsciences.be/en). I also work as a volunteer at the Planckendael Zoo of Mechelen and as a climate coach for Goodplanet. I like sports, both watching and doing them. I'm active in a chess club (not really physical sports, but still sports) where I train young children.

I also like music, travelling and meeting new cultures. I'm a cultural mix myself as I have a Belgian father and a Chinese-Malaysian mother. I love cooking and eating and love sharing this with guests, but be aware that I'm vegetarian. If you want more information, just ask.

You can also visit my facebookprofile: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.dewinter.77 or a vk profile: https://vk.com/id402441220 . I'm less active on couchsurfing than before, but always welcome to contact me in fb or vk

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because I urgently needed a host myself when I was in Vienna. Now I want to do the same for other travelling people. I'm proud of my city and country and would like to share this with people from abroad. And I also like to travel myself and make new friends there. Before couchsurfing I already had met many people from abroad and couchsurfing let me even meet more new wonderful people.

So far I mostly had very positive experiences and always met nice and interesting people. I am mainly hosting travelers and I like to have so many different nationalities, cultures and religions at my home. I had several guests from Poland, Brazil, USA and Hong Kong, but also Chile, Argentina, Germany, Turkey, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Ukraine, ... That gave me the chance to learn a lot and have nice chats and discussions. Sometimes I really have made good friends and I definitely want to visit them to see them again and learn more about their country.

The only thing I don't like is to say goodbye to them, cause if they stay several nights I really see them as family that live here. The best compliment I ever had was someone talking about my place as their home. I hope to give all my guests this feeling that they are welcome and have a home here.

I'm also using couchsurfing to practice my French with some native speakers. I'm also member of skype groups for Dutch and English conversations to help people who want to practice their Dutch or English. I made a few really good friends there.

Interests

Like I said: nature, sports and culture.
About sports it is mainly chess and indoor football. I also did some cycling, tennis, scuba diving and swimming, but don't have the time anymore.
About culture I really like to taste lots of different international kitchens. I'm always curious about trying new things. Becoming vegetarian recently reduced my options to try new things but also opened a whole new world for me.
And I also wouldn't survive without music. I listen to almost all kinds of music, different genres, languages and time periods.

• wildlife
• culture
• festivals
• cooking
• chocolate
• beer
• chess
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• scuba diving
• sports
• rock climbing
• soccer
• tennis
• swimming
• biology
• languages
• religion
• tourism
• hitchhiking
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: Karl May, JRR Tolkien, Thea Beckman
Movies: Shrek, Jurassic Park, Despicable me, Lord of the Rings, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Slumdog Millionaire, The Matrix, Game of Thrones
Music: Lady Linn, Selah Sue, Stromae, Dire Straits, Amy Winehouse, Deep Purple, Scala, Bob Marley, Arsenal, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Blondie, A Brand, Coely, Daan, Gablé, Fall Out Boy, Agnes Obel, Moloko, Hooverphonic, Baloji, Merdan Taplak Orchestra, The Killers, Lykke Li, Lindsey Stirling, Michael Jackson, Patti Smith, Nneka, Seasick Steve, Laïs, Zaz, Salt Lake Pops, Jerry Springle, Alex Boyle, The Police, Balkan Beat Box, Manu Chao, Ray Charles, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Christine and The Queens, Kiesza, Omnia, Wagakki, LEJ, Tape Five, Jamie Woon, Faun, Tinariwen, Bryan Adams, Live, Pentatonix, Nickleback, The Killers, The Pretty Reckless, Imagine Dragons, The Skatalites, ...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

It's difficult to pick one amazing thing, if you chose for it, life can be full of amazing things:
Hosting 5 guests during the music festival Maanrock in my city, it was a challenge, but everyone found a place to sleep
Road trip around the Cretan Island with other biology students.
Travelling by hitchhiking and public transport from Bratislava via Budapest and Zagreb to Venice.
I cycled to the top of the Mont Ventoux, Tourmalet and Galibier when I was 14.
Climbing Mount Kinabalu (4095m) and hiking through the jungle of Borneo was my latest adventure
And maybe the best and most changing decision of my life: going to Ukraine to visit someone I met in skype. Now she is my wife and we are raising our daughter together and that's also pretty amazing!!

Teach, Learn, Share

I'd like to improve/practice my German and Russian and learn more Spanish, Chinese and Bahasa.
I can teach you speaking Dutch and little French or English and playing chess.
I can let you taste many different Belgian beers or Belgian chocolate!
I like to share my favourite music with people in exchange for their favourite music. Always looking for new interesting sounds from other countries.
Because I'm working in a museum I can go for free to almost every Belgian museum AND I can take someone with me for free. So if you are specifically interested in anything, let me know.

I like to guide my couchsurfers in my city Mechelen, but also in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent. In these cities I know some nice walks and have some favourite spots. Below you can find some touristic information of these places.

tourist info of my city Mechelen: http://toerisme.mechelen.be/en
tourist info of Brussels: http://visitbrussels.be
tourist info of Antwerp: http://www.visitantwerpen.be/
tourist info of Ghent: http://visitgent.be

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can bring some Belgian beer, chocolates and myself!
We can share couchsurfing experiences and other stories.
Exchanging music is something I love to discover new music and also to introduce you to Belgian musicians.
If you want to learn a new language I can teach some Dutch or French and in return I would love to learn some words of your language.
I want to help of course in the kitchen to cook, wash dishes or clean something
And I will offer you a couch when you will hopefully visit me in Belgium later

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Germany