CURRENT MISSION

Finding the balance between guiding my life and letting life guide me.

PHILOSOPHY

The first step to bridging the gap between who you are and who you want to be is acknowledging the gap.

ABOUT ME

You can't summarise any human in a couple of paragraphs, but here's a few randomish things that should give you a hint of who I am these days:

- I usually prefer spending some intimate time with a friend or two rather than hanging out in large groups. And although in some ways I'm a solitary person, I can't imagine my life without certain people who have become my precious life companions ... especially my beloved Darja.

- I used to think that I was and always would be a kind of natural nomad ... but all that changed for a number of reasons when I moved to Ljubljana: why would I ever leave this place? This is home. :)

- I have a variety of addictions, especially Pilot fountain pens, Clairefontaine notebooks, foreign languages, running in the hills around Ljubljana, caramel-filled chocolate, fresh lemonade, sunny outdoor cafes, loose-leaf tea, ritualised activities, south-facing balconies, todo lists and Slovenia.

- I'm generally a shades-of-gray person rather than a black-and-white person, although there are some clear exceptions and even contradictions. But it is largely our contradictions that make us all human and interesting, no? :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is simply a great thing, both in theory and in practice. It gives me the opportunity to connect intimately with people, cultures and homes which is otherwise quite difficult, especially since I'm not very good at connecting with random strangers. My experiences have been consistently wonderful, both when hosting and surfing, and a couple of them have even been revolutionary and life-changing, whether directly or indirectly. Although I haven't been able to be actively involved the last couple of years, I'm really looking forward to couchsurfing in some distant places, where I imagine that the contrast between public and private life is large and dramatic.

Interests

• chocolate
• yoga
• reading
• music
• hiking
• trail running
• languages
• tea
• cross-country skiing
• games
• dreams
• bridge
• notebooks

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: DakhaBrakha (Baby), Sigur Rós (Glósóli), Arvo Pärt (Alina), Bon Iver (Holocene), Chinawoman (Friday night), Natacha Atlas (Gafsa), Hans Zimmer (Now we are free)

Books: Wild sheep chase (Murakami), The Iliad (Homer), The idiot (Dostoevsky), Siddhartha (Hesse), Anathem (Stephenson), Kokoro (Soseki), The Roads to freedom (Sartre), The cherry tree (Mohammadi), The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (Adams), Exploring the world of lucid dreams (LaBerge), The gifts of imperfection (Brown), Flatland (Abbott), Demystifying Kashmir (Behera)

Films: The double life of Veronique (Kieślowski), The Illusionist (Chomet), Volver (Almodóvar), 3-Iron (Kim), Steam: the Turkish bath (Ozpetek), Three Seasons (Bui), 2046 (Wong), Ten (Kiarostami), Tony Takitani (Ichikawa), Protagonist (Yu), Once upon a time in the west (Leone)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The hinbanamnurya. Well, this is hard to explain in this limited space, but feel free to ask me for details. In a nutshell, it was a personal meta-project in which I asked 12 friends to each think of a few subproject ideas for me to focus on in my spare time for one year. My friends came up with amazing and distinct ideas, resulting in a deeply enriching (and sometimes crazy!) year. The project was a successful attempt to take my life in new directions after my last relationship break-up.

Teach, Learn, Share

In general, I'm curious to explore the intersections of our personal and cultural worlds, from the concrete sequence of morning routines, to abstract views on life in this universe. :) Depending on what interests you specifically, maybe I can teach you how to play bridge, show you a few yoga poses, go hiking with you, help you write a webpage in HTML, teach you how to tell time with the moon, offer practice in a language or two, or ramble about my views on the relationship between heart and mind. As for me, I'd like to get a taste of your life and culture, such as learning the basics of your language, cooking some homemade food together, discovering some local music, playing some local games, or exploring villages and nature. But these are just examples: let's see what happens when our worlds meet! :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, Japan, Slovenia, South Africa, United Kingdom

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