Hey there! My name is Ksenia, I'm 25 and at this moment in my life I recently moved to Basque Country, Spain :)

Originally I'm from Siberian part of Russia, studied and grew up in Moscow and I was travelling constantly since I'm 18! I work as a freelance/remote graphic designer, and slowly trying to develop and educate myself to be better with animations and web.

Bigger chunk of my trips and friends came from being a part of European Students' Forum, AEGEE, which is an NGO dedicated to European integration, cultural exchange and breaking stereotypes, which i my favourite thing to do :) During almost 7 years of being an active member, I've visited a lot of international programes, but I always liked more to organize them myself. My highlight would be organizing Transsiberian DREAM project, where a small team of volunteering locals take 35-40 people from all over the world on Transsiberian Journey. After I organized this trip 4 times and did many other events and projects, I finally took time to travel and live for myself, which led me to pursue freelancing and sustainable lifestyle (:

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I like the idea of travelling and getting in touch with locals more, than just googling the hell out of "What to see/do in ***". When I was living in Moscow, we had an appartment in suburbs, 2 h from city center, so I never could host anyone :( But I loved douing tours in my favourite manner, which is with constant food/drunk stops and all interesting facts and stories. Now I live 10 minutes from the bus station in one of the most not-touristic cities in Spain, so I finally have a chance to CS more!

Interests

In daily life I'm huge DIY junkie (I watch and try many things, from knitting to paperkraft and sewing.) and cooking enthusiast (as I write this, I have 14 tabs of recipes blogs open and (!) I will actually cook like half of them. I have Netflix, HBO and Amazon, so you can figure out how I am with TV-shows :D I love to stay at home a lot (hello freelance) and make house parties (from planning table arrangement to the main dish and dessert) as much as I love to be somewhere else for travelling, visiting my family all over Russia or meeting new friends everywhere I go.

Also coffee. A lot of coffee. I have 3 ways to make coffee at home and I know third-wave coffee staff better than how to do taxes...

On a serious note, I recently (around 1 year) started to be interested in sustainable lyfestyle or lowmerism, I'm really new but I really like to implement more by doing small things in daily life.

• diy
• cooking
• coffee
• drinking
• traveling
• drawing
• sustainable living

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC: I'm not the kind of person who knows albums and bands, I'm really more like "Oh, I love this, let's listen to it 30 times until I hate it" xD So the playlist range is super wide.

MOVIES: I truly enjoy Tarantino and Martin McDonagh, soviet comedies and I try to watch Gone with the Wind at least once a year :) For the rest, anything mindful, good-hearted or enterntaining, from Marvel to the cry-me-a-river dramas.

BOOKS: Like a proper millenial I shamefully read less and less literature (last one was Me before you), but I stick to a lot of books about organizing, creative thinking and diy :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Can't choose one, cause I love to treat myself with happy moments! I would say my 2018 was an amazing thing

- I spent New Year in a 3d-classe train with 30 people from all over Europe and cooked us all a big NY dinner.
-Moved from Kyiv, Ukraine to Brussels Belgium to work for my beloved NGO, which gave me so much
-Traveled all the way to Vladivostok and swam near the lighthouse on the sunset
-Saw Cappadocia Balloons
-Mastered real Italian pizza and homemade pasta with a recipe from my friend!
-Brought my Mom to Spain to travel around and show her her favourite artists masterpieces

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach - real Italian pizza recipe and how to make it at home :) Proper way of Russian drinking (you will be surprised how many people have it all wrong), how to quit things you don't like and work when and how you want. Funny Russian prejudises and how to travel Transsiberian Railway by yourself

Share - a drink! a good coffee, really good picture for Instagram ;) a story, good party times or quiet time (sometimes I work in my trips, so I'm perfectly fine with quiet hours)

Learn - I really need to learn more Spanish! Useful eveyday things, but also funny gags. For now I'm fluent only in Spanish food and supermercados

What I Can Share with Hosts

I was told I have a good energy, which can be quite and supportive, but also very loud and contagious :D So you choose. My dream would be to help my host to make a big cool dinner party, where I help to cook and we have a great evening <3

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Russian Federation, Spain, Ukraine