CURRENT MISSION

To reconnect with couch-surfing after a looong hiatus, having first used this site to experience some of the many wonders of living and travelling in the beautiful country of Canada, as part of a year-long working-holiday visa.

ABOUT ME

I am English, male, 29 years old. Since completing my Masters in Classics (with a predilection for Roman society and literature in the Late Republic - just before Jesus shows up on the scene) I have travelled extensively throughout the Americas, experiencing a wondrous array of marvellous people, places, foods, drinks, sights, triumphs and trials. The adventure has continued with a stint living abroad in Budapest and visiting friends throughout Europe on a sporadic basis; I try to hit the road two-three times per calendar year from my base back here in the UK.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is many things to many different people. For me, it has always been a gift that I have never understood; unlooked for and often undeserved. Still, I am here and I am one very lucky person: I try to reciprocate accordingly. I hold that love is the most powerful and wonderful of things and seek to fill life with it wherever, whenever possible. Relationships are very important to me - I love my family and friends intensely and I am learning to develop my internal relationship with myself as well (whilst trying to avoid indulging in any antics associated with split-personality disorders).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

In many ways still new to the rather fascinating concept of couch-surfing, I have enjoyed connecting with new-found friends through the CS community (many of whom I have met during my time on the road), experiencing this worthy phenomenon first-hand. At present, this experience has been bound to surfing only (and not for some time either), but I aim to reciprocate with hosting once I have a home of my own - surely one of the major perks involved in a life of employed drudgery.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

All positive, thus-far, and all related only to my time spent travelling throughout Canada in 2010. I couch-surfed in a variety of towns and cities as I made my way from west to east (getting all the way from Tofino, on Vancouver Island, to the city of St John's in Newfoundland). After spending the past few years "couch-surfing" whilst visiting friends in various European countries, my girlfriend and I are travelling to Paris on a short break this February: neither of us know anyone in this city, so here I am, belatedly back on the true CS scene!

Interests

I love to travel and the more that I travel, the more that I realize how fascinated I am by people: a location will often leave the greatest impression upon me through its inhabitants. I love to read (all sorts - especially classics and anything that offers fantastical escapism) and I also amuse myself from time to time by murdering classical music with the aid of a piano.

• humanities
• literature
• dancing
• dining
• wine
• drinking
• traveling
• music
• classical music
• piano
• surfing

Music, Movies, and Books

This could go on for pages, but I shall hold to a paltry, insufficient selection of current favourites. Films: The Shawshank Redemption; The Usual Suspects; The Matrix; The Godfather, I and II; The Ice Harvest; Sideways; High Fidelity; Love Actually.
Music: REM; Counting Crows; Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; Jimmy Eat World; The Killers; Dire Straits; Bloc Party; Beethoven; Mozart; Tchaikovsky; Chopin; Debussy; John Williams.
Books: Lord of the Rings; Harry Potter; Jonathan Livingston Seagull; The Alchemist; The Shadow of the Wind; Birdsong; East of Eden; The Grapes of Wrath; For Whom The Bell Tolls; The Old man and the Sea; A Tale of Two Cities; Rebecca; Wuthering Heights; Paradise Lost; The Aeneid; The Iliad; The Odyssey.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have a ready answer here at least. Although every experience has its specific benefits and worth, and although I am loath to judge such experiences against one another, visiting the Galapagos Islands was one of those once-in-a-life-time events, made even more glorious by the spontaneity with which I decided to go and the lack of previously formed anticipation and expectation with which I arrived upon the islands. This adventure warmed my soul, whilst simultaneously blowing me away.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach... hmmm; I suppose that I am capable at least of teaching my experiences, or some of them - be it something related through a story or explored in expressive conversation. Such naturally crosses over to become a shared experience: by discussing and suggesting, we can expand our perspectives together to strengthen our understanding. I seek to learn nothing less from any person whom I meet; something of their life, their love, their perspective. If anyone is able to teach me quickly, harmlessly, thoroughly how to dance (like no-one is watching), then that would be rather useful as well.

What I Can Share with Hosts

A thoughtful, adventurous and friendly disposition, ever-curious about foreign places, customs, legends and keen to explore as much of a local scene as possible during my time on the road.

I'm an enthusiastic, if less-than-proficient wine-drinker, food-eater, food-cooker, story-listening story-teller - oh, and I am rather savvy when it comes to pot-washing duties, too!

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, England, Hungary

•