Hi I'm Lauren

My husband (Bill) and I have just completed a 16 month backpacking adventure to celebrate our honeymoon and we were lucky enough to visit 28 countries in this time.

I am a manager of a tuition company called Explore Learning. I provide extra Maths and English tuition to children between the ages of 4 and 16. I am a friendly and extremely energetic person who loves to see the positives in life.

Bill on the other hand is an electrician and works in a bank in Canary Wharf. Bill is extremely knowledgeable on many walks of life and likes to laugh. We have been together 8 years and will have been married a year in June 2017.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We are on couch surfing because we absolutely love travelling. Our goal is to visit every single country someday. Not only do we like seeing the 'tourist' side of things but we also love to visit countries from a resident's perspective as we feel you can learn so much about cultures this way.

When we return to the UK and finally move out, we cannot wait to show Couch Surfers around London and give you lots of advice about the amazing things our city has to offer.

Interests

We both love travelling and going on holiday and our friends and family always joke that we cannot have a day's holiday from work without us exploring somewhere new! Travelling the world longterm has always been a dream of ours and we are so thankful that we decided to quit our jobs and roam freely around the world.

We also love to cook and will spend hours most nights cooking our dinner. During our travels, we have tried to participate in as many cooking classes as we can. In Bali, we learnt how to make spring rolls and satay sauce from scratch whereas in Chiang Mai, we learnt how to make Pad Thai, a mixture of thai curries and Mango Rice. Although we are great cooks, we are horrific bakers who somehow always manage to burn our cakes.

We both also like to keep active. In 2015, we ran our first (and only) marathon (London) and we raised £5,000 for Make a Wish Foundation, a charity that grants wishes to sick children. Lauren loves to dance and has been dancing since she was 2 years old. She has done tap, modern, salsa, freestyle, hip hop to name a few and is always excited to learn new styles. Bill on the other hand loves sports mainly MMA, Football (soccer) and basketball. He also enjoys rock climbing and chess.

• animals
• cats
• salsa dancing
• cooking
• baking
• yoga
• running
• zumba
• shopping
• traveling
• backpacking
• swimming
• volunteering
• nature
• learning languages
• nail art
• charity
• disney
• fundraising

Music, Movies, and Books

We both have extremely different tastes when it comes to these three things.

Music:
- Lauren (rihanna, bieber, one direction (i know i am sorry), lady gaga, katy perry, jessie j)
- Bill (Bob Dyaln, the strokes, the smiths, Jamie T, the animals, Nina Simone.)

Books:
- Lauren (Harry Potter, Twilight series, Roald Dahl, Travel Books, Crime Fiction, Autobiographies (especially Lee Evans) and Romance stories)
- Bill (the three musketeers, A Clockwork Orange, All the Light We Cannot See, Catch 22, Kafta, Orwell, Rushdie and any Sherlock Holmes stories.

Movies:
-Lauren (Anything Disney, but especially Beauty and the Beast, any Toy Story, Finding Nemo)

-Bill (In bruges, batman begins, rocky 3, karate kid old and new haha, star wars, Lord of the Rings And comic book films.)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Now this is tough as there are so many to mention but probably one of the best was seeing the sun rise over Ayers Rock in the outback of Australia. It truly was incredible!

Celebrating Chinese New Year in both Shanghai and Taipei was also incredible.

Also celebrating Holi festival in Goa with the local people was also an experience neither of us will ever forget (check out our profile pictures).

Teach, Learn, Share

Lauren loves to learn languages. She is semi fluent in German and French and is also learning Italian. She would love to learn some simple phrases in all languages.

Bill enjoys teaching chess to anyone wanting to learn.

We both love to share cooking tips and learning any too. We love sharing travelling stories and picking up any advice you may have too.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom