CURRENT MISSION

Try to figure out how I can create my life and how that life creates me and beside that full my days with a lot of things! ;-)

ABOUT ME

Hi you all!
I'm Liesbeth, Lizzy or Plieper, that's all me! I'm an ornithologist, which means 'biologist biased toward birds'. Most of my time occupation is therefore dedicated to that, ranging from bird watching till bird ringing, from reading about birds till writing about birds.

I'm currently living in small and cozy St Andrews, at the west coast of Scotland. Last school year I did a second Master in Applied Statistics, but I finished that study. Now I'm looking for a PhD about bird migration and satellite tracking... Sounds awesome, isn't it?? ;-)

I'm a dancer! Folk dance, a mix of folkloristic dances from the whole of Europe. As soon there's a good band playing somewhere near, I'm off to sweep the dance floor with a good scottish or challenge my partner in leading-and-following with a romantic mazurka. Recently I started with Argentine tango as well, which appeared to be a whole world of difference! A completely other style of music, of leading and following, … Brilliant!

I play fiddle (ok, I can make something out of a piano and guitar as well, but not that much), followed 10 years of classical music school, grabbed half of a year of jazz violin after and added the sound of my folk fiddle to two small music bands.
Recently I started to explore the world of jazz again, which turned out to be quite complicated... Though there is such good jazz music to listen to and to play...

Between all those occupations I try to explore some countries, sticking to the promise I made with my friends from the Netherlands: at least one new country a year!

A last point that might be interesting: I'm a vegetarian, so no meat or fish for me. A big thank you to all my hosts who made an effort to serve me veggie food when it wasn't yet on my profile!

PHILOSOPHY

I have three favourite philosophies:

'You have to step outside your house to learn'
'Not getting what you want often turns out to be a big windfall'
'Life is a disaster, just like cooking'

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING
At the moment I don't have time to host people here in St Andrews, though I'm happy to go with you for a walk in and around the city, have a good drink and a nice chat somewhere, ...

And of course, when traveling, I'm trying to use CS as often as possible! ;-)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I surfed in Estonia, France, Hungary and Iceland and guided CS'ers coming from different countries in Europe, Asia and the States in Bruges. I really enjoy meeting people from different places, listen to their stories, get a sniff of their cultures, talk a bit about life in Belgium... I had already amazing experiences with CS!!

Interests

My main interests you can find in my personal description (birds!), but add history and archeology, anthroposophy and psychology, cooking-baking-healthy food issues (no wonder with a dad as cook) to that list.

• birds
• fish
• writing
• dancing
• tango
• waltz
• dining
• cooking
• baking
• vegetarian
• drinking
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• classical music
• jazz
• guitar
• piano
• violin
• fishing
• archeology
• biology
• history
• psychology
• statistics

Music, Movies, and Books

Music, oh my... I'll give you a snapshot from my library:
-Irish folk (Liz Carroll!, Dervish, Lunasa, Nabac, Old Blind Dogs, Flook, Lau, Comas, ... With thx to Jess! ;-)
-Folk, which is pretty wide: Belgian, French, Pagan, Scandinavian music, East European music, etc.
-"Old" music, classical stuff: Les Tisserands, Zefiro Torna, Andrew-Lawrence King, L'Arpeggiata from Christina Pluhar, Rolf Lislevand.
-And then some left-overs: Anouar Brahem, Baka, Bart Peeters, Daithi Rua, Joe Cocker, KT Tunstall, Live, Marilis Orionaa, Mumford&Suns, Paul Simon, Terrafolk, etc.
And I'm always keen to learn new music! ;-)

Books:
Historical books/romans! "The Eight", "The Ra expeditions", "The Brendan Expedition", "The white heart of Kwasi Boachi", "The beak of the finch", "Living on the wind". I'm recently devoured "A Song of Ice and Fire", so Fantasy seems a style I like as well.

Movies:
I really don't have a great knowledge about what's going on in the film world (you have to ask my sisters that kind of stuff), I hardly know any actor, but just like music, I'm always open get to know a new good movie!
Some movies I saw and like:
-The old Disney films, with a good story, good music and lovely pictures.
-True (historical) films I also appreciate (Temple Grandin, Girl with a pearl earring, IP-man, ...)
-I like detective-like films, I'm found of the BBC Sherlock!, but also Luther, House, Lie to me, Hustle.
Oh, important, I don't like scary films. Once tried "Paranormal activity 2"... Never will do that again! ;-)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The most amazing thing I did was surviving an almost 3 hours during thunderstorm at an altitude of 2800m in the Pyrenees in a two persons tent with the four of us in it... And in some other way also very amazing, going to Belarus with one other Belgian and 6 Netherlanders... ;-) And also, going for 6 weeks on fieldwork in Barrow, the most northern point of Alaska! Oh, and of course this one: turning 28, cause - in case you didn't know yet - life becomes awesome after 28...

Teach, Learn, Share

All things I learned in my 29 years old life, all experiences gathered during this over a quarter of a century worth sharing!

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can tell you stories about my travels - and would love to listen to yours as well…
I can teach you how to make Belgium most famous desert - and I'd gladly learn something about your and your country's cooking specialities...
I can talk for hours about birds - but will happily listen to your biases as well…
I can show you how to dance a scottish or a waltz or teach you the basics of Argentine tango - if you teach me in turn something about your hobby…

Countries I’ve Visited

Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovakia, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Cabo Verde, United Kingdom

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