All about me in this little box? You must be kidding! But let's give it a try anyways.

I love to experience new things in life, which means traveling the world, meeting new people, cooking exotic food, learning different languages, reading all kinds of books, watching movies & documentaries and getting to know other cultures. I am especially interested in natural sciences, (ancient) history and languages.

I listen to music determined by my mood, which ranges from metal (my childhood preference) through rock and pop to electronic music (especially when it is party time).

I like to work hard and play hard, I am not really good at sleeping, can't stay in bed for too long, I am usually very talkative but I can also be a good listener if necessary, I am not easily scared, but I calculate my risks. My friends call me very respectful of other people opinions, even if I totally disagree with them and strangers have a tendency to open up to me (so be warned). Very few things really offend me, I don't enjoy bigots, narrowminded or hateful people, but I don't really find them offensive, I just feel sorry for them because they miss out on so much of the good stuff in life.

When I find the time, I like to pamper my guests with fancy dinners and breakfasts and I know quite a bit about the various tourist attractions in and around Rotterdam and The Netherlands, but I am also a bit of a workaholic (although I rather see it as being dedicated to my calling). During the week I am rarely able to go into town with you during daytime (unless it is a school vacation and I am not on the road myself), but at night I sometimes have time to go into the city and maybe hook up with some of my friends, and on the weekends I often visit the market hall or other food related places.

All in all I am trying to squeeze as much juice out of life in the few years I have on this small piece of rock as it revolves around this giant ball of hot plasma.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love to meet people from all over the world and exchange travel stories and other experiences. I try to do at least two or three backpacking trips every year in different parts of the world and I am always looking for a chance to meet local people, so I like to give the same opportunity to travellers who come to my city for whatever reason. On the "My Home" page, I will try to post the dates that I definitely cannot host due to planned trips etc.

Whenever I am home though I like to host and especially to use my surfers as guinea pigs for my frequent cooking experiments (don't worry, the results are mostly edible and hardly ever fatal). I've hosted almost a hundred and fifty couchsurfers in the last three years and I have surfed couches a few times myself when travelling. I like surfers who are independent and like to try my food and have a drink with me while we discuss life, the universe and everything.

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Hosting experience
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*** 2016 ***

May
xxx. Emanuel Werner from Argentina, 4 nights (scheduled)

March
149. Danilo Alves de Oliviera from Brazil and his friend Jack from Australia, 2 nights

*** 2015 ***

November
148. Jahyung Jung from South Korea, 2 nights (confirmed)

October
147. Cao Nguyen from UK/Vietnam, 1 night
146. Brant from Taiwan, 2 nights
145. Matthew Wilcox from the UK, 3 nights and then 2 more nights
144. Moritz Neuman from Germany, 3 nights

September
143. Allen Kim from Australia/Korea, 1 night
142. David Canevas from Spain, 2 nights
141. Torsten Bennert from Germany, 4 nights
139-140. Rachel Gallagher and her boyfriend from Ireland, 2 nights

August
138. Joseph Ashley from the UK, 2 nights
137. Anthony from France, 1 night
136. Andres Kapor Prije from Argentina, 2 nights
135. Jonas Bohne from the UK,
134. Nathan from Germany, 2 nights

July
133. Xiao Wu doing research into food culture from Hong Kong, 2 nights
132. Adeline Campos from Brasil, 4 nights
131. Kenji Son from Japan, 3 nights

June
130. Mikhail Belkous from Russia, 5 nights
129. Vitor Baldessar and his friend from Brasil, 2 nights
128. David Schwer and his friend from Germany, 3 nights
127. Joyce Ma from Hong Kong, 3 nights
126. Fabio Targhetta from Italy/Denmark, 2 nights
125. Gabrielle Bertozzi from Italy, 2 nights
124. Anna Brauni from Germany, 2 nights

May
123. Nika Gablishvili and his friend, from Germany, 1 night
122. Luke Knowles from Germany, 1 night
121. Keith Alex Ellis from Australia, 1 night
120. Sung Yong Oh from South Korea, 2 nights
119. Stacey from Singapore, 2 nights
117-118. Damnjan Lukovic and his friend Moma from Serbia, 4 nights
116. Ron Sheskin from Israel, 5 nights

April
115. Fifi Handayani from Singapore, 2 nights
114. Ed from Singapore, 3 nights
113. Qing from Singapore, 3 nights
112. Keith Short, from England, 2 nights

March
111. Kwok Hei Shum from Hongkong, 3 nights
109-110. Nika Rožman & her boyfriend Jan from Slovenia, 2 nights
107-108. Young Hoon Choi and his army buddy Hee Kyoung from Korea, 5 nights
106. Thijs Willems from Belgium, 2 nights
105. Tanio Di Bartolomeo from Italy, 3 nights
104. David Bowden from UK, 2 nights
102-103. Huang Shufang and het friend from Singapore, 3 nights
100-101. Filipe Gonçalves from Brasil and his friend from Spain, 1 night
99. Thomas Elixhauser from Austria, 3 nights

February
97-98. Julien Chabrand and his friend from France, 3 nights
94-96. Lukas from Austria and two friends, 2 nights
93. Sho Sekimoto from Japan, 2 nights
92. Roberto Bova from Italy, 3 nights
91. Elliot Gordon from Wales, 7 nights
90. Hiroshi Yokota from Japan, 2 nights
88-89. Bru Mas Ribera from Spain and his friend Camille from Belgium, 2 nights

*** 2014 ***

November
86-87. Roman Lvivyanin and his girlfriend from Ukraine, 2 nights
83-85. Yong Lin from France and her two friends from Hongkong and Taiwan, 1 night

Octobre
80-82. Luise Tiedtke and her boyfriend from Germany and a Dutch friend of theirs, 2 nights
79. Renata Kaničárová from Czech Republic, 1 night

September
78. Ben Leesman from USA, 2 nights
75-77. Lucija Zajec and two friends from Slovenia, 1 night
73-74. Arnaud Chevallier and his friend from France, 2 nights
72. Iryna Artemchenko from Ukraine, 2 nights

July
70-71. Arek Wróblewski and his friend, 1 night
68-69. Semen Kapitonov and Almaz Ermilov from Russia, 1 night
67. Daniel Sosinski from Poland, 2 nights
66. Ben Lee from everywhere, 3 nights
64-65. George Infidel and his girlfriend Lena from Sweden, 2 nights
63. Taj Mitchell from the USA, 2 nights

June
61-62. Ivan and Matej from Croatia, 3 nights
60. Baz Zinin from Hongkong, 3 nights
59. Jürgen Black from Germany, 2 nights
56-58. Bryn Robson and two fellow cyclists from England, 1 night
55. Elias Stadler from Germany, 2 nights
53-54. Josh Snow and his roommate from the USA, 1 night
52. Georg Treuter from Germany, 1 night

May
51. Paul Riehle from Taiwan, 2 nights
50. Vlatko Potkrajcic from Croatia, 2 nights
48-49. Simon Pearson and Alex from Canada, 1 night

April
47. YuCheng Lin from Taiwan, 2 nights

March
43-46. Gerard Viñas Salvadro from Spainand and three friends, 2 nights
41-42. Diana Leticia Kempele and her brother Robert from Latvia, 4 nights

Februari
39-40. Eileen Che from China and her friend, 2 nights

January
37-38. Daniil Spirko from England and his friend, 2 nights

*** 2013 ***

December
34-36. Martyna Janus and her friends Karolina and Ula from Poland, 2 nights

November
32-33. Reniar Iar from Germany and his friend Billy Svenson from Sweden, 2 nights
30-31. Zélie Plancke and her boyfriend from France, 2 nights
20. Eli Straussman from the United States, 2 (more) nights

October
28-29. Daphne Lo from Hongkong and her friend, 2 nights
26-27. Katalin and Tommi Balazs from Hungary, 3 nights
25. Adrian Auth from Hungary, 3 nights
24. Niek Hakker from The Netherlands, 1 night
22-23. Ravi Zabirova and her friend Helen from Russia, 1 night
21-22. Luc Cahier and his girlfriend Aoife from Ireland, 2 nights

September
20. Eli Straussman from the United States, 2 nights
16-19. Blair Clark from Scotland and his three Dutch girls, 1 night
15. Nathan Bernasconi from Australia, 2 nights
13-14. Josh and his girlfriend Sophie from the United States, 2 nights
12. Marina Fonina from Sweden, 1 night
10-11. Nir Chemaya and his friend Tom from Israel, 2 nights

July
9. David Cunha from Portugal, 2 nights

March
8. Tuan Ly from England, 5 days

February
7. Vitor Lima from Brazil, 5 days

*** 2012 ***

November
3-6. Ksenia Polozkova and her three friends from Russia, 2 nights
2. Takumi Tane from Japan, 3 nights

September
1. David Pinedo from The Netherlands, 1 night

Interests

Too many things to fit in these little boxes, but it ranges from home cooking to going to parties, from adventure sports (scuba diving, rafting, skydiving, canyoning) to green politics to teaching and mentoring adolescents (which incidentally is also my main profession) to playing fantasy games to listening to music and watching movies to learning new languages. and I am an internet addict at times...

• cooking
• wine
• traveling
• backpacking
• scuba diving
• astronomy
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

I like adventure movies, thrillers, scifi and especially fantasy (from Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones), but I do appreciate an alternative or arthouse film as well from time to time. I also like documentaries, especially about history, science, geography etc.
I grew up on rock music, especially hardrock and metal and these are still my favorites, but depending on mood and circumstances I can appreciate almost anything from classical to electronic.
When it comes to books, I love fantasy series, LotR, Wheel of Time, Game of Thrones etc. and good SciFi like Asimov, Herbert (Dune series).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Too many things, a few examples:
- watching giant seas turtles lay their eggs on a beach, diving with them, as well as snorkling with whale sharks
- stranding with a train in the Sudanese desert spending the night on the sand
- rafting in the Himalaya and the Andes
- watching the snow maquaces taking their bath in central Japan
- sailing on a yaught among carribean islands inhabited by native locals
- visiting many of the world heritage archelogical sites in countries like Egypt (Pyramids, temple of Ramses, Valley of the Kings), Peru (Machu Picchu, Cuzco), Guatemala (Tikal), Cambodia (Angkor Wat), India (Taj Mahal), Mexico (Palenque, Chizen Itza, Teotihuacan), Italy (Forum Romanum, Colloseum, ruins of Pompei and Herculaneum), Greece (Akropolis), the wooden castles of Japan (Himeji, Matsumoto, Hikone).
- jumping from airplanes and diving with sharks and turtles (I have a skydiving and a PADI license)
- being a Green party town councillor for eight years and running for the national parliament as a support candidate (in 2006, I wasn't elected though)

Teach, Learn, Share

Teaching people stuff is my life, my calling and also my profession. If you surf my couch, you will learn stuff, whether you want it or not. I have a big store of general knowledge, some friends call me a walking encyclopedia, since I love to learn new things myself (I am one of those kids that actually enjoyed school a lot and asked tons of questions).

My main areas of interest are:

* Science, foremost astronomy and physics (I got my master's degree in astrophysics)
but also math, chemistry, geography and other natural sciences, but some parts of biology are not so interesting (I prefer to know how things work, not what they are called by us). Also, although I am not living an back-to-nature eco-lifestyle as such, I am concerned about environmental issues and try to do my part and be sensible about things such as waste disposal, energy production and consumption, food industry etc.

* Ancient history, starting 13.7 billion years ago at the beginning of our universe, through the 4.3 bilions years of the formation and shaping of our little planet, the origins of life in general, the birth of mankind (see the coffeetable book in your room for some "light reading" ) through prehistoric times up to and including the ancient civilizations.

* Cooking techniques from all over the world. I have done cooking classes in Japan, Thailand and Mexico and I experiment with techniques and dishes from all over the world. If you want to make me happy, we cook something together.

* Travelling... One of my bad habits is that I tend to go overboard with my travel stories. I have been to dozens of countries on all regularly inhabited continents so if I start going off on my desert adventures in Sudan, my diving and snorkling with turtles and (whale)sharks or mountain hikes to see the condors, the literally hundreds of ancient ruins I have visited or whatever I go off on, please feel free to stop me and tell me that you are here to make your own experiences and not just listen to mine.

* Languages intrigue me a lot as well. I had English, French, German, Latin and Ancient Greek highschool, I learnt basic Spanish later in life and I have been in the process of mastering Japanese for a while now, but advancements are slow. As with all things, I am particularly intrigued by how languages work, so unlike most people I am very interested in the structure and grammar of various languages so if I start rambling about the differences between word order in Hawaiian vs. Swahili, please shut me up.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, United States

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