Hey dear Couchsurfing community,

I am Madlen, from a small town in the German mountains called Erzgebirge. I grew up in two different but both very lovely places where we have half a year of cold and snowy weather - everyone in my family does some kind of winter sports which made me loving it too. My passion number one is the WINTER :-) When I was 13 I started being a professional cross country skier on a special kind of boarding school for a lot of different winter sports like nordic combination, skijumping, biathlon,...maybe you know Eric Frenzel, Richard Freitag, Denise Herrmann, Claudia Künzel or Rene Sommerfeldt...they are very lovely people which have had a great influence on me, training or going to school with me.
After I had to sport my prfessional career I started doing even more winter sports,..I started being a coach and ski teacher in cross country skiing, downhill skiing and snowboarding :-)

Which I enjoyed so much that for my professional life I chose to become a teacher. Since 8th grade I always was interested in supporting people/kids with special abilities or needs. And finally after 'finishing' my highschool degree I took a year off to work in different schools for kids with different, up to mutliple handicaps in and around my home area...that made me loving that kind of work so much that I found my little perfect way of life...

So, since fall 2012 I am studying Special Education and English to become a teacher for kids with special abilities in a couple years.

Now, you might be wondering why my profile says I am an au pair and life in Mountain View,...after reading all those important books and learning all those different ways of teaching...I just wanted to go back to practice...and explore new territory...and my favorite language English better...which brought me here to California to my lovely awesome new family. Unfortunately, these days right now,..my time here is up...I already had to move out,..my only time left here is my traveling time on Hawaii,...

Back from days being a sports girl I still have friends all over Germany and the world an like to meet up with them again when they are in town or I am in theirs -our ways of life have gone so differently...so that we like to catch up ;-)

In summer, I do some sports too :-) I love cross country running, hiking and things like that. I looovve mountains biking thru our woods and feel the fresh air in my face :-)
Lately I started longboarding...and soon I want to try surfing...hopefully I can do that at Hawaii. A lot of my friends are surfing and bmx biking ...I like to watch and learn from them, it's nice to learn from the pros :-) :-D our time on boarding school has brought us so far in so many different ways,..we all support each other and still travel together to learn from each other :-)

Okay, enough with sports...other parts of my life,...

I love all kinds of especially furry fuzzy animals ;-) ....I had a cat, a dog and a hamster living with me and my host family :-)

Also, another passion of me is taking pictures of very small or tiny things outside in nature,...things which other people might miss if they are in a hurry,...so I like to show them to them to stop for just a moment, take a deep breath and remember how beautiful our planet is :-)

I hope that helps you to get an idea of who I am...and who you would meet and have to exchange some new or different experiences with ;-)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

For the last couple years I have done some kind of couchsurfing with my friends and aquaintances, so basically people I knew before,...but I have never been online at a social network for couch surfing..so this is really new territory for me...

However, I love to meet new people, talk and exchange experiences.... and during my last year being an Au Pair in California I have made so many new aquaintances and friends, even close friends...and I noticed that I love it even more...

Before I came here I only did my car pooling via online platforms in Germany,... I liked it a lot and liked especially the part of learning so much from other people with different life experiences or job professions or hobbies....some of those talks even made me trying new spots or being interested in new topics...
I love the idea of getting to know people from all over the world

Interests

Oh, I'm sorry..I think I already mentioned my interests in About Me...maybe there is sth else that comes up to my mind later.

• animals
• cats
• dogs
• books
• education
• running
• coach
• reading
• traveling
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• skiing
• snowboarding
• sports
• teaching
• au-pair
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

My favorite books are the books of an American writer named Mary Higgins Clark, she's writing thrillers and psych thrillers - which btw doesn't mean I am intodark things...I just like psychology a lot,..

Corresponding to that I like thriller or crime movies,..for the same reason as those kinda books,...

However, I also like to read and watch some romances every once in a while,.. :-) I'm still a girl though ;-)

Music,..music means a lot to me..but I thinks there's just too much anout it...so long story short,..I am pretty open and flexible about different genres of music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I am not very mature in saying what is awesome about me,,..so I just give it a try....

I have gone from San Francisco to Yellowstone NP all by myself...driving there and back.

I gave my mom and my brother one of their best vacations while they were visiting me in California - I organized everything by myself so that they don't need to worry about anything.

I have helped a group of kids with cancer to forget their disease for a couple hours while I tought them how to ski or snowboard.

Is that something or should I think about it again?

What I Can Share with Hosts

I don't really know what that means,..Can you pls help me out?

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States