Hi! I'm a portuguese gurl, a video content producer and mother of a cat and about 20 plants, all with names.

I'm currently living in Madrid, in one of the most typical barrios - Malasaña - and I constantly have my house full of people and friends.

I studied arts so I love to read, to watch films and go to exhibitions, to the theater and so on and on.

I'm into ceramics, experimental painting and photography.

I'm a vegetarian and I love to cook. I'm into the no waste movement (who isn't) and I have a passion for buying both 2nd hand and vintage. Whenever I'm buying something new I make sure I'll do it from new upcoming designers that really need our support (and so should you).

I love to travel and I'm always planning my next trip.

I'm a feminist and an activist, on my day to day, not on Instagram.

Speaking of Instagram: whatyoushouldbtknowaboutmaria / mariaravasco

If you wanna stay/meet just show me that you at least read this and tell me what the heck do we have in common.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm now finally on this app after all my friends told me what a great experience they had with it. I love to travel, too see other places and cultures and I plan to do so with this app.

And who wouldn't prefer to get to know a country or a city while staying with someone from there that teaches you all about it?

Interests

• books
• literature
• poetry
• theater
• human rights
• cooking
• vegetarian
• travel
• cinema
• friends
• beach
• feminism
• arte
• meet people
• vintage
• no waste
• lgbtiq rights

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - Chet Baker and all the good jazz, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Portishead, Massive Attack, Tricky and all the good trip hop

Books - Lolita (Nabokov); The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Carson Mccullers); La Muerte y La Primavera (Mercè Rodoreda); Stoner (John Williams); To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee); Winesburg Ohio (Sherwood Anderson); The Secret Scripture (Sebastian Berry)

Elena Ferrante, Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, Alice Munroe, Lydia Davis, Djuna Barnes, Clarice Lispector, Boris Vian, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Anais Nin, Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, Flannery O'Connor, Richard Yates, Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, Sam Shepard, Flaubert, Truman Capote, Julio Cortázar, Jorge Luis Borges, Milan Kundera, Italo Calvino, Franz Kafka

and of course some Portuguese - Al Berto, Herberto Helder, Mário-Henrique Leiria, Carlos de Oliveira, Alexandre O'Neill, Luiz Pacheco, António Maria Lisboa, Rui Nunes, José Saramago, Graça Pina de Moraes, Ana Teresa Pereira, Sophia de Mello Breyner Anderson

Movies - Godard and all the nouvelle vague; Kubrick, Tarantino, Lynch and all the classics.

I love all the Bergman films, without exception. I love all the hollywood classics, especially everything that has Bogart or Cary Grant on it.

Some of my classics, that I can always go back and watch a million times: Paris Texas, Johnny Guitar, To Have and Have Not, They Live by Night, Badlands, Chungking Express, Buffalo '66, Wild at Heart.

and, of course, some Portuguese recommendations - Paulo Rocha, João César Monteiro, Pedro Costa and Manoel de Oliveira

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I know it's not an adventurous thing, on that "amazing" sense couchsurfing is asking from me. But in the last years, the most amazing thing I could ever have done was to come to Madrid last summer and move all my life to this amazing city a couple months after.

Yes, I came first on work, I almost didn't, and to be honest I wasn't expecting much. But the amazing thing was that I fell completely and utterly in love with the city. I had this super strange and kind of bizarre feeling of déjà vu and that I was indeed, home. My grandad was half Spanish and I almost believe I was Spanish in some other live, who knows?

So yes, that was one amazing thing I did. I felt an enormous feeling of belonging here, like I never did in other city. I moved all my life here - cat and plants included - and I've been living, since then, my best life.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach English and Portuguese and I'm eager to learn new languages.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook and teach some super simple and fast vegetarian meals. I'll gladly go for drinks or dinner.

I'm a very independent person and when I travel I love to go on adventures by myself. I love to get lost in new cities, finding and creating my memories without a Google maps.

When I'm staying with friends l I don't expect anyone to babysit me. I just expect a couch and to share maybe a meal or/and go for a drink if you feel like it. I'm a curious cat so I always have questions about the culture or the language.

Countries I’ve Visited

England, Italy, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

Portugal