CURRENT MISSION

"Be the change you wish to see in the world" (M. Gandhi)

ABOUT ME

Martina - this is me. Originally I am Swiss, I moved abroad in 2007 to study art history and lived in Germany, Italy and Hungary since then. Not yet sick of studying; I am working on my PhD and really enjoying my researches. In April 2017 I moved back to Lugano.
I am sensitive and impulsive, introspective and interested in any kind of feeling. I am smart (some says) but I often feel like I don't know enough about anything of the world. I can listen to people but also speak for hours, especially about my mood, my travel stories and my ideals. I am naive but know most of the time what I want and for those things I can fight for. I try to be positive, but honestly, I am not. Which doesn't mean that I am not enthusiastic (I express this through my passion for high-fives)! I am adventurous and don't like if life is easy and predictable. Last but not least, l am an happy and proud mother.
I love maps of cities, countries and of the whole world, but I can't stand using them while travelling, even though I don't know the places I am in. But while getting lost you always find a wonderful, hidden world - isn't it?

PHILOSOPHY

"What I have, I share."
Because solidarity is for me the most important thing in the world.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm always glad when I can help people, it doesn't matter if they are friends or strangers. It makes me very happy if I can host people at my place. I like to hear their stories and try to make them feel comfortable in the country I'm living.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've started to surf couches in the Middle East and I've loved the philosophy of the project (the first time I was travelling alone, the second one, through Turkey and Iran, I was with my ex-girlfriend). I had the feeling that through CS the world will get smaller and that many prejudices can be abolished. I'm excited about getting to know new people, new cultures and about becoming more open-minded. While surfing other people's couch I just couldn't wait to be back home and host couchsurfers at my place to give them the same hospitality I got during my trip.

Interests

I love art. I love painting of the Italian Renaissance and photography of the avantgarde. I like reading books (primarily of Italian contemporary writers but also political or psychological essays), go to the cinema (I love film festivals - wherever a film festival is, you will probably find me there), go to the theater and hiking and cycling. Floorball is the sport I like the most. I love the feeling it gives me, of strength and power. I also enjoy to run and I did some short runs in the past (like 10 km) and I'd really love to be able to run one half marathon someday... I love to talk about feelings, drink tea, sit in the sun or walk in the rain and listen to the wind. Whatever is nature, it is good.
I like to drink beer, I like to get wet when it rains cats and dogs, I like to go to museums, I like to talk about human rights and I wish to live until the very moment when there will be equality for all beings.
One of my other big, big interests is the Middle East. I love their culture, the people, the traditions, even though I think they still have to go a long way to reach a point where every citizen has the same rights (well honestly, tell me a Western Country where all the people are considerate equal. In some ways Europe also have a long way to go as well). I fell in love with Syria, with Damaskus, and also with Palestine. I am currently trying to learn Arabic (with no big results, but still...).
And I love Kurdistan and its fight for peace and freedom. This I love more than anything else. I am kind of into their theories actually. I stand for radical democracy, for democratic confederalism. I think women's freedom is the key of the society's change we all need and that Kurds are the key for peace in the Middle East!

Well, always when I have to write down what I like to do and what my interest are, I feel I don't know what to say. So it may seem I'm not interested or interesting. I guess I should write a list with things I just do without thinking about. Like playing cards! I really love to do it and to learn new games. And bake bread. It is such a good feeling to mix water and flour, then wait a couple of hours.. Then have something warm and good to eat.

• arts
• culture
• books
• theater
• photography
• film festivals
• human rights
• running
• walking
• hiking
• art history
• cartography

Music, Movies, and Books

Ok. Difficult question. I try to write down some movies, bands and books I like.

Movies: Movies by Steeve McQueen, Clint Eastwood (even though I hate that he is a damn republican), Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, Abbas Kiarostami, Roman Polansky, Dardenne Brothers, Coen Brothers, Marx Brothers, Jafar Panahi, Asghar Farhadi, and many others.
Oh.. I don't like Quentin Tarantino, actually. I'm sorry for that. But I just can't like it. Well, I tried to watch "Pulp Fiction" for many times, and founded it boring - sorry again. But then I saw "Inglorious basterds" and founded it great. So I rather say that I don't like Pulp Fiction.

Music: Bob Dylan, Feist, the Doors, Yann Tiersen (mostly live on tour, when he plays rock music), Neil Young, Manu Chao, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Anthony and the Johnson, Ghinzu, Ben Harper, Balkan Beat Box, Blonde Red Head, Beirut, MGMT, Max Prosa, Asaf Avidan, Piers Faccini (this guy is a genius!), Fat Freddy's Drop, James Vincent McMorrow (LOVE), Ben Howard (I'd like to marry him, seriously), Hozier and many others.

Books: Winnie the Pooh and anything Roal Dahl even wrote (my interior age is like six or seven years old!). And many books from Italian writers, but I love Murakami, Marquez and many others too. I am reading Kundera right now and I understand why everybody loves him. But I actually read mostly history/political-books, essays and so on, to try to understand the world we are living in (hard mission).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Giving life to a new human.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'd like to learn how to drum. But altought this is what I'd like to become once I'll be old (the coolest drummer ever), I'd rather go back to piano, that I used to play when I was younger.
And I wish to learn how to bake breads from all over the world! But this may be difficult, because normally every bread has his typical way to be baked, like in a special oven and so on. But what's better than bread? Bread is common all over the world, so that it brings people together, even if it's always different. I really like this bread-philosophy.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland

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