Hello travellers,

I'm a student and researcher living in Berlin. I fell in love with Berlin on my first visit as a teenager, when I had never seen a big city before, and when Berlin had been just a symbol for something that was certainly not a small village. However, during my five years of living there, it has held up to all my wild expectations- I'm still fascinated by all its rawness and liveliness, and I'm very happy to share this with others!

Well, there's no romantic love story about my studies. However, I'm still passionate about teaching and studying mathematics. Eventually, I'd like to further pursue the academic career...and this is, where most of my time is going right now. The rest of it I then spend on managing our chaotic 9-people apartment, where we usually have many international guests and a lot of fun.

Besides that, I keep some hobbies without great success: some guitar playing, occasional improv classes, teaching a drumming-circle on West-African percussion, juggling from time to time

"As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.”
- Carson McCullers

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm a very curious person - what I like most about travelling, even more than being in the wild, is meeting people and sharing experiences with them. I was called a "travel sponge" once...I think I like that. Couchsurfing is a great way of getting to know a lot of interesting people and getting a rather authentic feeling of the place you're visiting. And also, all the interesting people come to your house, too! I've actually hosted a lot more than I've surfed myself. So far, both my hosting and surfing experiences have been absolutely great :)

Interests

music, literature, acting, food, math, politics, teaching and people.

• literature
• theater
• performing arts
• acting
• dancing
• tango
• swing dancing
• dining
• cooking
• baking
• politics
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• music
• guitar
• surfing
• mathematics

Music, Movies, and Books

Oh, there is so much I like. Some favourites are...

Music: Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Doors, Eric Burdon, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Jack Bruce , Led Zeppelin, Fela Kuti, Mulatu Astatke, Steve Reich, Avishai Cohen, Shai Maestro, Herby Hancok, Django Reinhardt, Surreal&The Sound Providers, Jurassic 5, Mos Def, Nôze, Franz Schubert, Erik Satie, Arnold Schönerg, most Beethoven piano sonatas and everything Jack White ever touched.

Books: Hermann Hesse, Milan Kundera, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, Vladimir Nabokov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Oscar Wild, F. Scott Fitzgerald, "How To Kill a Mockingbird", "Catch-22", "A Catcher in the Rye", "A Tale of two Cities" and just recently I have discovered the beauty of traditional fairy tales and myths.

Movies: La fille sur le pont, Pulp Fiction, Princesas, ...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Met a (friendly and shy) bear in its natural habitat
- Experienced an intense worship in Nigeria
- Went to a massive rave in a collapsed factory building
- Had a rather enjoyable conversation over tea at a rural Georgian house without any shared language.
- Hiked through mountain forests for several days without any signs of humans
- Rode in a military truck packed with infantry when hitchiking through Eastern Europe
- Caught a terribly thrown breadcrumb with my mouth by doing a full dive on the grass. My friends still accuse me of lying and faking the chewing.
- Did an improv theater performance. Scared the hell out of me.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: German swearwords, non-German cooking, mediocre hand-drumming and guitar playing, juggling, surviving bear attacks and lots and lots of math.

Learn: horse riding, argentine tango, swing dancing, bread baking, cooking, French swear words

What I Can Share with Hosts

Mostly authentic interest in their city and their life, also cooking and juggling if appropriate.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Georgia, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Nigeria, United States