CURRENT MISSION

Trying to live through every challenging and stimulating experience I'm encountering in my daily life, full of learning and exchanges.

ABOUT ME

My name is Maxine, I'm a 24 year-old student new to the couchsurfing experience. I'm currently completing my medical studies in Bucharest, Romania. I'm a laid back, talkative, curious person that adores traveling, exploring new continents, and feeling the taste of every place by throwing myself completely into the exploring quest. I like to read, especially novels- Dostojevskji, Amos Oz, Milan Kundera, Jack Kerouac are some of my fav authors - and watch top notch TV shows(I might even go as far as defining myself an addicted show junkie). I love watching movies as much as quality TV shows both in movie theatres or during a nice relaxed film night home.
The love I have for food in general is one of my greatest and most profound passions. I enjoy cooking as much as I enjoy eating new, tasteful and capturing dishes. I believe a world of tastes, cultures and history of a civilization are behind what people eat. The only things limiting me are my unfortunate various food allergies, that make me always double check what I ingest. My favorite cuisine is the Italian one, of which I am very fond of since it was basically the one I was brought up on, but over the years I grew to like others such as the MiddleEastern one, Indian and Asian, especially the Japanese one. Wherever I travel to I try to associate the place I visit with a typical dish that would leave me with a different sensorial memory of the lieu. That's partly why I'm always looking for those small local venues, bistrot and restaurants that would offer that peculiar gustatory upgrade to my stay.
I recently grew an interest into photography, I've always been fascinated by the concepts behind it and I decided to throw myself into a new adventure. I'm an autodidact and still a beginner but I'm quite keen on learning from more experienced people that share some of their vast knowledge with me. In the future, I'd also like to upgrade my camera to a better performing one.

PHILOSOPHY

"Live and let live" is one of the main mottos I believe in. Every person should be appreciated for the decisions that he/she makes in life, and those should be respected. I believe in free choice, respect and serenity to live in the way we decide it's most convenient and suiting for us.
"Carpe diem" is another of my favorite mottos. In italian we say "ogni lasciata e persa" which means "everything you left pass you by, it's lost". Seize the moment and live the present!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Every time I travel I look for a real life-time changing experience that would leave a place and the people, that made my stay memorable, in my heart. I believe truly knowing and experiencing a place comes with knowing the people that make that place true and alive. I'm looking for a permanent exchange of cultures and life views that is achieved just through a full immersion with the locals, their habits, their stories and whatever they have to offer. I never appreciated touristic routes that would just leave my curiosity unfulfilled.

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm soon going to start hosting guests visiting in my centrally located cozy apartment. Looking forward to that!

Interests

I love hanging out with my friends, spending pleasant quality time with talkative and open-minded people that wouldn't be afraid of sharing their viewpoints on many different subjects, such as music, arts, movies and also politics, which is a topic I'm very much interested in.
In my spare time, which is not much lately due to my studies, I like to surf the internet looking for new cooking recepies and depending on my current mood I focus more on salty or sweet dishes, mostly salty ones though.
I always like to be updated with current world issues and realities, therefore I constantly read online newspaper articles, especially italian ones. Another topic I'm very interested in is the Middle Eastern socio-political situation and more specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As I said before, I always keep an open mind to enriching discussions that would convey a meaningful viewpoint.

• arts
• photography
• dining
• cooking
• politics
• movies
• tv
• traveling
• music
• history

What I Can Share with Hosts

-Italian language lessons(it's basically my mothertongue, I can teach you some useful phrases to use in your future Italian travels)

-Italian dishes(well yes it's my fav cuisine)

-my love for good books, movies, TV shows

-a nice walk around the city center

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mauritius, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Italy, Romania