Aloha smiley people!

My name is Memphis. I used to have a an account a long time ago, and for some reason back then, decided to delete my account. I have come to the point where I am able and willing to weed out potential unpleasant encounters, and make space for those who genuinely want meet new people, see the city they are visiting through the eyes of a local, and feel less than a generic tourist overall.

I do understand how it is to travel on a low or even no budget at all. I don’t expect any compensation in any form whatsoever. I understand that sometimes you just need a place to stay, and that’s okay. I would just appreciate it if you tried to read my profile at least :)

I enjoy encounters with people younger than me, my age, or older than me. I am curious to hear about where you come from, where you currently are, and where you are headed in life. I do not care whether you’re male, female or otherwise. Whether you’re gay, straight, pansexual, you name it. Whether you’re black, white, mixed, brown. Whether you shave your hair off, whether your hair is green, blue or yellow, or whatever. I care about the way you see the world. I will listen to your story, ask a lot of questions, and will talk myself whenever I feel I have something from my experience to give you.

My intention is to provide a safe space where you can sleep, eat, and be yourself. A temporary home base from which you can discover the raw, harsh, and cold side of Berlin, as well as the warmth of it provided by its inhabitants.

ABOUT ME

I am Memphis. I was born on a plane on the way from Japan to Brazil. I am half Brazilian, and half Jamaican/Dutch. I grew up in Rio de Janeiro up until the age of 5 and then moved to New York with my family. Later I went on to live in London, Brussels, Berlin, Budapest, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Kenya, South-Africa, Bangkok, and now finally back in Berlin. (Please mention the following words; (1) sunflower above the text of your request; my way of knowing that you read my profile). As I child I was always curious about others. I remember vividly the beautiful bright blue eyes of an elderly man in Brazil when I was about 4 or 5 years old. Eyes remain quite untouched by the passing of times so it seems. While all the rest degrades, eyes keep carrying forth the entrance to your soul, from when you were born, until the end of your journey.

That memory shaped me. I have, therefore, never seen old people as just old people, but as fellow companions. I used to interact a lot with them during my childhood, whether it was in Rio, London, New York, or all the other places where I have lived. I had a dozen of surrogate grandpas and grandmas, and I dare say that their collective wisdom has rubbed off on me. I believe that the way this shaped me has led me to study and pursue a PhD in philosophy.

In New York I had the epitome of what I consider to be the privilege of them all; I had the fortune to live in a city where I could interact with people from all over the world. From Iceland to Kazakhstan and Rwanda, from Argentina to even North Korea, I have met so many people. So many stories, sad stories, and stories or perseverance. In London I had the good fortune of this continuing, albeit different of course. England has, due to its colonial past, a different demographic, just that little less diverse than New York. For me, the latter city is nothing short than the utopian concept of what a city should be like socially; diverse, no domination of one group over another (in terms of numbers). If you are reading this and you have been to New York, come from there, or have lived there, you might pretty well think that I am over-romanticising the city. You might see it as a rat ass city, full of crime, inequality, exclusion and human suffering. To you I say that I agree. It just does not mean that the rest cannot be true simultaneously as well. You’ll meet the craziest people on the subway, but you’ll see the most beautiful human encounters occurring as well. People just arriving, people being burned out from work, people falling in love, people making friends. It’s intense both ways, good and bad, bad and good.

(2 dolphin) In any case, being among a variety of people as such has enabled me to go through life and always see and understand how others experience their time on the planet. Meeting that many people humbles you, you learn that as one out of eight billion currently walking the face of the earth, you simply cannot judge. All you can do is trying to understand.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet you! By now you should know that I like people :)

And let's say there're two bubbles wherever you go; the local bubble, and the preset touristic bubble. A route laid out for you to see some hotspots -that you already have seen on your phone- live. Take a photo of it, post it, consume a drink, and then carry on, to make space for others to follow you in your footsteps, like you have followed some others before you.

It sounds silly, but I'd just like to see how you live, where you get your bread and coffee, where you go for a walk, where you meet your friends, just the little hidden hand picked and selected spots that you have explored and found over the years.

When I host myself, and have time, I’ll do my best to give you an insight in all my little hidden gems as well :)

Interests

Dancing and raving! I try to get good work done during the week, and then usually I go to Berghain on Sunday night, until Monday morning. You can join if you’d like of course :)

• cooking
• wine
• traveling
• jazz
• philosophy
• psychology
• lgbt
• healing
• techno
• psychedelics
• raving

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Carving out my own path in life independently

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm a quite good cook, I can share nice (vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian) meals, warm oatmeal in the morning and coffee to get you going, music, a listening ear, well-meant advice, laughs.

Countries I’ve Visited

Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Kenya, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States