CURRENT MISSION

To make the world th same, but a little bit interesting.

ABOUT ME

Hello! My name is Stepan, I live in the cultural capital of Russia - Saint-Petersburg. After a lot of different jobs, now I'm getting happiness from my current one - I work in comic book publishing house. Doing everything - starting from usual office pepper work, finishing at drawing comics myself.
Also, as every couchsurfer I'm a travel-addicted. And I have one other bad habit: I need learn to play new and new musical instruments. I can play punk-rock using any stuff: banjo, mandolin, bagpipe, balalayka, accordeon... But truly, I prefer string instruments. Also I always talk too much and love my native city too much. But not too much to stay here for all the time, cause I always need some movement, some new knowledges about other cultures, just need some adventures every day.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is beautiful! Don't worry, be happy! Hakuna Matata! Life is too short to waste it on sadness.

I don't matter about religions (I just think that different people call the same supreme intelligence in different ways), I trying don't care about politics (only freedom counts, if one want it - one get it), and I think that our life and happiness are only in our hands.

"Kids, every story in a man life is like a dot in an impressionist painting". (HIMYM)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm able to host sometimes, and as a native citizen of St. Petersburg I'm always glad to show the city from the different sides, and maybe not much people can show you what I can.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I surfed a lot in the USA, Finland, France, the Ukraine.
Usually I'm offering to guests of my city some really interesting excursion around St. Petersburg, cause I know my town really very well. Check it! Bridges, courtyards, roofs, pubs (especiallu pubs) — it isn't even a half that I can show you.
Also, because I like to travel, and usually I travel alone, I hope here I can find awesome people from all over the world to spend time together while traveling.

Interests

Once I was a musician in local punk-rock band for 9 years, playing folk-instruments like balalaika, banjo, mandolin, bagpipe. But now I just make up music and sometimes play guitar just for soul.
I love to travel by car, but usually its just SPb-Moscow, SPb-Helsinki, SPb-Minsk. Once it was SPb-Moscow-Ryazan-Samara-Kazan. Good... no, perfect storytaler. Once I will make my own CS-based stand up concert :-)
All other sides of life is interesting for me, even if I'm not in it at all: sport (half-marathons, thriatlons), not-musical art, even some politics.
Drawing comics badly, but I already had 4 publications.

Another bad habit: look for a four-leaf clover for good luck.

• arts
• books
• singing
• make up
• concerts
• pub crawls
• politics
• comics
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• music
• guitar
• sports
• religion

Music, Movies, and Books

Cinema:
English-style action (The Football Factory, 51th State, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Hot Fuzz), stupid zombie-movies (Shaun if the Living Dead, Army of Darkness, Planet Terror), classic science-fiction (Star Wars, Back to the Future), soviet union classics (A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines, We Are from Jazz)... And the best movie I have ever seen - Life is Beautiful.

Music:
All type of really good music. Begins from the punk (Rancid, Dropkick Murphys, Social Distortion, Against Me!, Gogol Bordello), hard rock (AC/DC - the best band ever!), ska (Skatalites, Specials), alternative (Skindred, Salvador), alt-country (Mumford & Sons) and till some hip-hop (House of Pain) and even pop (Robbie Williams for example) if it is really talented and nice. But it mostly already old-fashioned. Oh, and of cause much Russian good music.

Books:
Travel-guides! And encyclopedias. I'm really love to read them. Also many russian writers, such as Sergey Dovlatov, Pelevin, Gogol! Anti-utopia (Huxley, Zamyatin), beat-generation (Kerouac), and of course Hemingway. And graphic novels, comics! I already passed mainstream level, so it mostly stuff by Fantagrafics. But Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Daytripper by Ba and Moon are still the best ever.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Aurora, meteor shower, solar eclipse, and singing crowd at the first concert that I played with my band.

And, of cause, all those places where I have been too.

Teach, Learn, Share

Oh, I think I can teach one how to play any musical instrument, or just how to play music by any other random thing! Also, I really love my native language and can teach it too.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Russian Federation

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