(Let's face it: the information I put here can't be much descriptive and you'll never know what kind of person I am without seeing me personally. So try not to be too judgemental, just saying).

I won't write many words about my personality (and yes, skip such hackneyed adjectives such as "creative" and "open minded") — see the reason above — however I find some things quite important because they can turn out to be a stumbling block to our hypothetical communication — or, vice versa, catalyze it.

Yes, I am from Russia, St. Petersburg, and no, I don't drink vodka for breakfast or go outside in a t-shirt when it's minus 30' — and I don't wear fur shapka-ushanka, and moveover — I don't have a huge wall poster with Putin on it and (surprisingly) I've got NO feelings towards Putin. I wouldn't say I am completely indiffent to governmental things, still I try not to go too deep as all this stuff can blow your brains out. That's it.

One of my key principles is to respect every individual's views and (so to say) ideologies. All I want to say is that I'm against any discrimination.

I'm not too much talkative — not because I don't like conversations but because I prefer not to open my mouth for some senseless crap to go out. However I really enjoy deep conversations which give you new ideas and stuff.

I don't want to go deeper, so I suppose it's quite enough information for you to make some conclusions about me.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Keeping away from typically touristic things is one of my aims (ironically, I am a tourist myself) — so finding a good host is one of the ways to achieve that aim. Building any relationships with people, however short they may be, is much more interesting than finding yourself within 4 walls — comfortable indeed but does that give a person any new experience? Apparently not.

So, new experience is my #1 aim: meeting new people, spending time with them, maybe becoming friends — isn't that THE life?

Interests

I've got many and I'm always eager to have new ones, to broaden my horizons. Right now, books, arts, music — that's my passion. I play guitar (ca. 6 years or so), sing (at least try to pretend), read a lot, watch films, try to absorb as much as I have the chance to. I enjoy meeting new people, learning them, their personalities. It would take ours to tell about what really interests me.

My largest interest (I would say THE dream) is to learn the life, to understand at least a bit of it, to be somehow useful to people, to teach them something as they teach me.

• arts
• books
• singing
• breakfast
• drinking
• movies
• music
• guitar

Music, Movies, and Books

Well, again there are many and I can't name my favourites. However, some figures had a certain influence on me so they are worth mentioning.

In the world of music I can list such artists as Radiohead, Joy Division, Pink Floyd (mostly the early ones), Johnny Cash, Interpol, Tom Waits, Morphine, Bob Dylan, The Smiths and so on and so forth — some of them may be too depressive but that's the kind of music I love. I think such music is at least sincere.

As for cinematography, I mostly enjoy such directors as Lars Von Trier, Jim Jarmush, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, etc. — these guys reeally have taste and style, they make you stick to the screen and keep you involved till the final titles. Maybe Xavier Dolan is also worth mentioning — his films satisfy me aesthetically and musically. Good soundtrack is a huge piece of success, it really is.

Literature is my another passion and almost every book somehow makes a mess in my head, makes it reload and look at the world with brand new eyes. However, there are many books which don't make you think, they just entertain — still it's rather subjective. As for me, I was strongly influenced by such masters as Nabokov, Dostoevsky, Dovlatov, Virginia Woolf, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Franz Kafka. A good book for me is one that breaks something in you, makes you open your eyes widely, reflect upon the world and yourself — the writers I mention did it to me quite well.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Absorbing conversations, new ideas, kindness and warm and friendly attitude. No prejudices (however we all have some), devotion, gratitude — those are things which are necessary in any relationship. I'm open to everything new, to everything that can give me new experience — and I'm ready to pay with something equal.

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Russian Federation