I recently graduated biotechnology from a local university. I spent last year working (and sitting on my thesis without classes) so that I could travel, this took me to Japan where I wanted to be when I was a teenager, then forgot, then threw a dart at the wall, picked it, went there, and fell in love with the place.

I am starting a masters degree now in the same field.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Like most people on here probably- I want to see the world, and that includes NOT staying in places that have stars (unless, you know, the actual ones- insert note about starry skies here).

I have grown up in two European countries (Poland and Portugal) where I attended international schools so most of my education has been conducted in English with a bunch of other people who all spoke a different first language so I am very open to meeting people of different cultural backgrounds.

Interests

Sewing, historical fashion, reading everything ever written. Music, especially all sorts of rock, post-rock and the like.

I love travelling mostly solo and with my girlfriend, when I do, I mostly walk a lot, I love visiting museums, in these am especially interested in Egyptian and pre-Columbian American cultures. I like staring at paintings for hours and my favorites are the pre-Raphaelites and the Art Nouveau.

I sew a lot of crazy things mostly for myself and if you would like to learn it I'm more than happy to show you around this, I know most people are intimidated but there's lots who have a sewing machine left over from somewhere at home and would like to but it just looks too scary- I adore teaching this to people. Either way apparently if you can drive a car you should be able to operate a sewing machine, says grandma, well, I can't drive a car so that should give you an idea.

I love cooking (my girlfriend Barbara and my friends have the goodwill to say it is actually edible haha), so I would be glad to cook something for us but don't expect traditional Polish cuisine (kapusta, kapusta everywhere, says Barbara but stop Barbara, I like kapusta), since my favourite things are sauces and I have no idea what kind of cuisine they would be. Also I can't really bake cakes, savory pies on the other hand...

• arts
• fashion
• education
• cooking
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• rock climbing
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Authors I can re-read over and over again: Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell!), E. M. Forster, Edith Wharton. Others I love: Neil Gaiman, Annie Proulx, Umberto Eco, Joseph Heller (Catch-22!), Leo Tolstoy, Margaret Atwood. And many more :D

I love costume movies, my favorite designers are Colleen Atwood and Jenny Beavan.

Music too much to list surely, but some great bands I don't see mentioned that often, maybe it'll be something you like as well- Godspeed you! Black emperor, Dir en grey, Mogwai, Gravenhurst, Red Sparowes, Russian Circles, recently Toundra, io echo. Some Polish bands I like though, Bokka, Tides from nebula, Obscure Sphinx...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I climbed Mt. Misen on Miyajma island in Japan- and to be honest this was the first mountain I climbed ever, not that it's super tall or anything, but still. I read all the route signs, they said climbing up should take me about 90 minutes, so I believed them. I wanted to turn back a handful of times but the scenery around me and the primeval forest beckoned so after two hours I found myself at the top, with an amazing view of a red sunset over the Seto Inland Sea. Fifteen minutes later an "oh shit" moment and a race to the cable car, which was closed. There was however a Chinese family with three kids. We spent the following hour climbing down the mountain in total darkness with only our phones to light the way. I'm so glad this happened to me but if I were to say one thing about this experience is learn from other people's mistakes and DO NOT DO THIS hahaha
(I mean the climbing down in the darkness, ofc. Do climb Mt Misen if you have the chance and inclination... pun maybe intended)

Why is it amazing? Idk but I was kind of amazed at what was I thinking when I started haha

Teach, Learn, Share

I don't know if I'm qualified enough to say I could teach you anything but I sure could share with you all of my passions and interests and who knows, maybe next year it's gonna be you rocking the historical gowns or top hats at a reenactment ball or something. Or t-shirts.

Sorry oh my god this is a text wall and I just realized, maybe should have broken it down into bullet points...

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Denmark, Poland, Portugal