ABOUT ME

With my head in clouds but my feet firmly planted on the ground, I'm an artist/gold-and silversmith/dreamer who moved to Oslo at the end of 2010 from Melbourne Australia for love, and have now been living in Gothenburg on Sweden's west coast for 7 years.

Meeting with, being with and getting to know people is THE source of joy in my life. And music. And the arts. And contemporary circus. And cake, you can't forget the cake!. But in short, I could be anywhere doing anything living out my dreams, but its empty if I'm not forming meaningful connections with people. If you are making a positive difference in the lives of people around you, if you give energy and enthusiasm and friendship to the people around you then it doesn't matter what kind of work you do (and I've done some mind-numbing, repetitive, smelly jobs). I don't spend money on fashion, parties, gadgets or stuff ( unless its a tool or something useful for my studio or workbench) but I will spend money on amazing food and travel.

My greatest achievement, I would have to say, would be when I cycled from Freiburg in the south of Germany, through Switzerland, over the Alps, and down to Como in Northern Italy last Summer with 20 kilos of packing on a second hand but sturdy, (definitely not of the touring kind), bicycle.

I love cooking with people for people. If I wasn't being an artist I would be running away with a circus, or some wandering minstrel troupe. I love to play music, listen to music, dance to music, read, watch films, meet up with people and do interesting things together, cook amazing food, gallivant around and be silly, preferably while hanging upside-down, and I love being on top of mountains, surrounded by trees and carried by the ocean.

http://anitavandoorn.weebly.com
www.facebook.com/anitathesmith

PHILOSOPHY

Your joy is my joy, your pain is my pain. As I stand next to you on the street, at the checkout, on the train, your next breath out is my next breath in.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. Rumi.

The enemy is a mode of seeing which thinks it knows in advance what is worth looking at and what is not. John Berger.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I host whenever I can and surf as well. I live in a

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Have surfed a few couches, and couched a few surfers.

Interests

dancing until the sky crashes down
hanging upsidedown
music
art
getting to know people
food and cooking
watching the ocean breath
letting the music carry me away
walking in snowfall

• arts
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• coffee
• walking
• partying
• movies
• music
• guitar
• gymnastics
• languages
• mountains
• acroyoga

Music, Movies, and Books

The god of small things
The Sparrow
Junk Food Monkeys
The Agony and the Ecstasy
The Book Thief
The Red Tree

Babette's Feast
Hanami/Kirschbluten
Laulev Revolutsioon
Donnie Darko
Mr Nobody
The Usual Suspects
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Stranger than Fiction
Immortal Beloved
Call me by your name

Wide and varied musical tastes, but a few favourites:
Doch
Tool
Throat singing (Tibetan, Tuvan, Mongolian, Altai)
The Dirty Three
Jason Webley
The Great Park
Dikanda
Wardruna
Portishead

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Flying trapeze
Skydiving

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach guitar, firetwirling, acrobatics, gymnastics, vegan glutenfree sugarfree cooking

Share recipes food music tales laughs friendship coffee

Learn accordion juggling languages recipes

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Estonia, Norway, Sweden

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