CURRENT MISSION

Not lettting my "career" get in the way of meeting people and traveling

ABOUT ME

I'm an astronomer, now based in Baltimore since the beginning of 2014. I'm also a pianist, and perform from time to time, and sing. I used to be a music student too so I like to think I'm somewhere between a musician and a scientist.

I grew up in Brussels, went to university in London and then moved to Scotland for my PhD. Then I moved to Munich where I lived for 3 years. I loved it there! But I had to move to Baltimore for a job. Happy to report that Baltimore is way better than its reputation ;)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've hosted people and have surfed in various places around the world. I've also been to CS meetings in different places!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I registered in January 07 before my trip to Korea and wouldn't travel any other way now!

Surfed:
Marie (Busan, Korea)
Jiyoung (Seoul)
Han (Seoul and Chicago)
Raymond & Andy (NYC)
Tammi (London and Chicago)
Rod (Nagoya, Japan)
Minna (Tokyo)
David (Nagoya, Japan)

Hosted:
Ben (NZ)
Andrej (Slovakia)

Interests

Traveling, music, reading, almost any form of art, daydreaming, chocolate, tea, hiking, sailing, planes, food, too many tv series and cartoons, spending hours looking at maps

• arts
• singing
• performing arts
• dining
• breakfast
• chocolate
• cartoons
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• piano
• hiking
• sailing
• astronomy
• cartography
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Books:
L'Ecume des jours, 1984, The Lost Continent, The unbearable lightness of being, The Catcher in the Rye, L'Automne à Pékin, The Glenn Gould Reader, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Lord of the Rings, Peanuts books, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Laughable Loves, Israel: A History, Wuthering Heights, Les Fleurs du Mal, Lolita, Ansichten eines Clowns, Animal Farm, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The woman who walked into doors, Travel guides, Atlases

Movies:
Dancer in the Dark, The Hours, American Beauty, The Virgin Suicides, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Shrek, Annie Hall, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Road to Perdition, Torn Curtain, Finding Neverland, Sweet and lowdown, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, South Park, Dr. Acula, Small time crooks, Battle Royale, Goodbye Lenin, The Aristocats, Kikujiro no natsu, Shadow of a doubt, West Side Story, Zoolander, Austin Powers, I heart Huckabees

Music:
Mostly classical & jazz, and any stuff that has "artistic value". Yes I'm a musical snob :-)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Cycled in London for 3 years without getting hurt. Slept in a Buddhist temple and ate algae and kimchi for breakfast at 4am. Sailing down the Patagonian fjords. Flew from Korea to Scotland and then Scotland to Australia the day after and didn't get jetlagged. Survived many car-related problems driving around Namibia, including holding bits of my car together with pieces of string and being cornered by a herd of elephants.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you a bit of astronomy, some (Belgian) French, Dutch or English. Maybe piano too.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Namibia, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, United States

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