CURRENT MISSION

Our current mission is to find places to CouchSurf in San Francisco post- Thanksgiving! Need help making new exciting things out of all those leftovers? We are pure joy in the kitchen, and are happy to contribute to communal meal making/eating fun time. We are yearning especially and in particular for places to surf in San Fran which are near cafes and libraries. We like cafes and libraries. We seek all the best places to sit and scribble and read delicious words delightedly.

ABOUT US

Belle: I'm almost 24. Writing poetry is my main passion. I also play the guitar and have recently begun falling in love with songwriting. I've been dancing Argentine tango for roughly a decade now, and have done a bit of teaching. I'm a big word nerd and I'm always down for a game of scrabble or a witty, playful conversation. My preferred methods of transportation are trains, subways and greyhound buses, because those are the places one generally meets the most exciting/wacky/interesting people. I speak French and Spanish, though I'm more fully fluent in the former. Creative expression is my freedom, whatever the outlet. My passions are many. I also happen to be an inspired alternative baker (gluten free, grain free, dairy free, sugar free, etc). I don't get many chances to play baker on the road, so if you have an oven and a sweet tooth, I would pretty much die of happiness if you would allow me to bake delicious delicious things in your space (and of course share them with you).

Argent: I am as of the 4th of December, 31 years old and running. And low level urban free-running at that, and cartwheel kicking, and staff juggling in deep dusk. This is my regular gymnastic, and my regular scholastic is at least as inwardly intense as those more outward modes of art are in my life. Lucky#13 is a journal I'm writing to catalog the year 2013 by, interpreting culture in terms of living through the scope of collapse, but collapse as an ongoing process of creative entropy (think bird's nests). The coast will be fun, and I'm fit to climb a rope, and maybe I aught learn how to haul away and hoist a sail. This is my first real spell of independent intercontinental travel ever thought out, with Belle at my side, often showing the way. The world has opened up in nearly no time, and so have Eye.
What does the San Fran Bay, or a sail to Hawaii, or anything SoCal look like?

PHILOSOPHY

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived."

-Thoreau

PRAYING WITH INCENSE

Like smoke, we are only ever always
rising to Heaven.

Like ash, we are only ever always
returning to Earth.

But we are more than these things.
Our rising and falling
are products of the slow red burn
that travels down the path
set by loving hands
rolled in spices.

I love the smoke,
for it celebrates my living.

I love the ash,
for it celebrates my dying.

I love my soul,
for it celebrates itself.

- Belle Burch

"Wherever you go, whatever you do, be in love."

- Rumi

"Poets say the things that cannot be said in words, in words."

- Unknown

Argent: short excerpt from Lucky#13

"...I listen to some of these other peoples' second language translations, second-hand summations of other peoples' ethnocentric hereafters, conjoined. Joined, as if to melt and fuse into each other. Conjoined as if to become confused. Heaven's outlines diversified in the geometrics of Babel-talk. Their spells are whispered through the chattering of brightened teeth, and waft their way throughout the shampood upholstery, muting neatly folded brochures.
To whom could I articulate faith? and then, faithfully? To whom would it matter if it could be faithfully done? Would "interested stranger" begin to understand? Could they, and then again, why try?..."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW WE CONTRIBUTE TO THE CS TRIBE

Belle: I've couchsurfed in Oregon, Hawaii, Ecuador, and especially Argentina. I spent 2 weeks in Buenos Aires in Spring 2011 and didn't have to pay for a hostel once, thanks to the grace of CS. THANK YOU ARGENTINA! Me siento más Argentina que Americana. Las palabras no puden describe como me encanta su país.

I would love to meet other travelers out here in the big wide world for coffee/tea/other more adult beverages/conversation/scrabble/shenanigans et cetera, especially if aforementioned humans speak Spanish or French. Or German or Portuguese. Or Italian. Or any language they're willing to teach me. Also seeking adventuresome dumpster diving buddies who know good spots in the SF/Oakland area.

I hosted last-minute a while back, had a wonderful experience and made strong, beautiful connections with two blokes from California. Would love to host more in the future when I have the sedentary space to do so. For now, though, the world is my home. It's good to be a snail.

Argent: I had very positive experiences Couchsurfing in Eugene, OR. I loves to cook, and can wash a mean dish. Can offer tarot and poetry readings.

Interests

Belle: Art! POETRY. Food. Honesty. Cats. Picking plums and other fruits come upon haphazardly. Laughing. Words. Singing. Dancing romancing. Saying yes to the right things for the right reasons. Making friends with everyone, especially other passionate, expressive people.

Argent: Love Art. I am writing a novel. Much of its themes are mystical, its turns of narrative guided by Tarot Reading from scraps of journal to compose the story. Taking advantage of tree fruit and crate veggie and curbside herbals to make food when possible. Sometimes aiding kitchen volunteer camp events.
So much is made new for me when so much of the same seems old for some younger than me. High Adventure? Alien Terrain? Or maybe just where the best show to sneak into is? Digging Yes a lot.

• cats
• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• poetry
• singing
• dancing
• tango
• dining
• cooking
• coffee
• baking
• yoga
• running
• meditation
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• juggling
• dumpster diving
• drawing
• guitar
• piano
• violin
• equestrian
• camping
• hunting
• scuba diving
• sailing
• archery
• volunteering
• last minute travel

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Belle: Falling in love. Also camping in the redwood forest with other gypsies in arcata last month was freaking awesome. Too many things to count.

Argent: Putting one's dreams aside should never be an aim. But there was something I've picked up in this last summer that tells me I have done well to preserve them, and to make them beautifully blatant and achingly apparent until I can gladly act upon them. There's been so much in my heart I've set aside to make room for work, the earning that would enable my heart to flourish. I am proud of that sustained effort, but look forward now to some much needed time of my own to pursue new interest, new art, new love, new lands.

Teach, Learn, Share

Belle: I can teach French, beginning guitar, basic yoga/stretching, herbalism and tea making, alternative baking, gardening, Argentine Tango, Basic Spanish, cooking, cake decorating. meditation, poi, basic juggling, acro yoga, horseback riding, archery... doing acro yoga while shooting arrows from horseback (just kidding)...

I would love to get better at guitar/ songwriting, musical jamming with others, yoga, improve my fire poi and harmonica playing skills, juggling with others, playing piano and violin, reading my poetry aloud, cake decorating, sustaining ever vaster amounts of gratitude and love.

Argent: I can teach tarot, ... but really Maybe smudging your drawing in a creative way. Maybe moving the earth, the wood, the rock, anything you have a hard time with on your acre, lets have fun with. I'll spar with a versus nerd with a pair of bamboo sticks, I'll draw your portrait.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Belle: Hugs, laughter, gratitude, delicious baked goodies, poems, songs, dancing lessons, joy.

Argent: A gentleperson's warmth, kindness, and respect. How I help is how I want to learn. Great deal of hard work I can do, too. Would love to learn how another dreamer lays out his lines to help someone assume its spirit.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States