I'm 39, I love intercultural interactions, the feeling of wrongfooting that makes you feel joyfully ignorant and yet richer than when you woke up. I've worked 5 years in Burundian schools setting up computer labs and training teachers to use them (http://bit.ly/witar08). That has become the subject of my PhD research that I've just concluded. This long, troublesome experience which lasted 6 years cracked me open, shrunk my ego and made me rediscover the soft in me, as well as legitimise the spiritual longing I had long disowned.
I'm vegetarian, because of the climate change, because I sympathise with animals and most of all, because I feel soo much better since I've adopted such a diet!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Thru traveling I seek connection and wrongfooting, I want to learn about my own assumptions that I never knew I had, to peel off the layers of my onion to understand what the essence of being human, across cultures, as well as experiencing awe when confronted with the amazing variety of human way of life. I think couchsurfing offers a wonderful opportunity to nurture this curiosity and that traveling is about meeting people rather than visiting places.

Interests

I'm a psychologist, yet is when I'm teaching and mentoring that I feel I'm in the flow. I like listening to people's stories, especially their dealing with painful ones, and with challenges in their life.
I loooove tango, although I've only started a couple of years ago and I'm not very good at it.
I love endurance sports, especially mountaing biking, back country snowboarding, triathlon, cross-country skiing, barefoot running. I'm quite of a high sensation seeker: I bungee jumped, parachuted myself (in tandem) and paraglided (in tandem) and did the flying fox (see picture).
I'm very much rediscovering the long disregarded and yet super wise language of my body.
I like to challenge people assumptions with jokes and direct questions and to debate the nature of "reality".
I've recently developed a great interest for juicing and green smoothies and all the health benefit you can get from them.

• animals
• arts
• books
• documentaries
• perfumes
• tango
• vegetarian
• triathlon
• dieting
• running
• flying
• traveling
• socializing
• cycling
• bungee jumping
• skiing
• snowboarding
• sports
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

I like tango, bossanova, pop (love the last U2 album!), jazz, funk, lounge.
My favorite movie of all imes is Office Space (1999) but recently I've started watching a lot of documentary on www.fmtv.com
I identified myself a lot with the protagonist of "Mr. Nobody".
I'm a slow reader and I've recently discover the experience of audiobooks which I enjoy a lot. Currently I'm very intrigued by everything related to wisdom and the art of living fully, staying authentic. The last audiobook I've listened to is "A man's search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl: simply wonderful!
I like writing, especially poems.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Mmmm... I swam across the Lugano lake during the annual "traversata" [crossing] of 2.5km together with other 500 people - wearing my Borat's mankini wetsuit green fluo.

For 12 years I've supported a dear friend in Burkina Faso in setting up a cyber café in his native village, in a very remote rural area (http://daarye.wordpress.com).

Teach, Learn, Share

I love teaching! I professionally teach a course on the art of presenting supported by slides.
I run workshop on the use of net-map (http://netmap.wordpress.com), and all sort of other workshops using participatory techniques, such as games, role-plays and such.
I'm proficient with computers, especially Apple ones, but not only those: I've taught computer literacy both to teeenagers and adults for several years.
I have a compulsion to share whatever ressource I find with few selected people that I think would enjoy them, so I tend not to use Facebook much for that.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share myself!
I can share my awe when getting to know them.
I can share all I know that I suspect they may find interesting (websites, videos, documentaries, books, techniques, contacts, etc.).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Rwanda, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia

Countries I’ve Lived In

Burkina Faso, Burundi, Germany, India, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States