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Hi, I'm Ivan (the not so terrible) :P

I have been living for 5 years in Japan, and currently doing my PhD in engineering. Surprisingly what I love the most here, is the multitude of nationalities and cultures I am exposed to on daily basis.
I love to meet new people and collect their life story. The weirder, the better!

Hyper active and sporty, my motto is that watching sports is like watching someone else eat, so I prefer to do them both myself, preferably with some music blasting through my ears. Cycling and resistance training compete for my precious free time. And in the winter I through in some skiing, for good measure. Occasional hiker and climber (only indoor so far).

My friends tell me that I'm "too clean", to which I say that their hygiene standards are too low. Speaking of standards, I do try to have demands towards myself and the people I care about.

I consider myself to be highly adaptable to most situations. I even involuntary
adopt local accents. Trying new things is my thing (some restrictions may apply).

I swim against the current, question authority and refuse to conform (not very practical for living in Japan...).

I realize that starting every sentence with an "I" doesn't describe me as very humble... well I am not. If I was a leader of a country I will probably be a dictator, thankfully I have no interest in politics.

BEER GEAR - I have been organizing multiple events here in Japan, the most famous one being "BEER GEAR". It's a nice multi-cultural gathering, right here in Nagoya, Japan. Actually it is nothing special - just a bunch of cool people getting together at a bar to have some drinks, meet new people and talk about whatever they want. Started in 2011, it has gained a lot of momentum and popularity, among graduate students and English speaking Japanese.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Someone said to me, there will be free cake.... Now that I think about it, it might have been an euphemism for gaining sweet friends and frosted memories, with a creamy core....
Where is my cake?!?!

Interests

Besides cycling, gym and all the other sports I mentioned, I have developed a multitude of interest over the years:
- For the past couple years I have become a MOOC addict. I have enrolled in over 50 different online courses, and completed about of a dozen of them. It did take me a while to figure out a good strategy to keep me motivated till the end.
- Photography - is a thing of the past. I used to even work as a photographer for couple of years, but I wasn't that great at it anyways. I still occasionally enjoy messing around with Photoshop.
-Video games: I do play a lot of those. FPS, strategies, puzzles, adventures, I do it all. Most recently I have played Civ 6 and Kerbal Space
-Audio books: great way to get some "reading" done during my short commute or during mindless repetitive tasks, called research.

• books
• photography
• dining
• beer
• drinking
• politics
• video games
• reading
• watching sports
• puzzles
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• skiing
• sports
• swimming
• engineering
• logic

Music, Movies, and Books

Book: The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons
TV: True Detective, Breaking Bad & Game of Thrones
Movie: Dead Man; The Matrix (only the 1st one)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I climbed Mt. Fuji.
A horrible experience, that I enjoyed very much. Between sleep deprivation, freezing temperatures and altitude sickness, I managed to have quite a lot of fun... mainly when going down.

Teach, Learn, Share

Do you want to talk about the meaning of life or human biases? I am all up for a philosophical or scientific discussion, but beware, I have a high requirements towards rhetoric and logic.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Stories about Japan, Bulgaria and all the other places I have visited. I like to bring small presents if I stay in someones house. Usually its a food or beverage, and its something weird, cause that is what I would like to get. But if you have any particular desires for something Japanese, I would be happy to oblige.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, England, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bulgaria, Japan