I was born and raised in the french speaking part of Switzerland. I am now a PhD candidate in Biology (genetics) living at Vancouver, BC. I am fiancee.

I am pretty calm in general. When I chat I like to dream, to imagine and to recreate through chatting with others. I love to learn and to share thoughts.

My philosophy is: dare dreaming even when it seems risky. Everything will somehow go fine anyway!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because that's the best way of traveling, meeting local people and meeting interesting people from different social background.

Interests

LEARNING AND SHARING

Learning and teaching is a big part of what makes me happy. For more info, please have a look at the "Teach, Learn, Share" section

TRAVEL

Meeting people, discussing our philosophies of life, discovering a city/region, a climate, food, social context, ...

SPORT

Team game: volleyball, basketball, soccer, tchoukball (you probably don't know this sport), handball, ...

Sport trips: Biking, kayaking, cross country skiing, diving

• dining
• traveling
• socializing
• coding
• cycling
• kayaking
• camping
• scuba diving
• skiing
• sports
• basketball
• soccer
• handball
• volleyball
• biology
• genealogy
• science
• statistics

Music, Movies, and Books

BOOKS

Fantasy books (but not sci-fi), science books (computer science, math, genetics and evolutionary biology) and I used to read a bit of the old french literature.

MOVIES

Here are some movies that come to my mind: Dance with Wolfes, Seven Years in Tibet, Mine Vaganti, Good Morning VietNam, The King's speech, Marry Poppins, The Pianist

MUSIC

I mostly listen to jazz, bluegrass, classical music, dubstep (when I am working) and rock (Dire Straits, Deep Purple, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Creedence Clearwater Revival, ...)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have worked for 3 month as a diver in Indonesia to take measurements and samples of clownfishes and anemones.

I went cross country skiing and camping in Alaska during the winter by -35°C/-31°F.

I often travel in cities without having any idea where I am going to crash. I just meet people and crash at their place and often spend a day with them.

Teach, Learn, Share

SOCIAL

A trip is not about seeing new landscapes but about seeing himself/herself with new eyes through the experience we made of new people and new places. I learn and share a lot during my trips.

When you meet new people, you are all anew, with no social identity (yet). In those conditions one can rethink its own behaviour and improve upon them thanks to what we learn from the other.

SCIENCE

Science > Biology > genetics > population genetics. To learn more about my interests in population genetics, you can have a look at my website: http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~matthey/

I spend a fair amount of time on various online ressources to learn about any kind of subject. I am also active in teaching; I am a teaching assistant in biostatistics and I am very active on StackExchange websites. See my profile: http://biology.stackexchange.com/users/4108/remi-b

Coding: R, C, C++, Python, Julia, Regex, Bash, Mathematica, HTML, CSS, LaTex (in descending order of preference)

PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy (in the formal sense, philosophy of knowledge for example). Philosophy of life (informal sense) is one of the greatest subject on which two people can share their opinions.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Interesting conversations of all kinds
Stories, including travel stories
Food
Lessons in statistics, programming, French and/or Biology. If you need someone to teach genetics or evolutionary biology in an accessible way, I am your best friend!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Luxembourg, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Indonesia, Switzerland, United States