Life is new everyday, and so am I - the only thing that's constant is change :)

After leaving academia and research, I found myself working in a community with mentally handicapped people in France for 15 months. So much more rewarding and "real" than what I had done the years before! Now I'm back in Berlin discovering many other interesting social and ecological projects and communities and meeting many inspiring people, really wonderful :)

I'm open to life, people and nature. I love making new contacts, learning about people's life stories, and sharing my own experiences. I enjoy talking about deep meaningful stuff, but also like just simply having fun, dancing, making music, singing, playing games....

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing allows me to travel to different cultures even without leaving home - and I've had many wonderful guests. I'm also grateful for the awesome hosts that shared their homes, time, and laughs with me in many different places.

Interests

I like all kinds of outdoor sports - especially cycling, it's the perfect combination of physical exercise and traveling. Some years ago I cycled back to Hamburg from Nice passing through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech Republic :) It was a great feeling of freedom, cycling as much as I wanted every day and putting my tent wherever nature had a pretty spot for me!

I love music - both listening and making it (best with a guitar around a campfire ;) ).

I enjoy board games, especially strategic ones (Dominion, Settlers of Catan, ...) or reaction games (Dobble, Jungle Speed, ...) - or a decent game of chess.

Cooking and homemade stuff is a passion, especially when it's done with or for other people who appreciate it. I'm always curious for new ideas and recipes, especially for healthy vegetarian, seasonal, and local food. But I also love discovering different food from over the world.

I've become particularly interested in ecological agriculture, especially permaculture. It's so fascinating, all this complexity and intelligence in nature. It's all there, all the solutions, we just need to reconnect with nature and become part of it again :)

• dancing
• cooking
• board games
• guitar
• cycling
• camping
• ecology
• permaculture
• community

Music, Movies, and Books

There's hardly any music I don't like - best when it's live! Otherwise my music choice is very mood dependent; and there's always something to fit the mood :) I enjoy discovering new music, especially local stuff when I am traveling.

For me a really good movie still keeps me thinking at least a week after I saw it, like "Mulholland Drive" by David Lynch. My all time favorite is probably "The Matrix" though. Some other really good movies: "Good bye Lenin", "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain", "The lives of others", "Bienvenus chez les Ch'tis", "Before Sunrise", "Melancholia". Lately I've been very inspired by the French movies "Demain (Tomorrow)" and "En quête de sens (A quest for meaning)" that both show solutions to society's problems and show that another world is possible.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Here are a couple
-Skinny dipping in a hidden ice cold mountain lake in the French Alps
-Traveling with a tent and putting it just anywhere we felt like (highlights: under a highway bridge in heavy rain, at abandoned lakes in Sweden, in the middle of Aix-en-Provence for the fête de la musique)
-Hitchhiking from Nice to Budapest in four days

Teach, Learn, Share

I started the guitar a while ago by playing along the chords to songs that come to my mind (Eagles, Cold Play, Metallica, Manu Chao, Jason Mraz...). So I could show you a few things but would also be interested in learning songs.

I love to cook and discover new dishes, especially vegetarian alternatives - always surprised about the delicious vegetarian (and even vegan) dishes you can prepare when you know what you're doing... :) If you're into chocolate, I can prepare you a pretty good mousse au chocolat !

Different languages fascinate me, each language has its own special sound and character and can tell you so much about the different culture. So I always love learning new languages, but I'm also happy to teach you some words in German!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, France, Germany, United States