CURRENT MISSION

Understand better and be free

ABOUT ME

I like meeting new people and getting to know them. I also happen to be living in a studio that is a tad bit too spacious for myself, so it'd be nice to have some visitors over from time to time. Sorry, I suck at self introduction and this is pretty much all I wanted to say anyway, haha.

PHILOSOPHY

"Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darueber muss man schweigen." ("Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.")

Also:

"Life is short, art long"
"Life is on the wire, the rest is just waiting"

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

A couple of my friends randomly visited Chicago and stayed at my place, but I wouldn't call it Couchsurfing really. That said, I have no experience so far and just joined this site the other day.

Interests

In no particular order:

Music, movie, poker, basketball, surfing (real surfing with a board), boxing, drinking, reading, sleeping, traveling, and much more

• arts
• drinking
• clothing
• reading
• traveling
• poker
• music
• cycling
• surfing
• basketball
• boxing

Music, Movies, and Books

Shawshank Redemption
Babel
Das Leben der Anderen

Pretty much all composition by Bartok, Schumann, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Ravel, Grieg, etc. I hate Mozart.

Used to be a big fan of jazz but that's kind of fading away nowadays. If I had to pick, Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass are my favourite jazz artists.

I don't read much these days, but there are quite a few authors I really like, including Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Goethe, Joyce, Brecht, Haruki, etc. Among these, I have read all poems by Brecht, and all writings by Haruki.

Here's one poem by Brecht, with my own (somewhat crude) translation:

Morgens und Abends zu lesen

Der, den ich liebe
Hat mir gesagt
Dass er mich braucht.

Darum
Gebe ich auf mich acht
Sehe auf meinen Weg und
Fuerchte von jedem Regentropfen
Dass er mich erschlagen koennte.

***

To read in the morning and at night

My beloved one
Has told me
That he needs me

Hence
I take good care of myself
Watch out whither I am going
Fearing any drop of rain
As I shan't be killed by it

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have been donating a certain portion of my income since 10-11 years ago to people who are in need. It's not really much money, but I would like to help other people whenever and however possible.

And this one might not quite strike you as "amazing" but I'll share with you guys anyway. I survived a number of motor cycle accidents, one of which was so deadly that I couldn't understand how I didn't die right there. Some time back in 2005, I was riding my bike (=motor cycle) on a road that was kind of slippery after the rain. The car in front me put on brakes all of a sudden as the light turned red, and I instantly did so too, without much thinking. At that very moment, my bike left my hand and I flew off to the ground and started rolling. It happens so fast that it sort of lacked reality, but I realised I can die at any moment. This could be it, I said to myself.

Sickest part is, I wasn't wearing any protective clothing or anything close to it. I was heading back to campus after watching a movie, in jeans and short and flip flops. No helmets. Miraculously, my head didn't really touch the ground while I was rolling on there, and I just got away with little bleeding and just a minor bruise. Up to this date, I can't believe I survived this one. And for obvious reasons, I am so grateful that I was the only one was on my bike on that day. If I had anyone on my back and we got into this, I'm not so sure if he/she would have survived it too.

Countries I’ve Visited

Germany, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, South Korea