Since May 14th 2020, CouchSurfing charges a membership fee which I will not pay. As long as my profile is still visible and you can see this information - if you want to stay with us, contact me directly on Facebook, look for Maria Fagerlund (Gehlert). This is my email to CouchSurfing after their news of membership fees:
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Hi Team,

I've been part of this community for 15 years and have met many of my best friends as well as my husband through CS. It's been a very important part of my life.

I came close to leaving back when Casey sold, CS turned into a company, and all the community wikis and individualized profiles were taken down, that so many of us had poured so much love and time into.

You took the heart out of our community then, and I only stayed on because I was still receiving requests from lovely people I wanted to meet.

But now this. I'm deeply disappointed. I understand that CS needs money to continue running. But you could have asked. You could have turned to the community for help and asked us to donate whatever we could, and we - the serious members, the soul surfers - would have risen up as one and supported our platform. Have you never heard of crowdfunding? We're such a great crowd.

But you didn't ask. You instead presented us with a final solution, you told us what you were doing, how you were changing CS fundamentally without involving us or asking for our opinion.

I feel patronized and I'm not going to put up with it. This is no way to treat members of a longstanding community, and I no longer want to be a part of it.

You've changed, CS, and I just don't love you enough anymore. I'm sad, but it's time to part. Goodbye.
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And now, my actual profile:

PLEASE READ MY PROFILE BEFORE REQUESTING MY COUCH. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO STAY WITH A FAMILY WITH THREE KIDS, IN A TINY HOUSE IN A TINY TOWN? YES? THEN READ ON.

I like picnics, potatoes and dressing up and I strongly believe in reducing-reusing-recycling, growing our own food, buying locally grown produce and saving energy. Basically I'm trying to save the planet by going to flea markets, yup.

I grew up in a forest in East Germany, and instead of going to university to learn something reasonable, I moved to Paris and learnt something useful, like another language and things about myself and how to open oysters.
After 3 years there, I eloped to Dublin with my Swedish Prince Charming, who I met through CS. We moved to Berlin in 2009, and then to Dresden in 2011, and then to Meißen in 2016! Away from the cities, back to the countryside.
And it's not just the two of us anymore - we have two sons, Jonas (* 2007), Emil (* 2011), and our daughter Mia (* 2014).

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY ...
Everything will be somehow, and it is going to be alright in the end.
If it is not alright, it is not the end.

I also believe that you shouldn't have to choose if you want the career, family, or travelling life. I don't think these things necessarily exclude each other. And really, who wants a career anyway??

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I believe that opening yourself, and your house, up to strangers is not only rewarding and inspiring on a personal level, but is the small step each of us can take towards more understanding and tolerance in the world.

I have been a member since 2005, CouchSurfing and I go way back and it has had an enormous impact on my life. I met my husband the first time I surfed, he was my host's flatmate. I met almost all of my close friends through CouchSurfing, which is why they are all over the world and I can never just run over to their house and hang out.

Interests

At the moment, I'm all about things to do with self sufficiency and sustainability - gardening, permaculture, canning, cooking, learning things my grandparents did, making things myself instead of buying them ...

Another favorite topic of mine is children, for three obvious reasons.

As a family, we are interested in languages, especially other multilingual families' experiences and stories.

The boys are realllly into StarWars and football (soccer). Me, not.

On a more practical level, we LOVE being outdoors and spend whole summer days in the garden, getting dirty and sweaty and happy.

• culture
• dining
• cooking
• gardening
• traveling
• outdoor activities
• languages
• sustainable living
• self-sufficiency

Music, Movies, and Books

Oh, BOOKS!!!
I love books.
Kids' books! Books with wonderful illustrations! Books with witty language! Books with wicked twists! Phantasy! Books like bricks that take you to other places for weeks! And really good dystopia, I like that too, although it hits a bit too close to home to be entirely enjoyable, the older I get. So, in no particular order: Margaret Atwood, JK Rowling, Roald Dahl, Michael Ende, Astrid Lindgren, Lemony Snicket, Walter Moers, NEIL GAIMAN, Douglas Adams, Terry Jones, Terry Pratchett, Susanna Clarke, Philip Pullman, Stephen King (NOT his horror stuff, but the Dark Tower), Nicole Krauss, Jonathan Safran Foer, Audrey Niffenegger. And many more.

MUSIC ...
Singer/Songwriters, people who sing and play and make their own music.
Boring old-fashioned stuff like The Beatles, REM, U2, Dire Straits, I even like Elvis and Johnny Cash.
Really anything as long as it's not too noisy, and some of the "normal" stuff everyone seems to listen to, like Green Day, Oasis, Cake, Mando Diao, oh and Jack Johnson should really not be last on this list.
Oh and did I mention Adam Green? And Kimya Dawson? And Regina Spektor? And Simone White? And mostly, I'm not so much a fan as a fervent admirer of Amanda Fucking Palmer - not even all of her music, but HERSELF. What a beautiful, real, honest woman.

MOVIES ... 
Juno. 
K-Pax.
Big Fish. 
Dogville.
Prestige. 
Fight Club. 
Sonnenallee. 
Garden State. 
Walk the Line.
Forrest Gump. 
Elizabethtown. 
A beautiful mind. 
Harold and Maude.
Stranger than fiction. 
Being John Malkovich. 
Everything is illuminated. 
Oh Brother, where art thou? 
A Series of Unfortunate Events. 
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. 
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 
(also, I'm a geek and sort things by length of title)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Well I still can't believe that my body knows, without ever consulting me, how to grow an entire, living, perfect baby inside itself, birth it, and then feed it. Times three!!! It's quite overwhelming, just like being alive, and being in love.

Teach, Learn, Share

CS UNIVERSITY ...
I am a certified guide to that massive castle in the background of my profile picture, and I also do tours of the old town of Meißen. Anything you want to know about local history ... if I don't know it, I know where to look it up =)

I want to learn everything you know about gardening, crop rotation, making awesome compost, and other garden topics.

I'm very interested in traditional crafts - if you're a builder or maker of any kind, I want to know all about it, and we probably have something for you to build or fix around our house. I might still one day become a bookbinder, myself. Let's weave baskets, share knitting patterns, carve wood, fold origami, do pottery, create and make stuff when you're here!

I would also love to learn to cook your favorite dish while you're staying with us, and add it to my CS recipe book!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Hmmm ... not really applicable, because we don't travel much at the moment, and when we do, it's usually to see the Swedish grandparents who are happy to host us.

Countries I’ve Visited

Croatia, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Germany, Ireland

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