CURRENT MISSION

... to travel as much I as can while the US Dollar is still slightly more valuable than toilet paper.

ABOUT ME

I'm an American grad student studying for a year at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. I'm a composer. If you're curious, you can read about my work and listen to my music on my website (www.ryancarter.org).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm living in a house that is being renovated. The guest room is not ready yet, but should be within a couple months. At that point, as long as it's okay with my housemates (who have not moved in yet - the house is mostly vacant), I can start hosting guests in the beautiful town of Voorburg, a suburb of The Hague.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've never used CouchSurfing.com before (as I write this on October 19, 2007), but I've stayed with many host families while traveling around the world and I always find it a much more rewarding experience than staying in a hotel.

Interests

Music consumes my life.

• traveling
• music
• hiking
• rock climbing

Music, Movies, and Books

I listen to all kinds of music. I'm a little obsessed with the keyboard works of J. S. Bach. I've read a lot of pretentious francophone literature. My taste in movies is questionable.

More specifically:

Music:

J. S. Bach, the harpsichord toccatas (BWV 910 - 916)
Brtiney Spears (pre-2002)
Justin Timberlake
Guillaume de Machaut (sacred music)
Don Carlo Gesualdo
Igor Stravinsky (pre-serialist)
Steve Reich
Michael Gordon
Louis Andriessen
many, many others

Books:

anything by Mark Leyner (check him out... for real)
Amélie Nothomb, "Stupeur et tremblements"
Michel Houllebecq, "Plateforme"
many others

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The first thing that comes to mind is a hike in the Peruvian Andes. I spent all day climbing to an altitude I had never experienced outside of an airplane. Toward the end of the day, I was crawling over rocks on my hands and knees, and when I reached the campsite I was on a plateau high above the clouds surrounded by jagged snowy peaks. Maybe it was the altitude sickness and maybe it was all the coca leaves I had consumed, but it was pretty amazing watching the clouds pass below me.

Teach, Learn, Share

Yesterday I learned that the title of a piece I wrote this year ("Doot") is the archaic spelling of the Dutch word "dood," which means "dead." Good to know.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Monaco, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vatican City State, Zambia

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, France, Netherlands, United States

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