Hi y’all.

I'm Sander, 41, living in the Middle East of the Neths. I'm a city councillor for nearly seven years now and local party leader since three, I represent both the Greens and Labour before the combination was even a thing nationally. Meanwhile i'm a project manager at (inter)national film and/or documentary festivals and at European and World Championships (in the Neths) of the bigger sports.

The benefits of living a bit far from the main cities is that I call our biggest national forest, "De Veluwe," my backyard. If not there, you'll find me in musea, in my second home Prague or the local pub.

P.s. If you hate cats, I hate you!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Ages ago, when I was young and happy, in 2008, I made a backpack trip (without flying) through all countries of Europe. The trip was a coming of age film by itself. During these months of wandering, I met loads of amazing CS people through Couchsurfing events and gatherings.

Later on I organized bigger events myself, like several editions of CS Pride Amsterdam, Sail, King's Day, but when work got in my way, I had to step down.

I'm still somewhat of a regular at CS Wintercamps like Budapest 2022 and Tarragona 2024 and big time fan of CS Carnaval (Vasteloavend) Maastricht. Planning on more; time for a revival!

Interests

Now that would be interesting.

• modern art
• cocktails
• vegetarian
• politics
• sports
• travel
• football
• booze
• amsterdam
• botanical gardens
• prague
• debating

Music, Movies, and Books

Anything kitsch or camp from the BBC will do. Biggest Bargain Hunt fan of the Netherlands.
Addicted to videos of US constitutionalists/first amendment auditors. And while spending, or wasting as you like, time watching, I sincerely hate myself for not being productive like learning a new language or find new political heroes. Ow well..

Movies: Nearly anything Road Movie:
From Dust till Dawn, Easy Rider, Into the Wild, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Familia Rodante, etc.

Further I adore Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, The Idiots) and Xavier Dolan.

Music is tough. I’m not an artist or band person, for me it’s just a wide variety of random songs I connect with. And if I like you, you can ask for my funeral playlist with all of them.

Books: I love the weird and nostalgic style of Dostojevski, Murakami, Eduardo Mendoza and Arto Paasilinna.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

This would be the ideal moment for a Your Mom joke.. However: When I was chilling in a hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland, randomly browsing the nets, I found out about a tiny wee island in the Firth of Forth, called Isle of May. Since it was a national nature reserve with tens of thousands of birds, there was only One daily boat to the island. The next morning I took a long bus ride from Edinburgh to the petite harbour of Anstruther, only to find out the boat was cancelled because of the immense wind. How could I have not noticed that it was bloody storming. Anyway, the reception lady and I, the only customer, did an intense stare down, she nearly made me cry, and at the end she had a solution. A group of Japanese scientists had to be transported to the island by a RIB. All the seats were taken, but if i just sat on the railing and hold me tight, I would make it just fine. As soon as we reached the island, the rain stopped, and when I tried to get rid of my panic attack, laying in the grass, hundreds of puffins jumped from a high rock above me, flying over me, into the water to catch fish for their babes. ,

Teach, Learn, Share

Repeat

What I Can Share with Hosts

No hosts needed for now.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Netherlands, United States

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