CURRENT MISSION

"If you canĢt make a mistake, you can't make anything."

Marva Collins

Currently I'm enjoying a few months off, just because I don't believe I should just wait for my retiring years to have a break from work.

During the month of July I will be v travelling first in Turkey and then in Greece.

ABOUT ME

I tend to like environments where people have different origins as I believe it kind of evens out the excesses of whatever good and bad cultures have.
The way a nordic might become less reserved living under the mediterranean sun and a mediterranean might learn to appreciate a bit of silence and find northen cultures less invasive.

My strongest experiences were living abroad. Besides my home country, I have lived a year in the US and three and half years in The Netherlands.
I feel that what is learnt is important and mostly places shape you more than you can ever shape a place. The learning for me was in finding how you resist and accept it to change you.
You are what you are, part of becoming any wiser is knowing what that is. At least, until culture becomes invisible and maybe then you forget. The magic word is movement.

I really like travelling, seeing something with a first time visitor's look allows for effortless openess which, despite the staggering amount of profiles of CSers claiming to be "easy-going", real openess is something you are always striving for.

I am starting to dislike how everything re travelling has become massified and a comodity everyone must have. I mean it in the "selfie-stick-ryanair" kind of way, not in the learning about the world way.

I am spending the Summer in my home town. This can be temporary or become more permanent. Who knows.

PHILOSOPHY

I like this Alexander Pope's quote:
"You purchase pain with all that joy can give,
And die of nothing but a rage to live."

About the couch

Sofa-bed in the living-room. I have cats, mind that if you are allergic. You can smoke, but only outside.

About your request

Couchsurfing is about interchange and not about you saving money on your trip. I don't have a problem anymore with ignoring bad requests.
Make a good request and say the magic word or book a hostel.

我为什么加入 Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I mainly participate in meetings/gatherings in Leiden's CS community. But I did a share of hosting back in Lisbon.
In the Netherlands my answer rate went down mostly because I did not get notifications from the CS site, but also, I was working hard and commuting a lot of hours, so I was less available in general.

Usually when I travel I couchsurf my personal network. I actually find it easier to host through CS more than surfing.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE
Mainly I use CS to meet new people at events where I'm living or visiting.
Through CS I have mostly hosted until now. But I have been surfing couches of friends of friends since 2000 on every travel.

兴趣

I'm not active enough, so invites to go hiking, bike riding, playing table tennis, frisbee or volleyball are welcome. Though I can't promise to be super adept in general (smile).

• cats
• culture
• books
• diy
• cooking
• traveling
• magic
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• tennis
• volleyball
• table tennis
• agriculture

音乐、电影和书籍

Some examples of books I loved:
Oranges are not the only fruit
101 Reykjavik

Other fiction I liked
-The unbearable lightness of being, Milan Kundera
-The world according to Garp, John Irving (one of my favourite writers)
-The reluctant fundamentalist, Mohsin Amid
-The lady and the unicorn, Tracy Chevalier
-The breakfast of champions, Kurt Vonnegut
-The post office, Charles Bukowski

Re non-fiction I tend to read popular science or philosophy. Presently I am reading "You are not a gadget" by Jaron Lanier. I appreciate books from Alain de Botton and stuff from the School of Life for example.

Some movies:
Waking Life (just love this!),Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Amarcord (1974), Annie Hall (1977), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Happiness, The Last Emperor (1987), The Opposite of Sex (1998), Risky Business (1983), As Good as it gets, Talk to Her, Naked Lunch, American Beauty, Amores Perros, Amelie, The Matrix, ExistenZ, The Piano, Black cat White Cat, Together/Tilsamen,Songs from the second Floor, Drugstore Cowboys,Pulp Fiction, Miranda, Pumpkin, Total Recall, etc.
Usually independent or cult movies, within European cinema I like Swedish movies a lot.

Some music:
Banks, Chvrches, Polita, Liquid Harmony, Flume, Metronomy, Hermitude, Chet Faker, FKA Twigs, Fink, Björk, Joanna Newsom, Ane Brun, Imogen Heap, Lisa Germano, Cat Power, Regina Spector, Kate Nash, Mirah, Laura Veirs, Kymia Dawson, Ani diFranco, Coco Rosie, Antony and the Johnsons, Soap&SKin, Gotye, Boards of Canada, Yonderboy, Yppah, Jaga Jazzist, Autreche, Four tet, Aphex Twin, Apparat, Modeselektor, Moderat, Kleerup, Lykke Li, Chromatics, M83, Little Dragon, Quadron, Glasser, Soap and Skin, Baths, XX, M.I.A, Florence and the Machine, The Tiny, Fever Ray, The Knife, José Gonzalez, The Postal Service, La Roux, Ladytron, Little Boots, Portishead, Goldfrapp, Moloko, Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, etc

我做过的一件不可思议的事情

Once I realized the ceiling above me was cracking and took cover before a huge block of plaster fell on top of my workstation. My boss was mute for a few minutes.

教，学，和分享

I can teach you about portuguese cooking and language if you are interested, how to make a necklace with old pantyhoses and textile waste if we have the materials.

I would love to learn more about your cuisine or anything practical you would like to teach.
I'm especially interested in learning from people about home agriculture, and DIY or how you try to practice sustainability in your daily life.
Mostly I will be interested in your life stories, ambitions and hopes.

我可以与沙发主分享些什么

Everything I can share with guests, even my home, but on a different time, of course.

我游览过的国家

Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

我居住过的国家

Netherlands, Portugal, United States

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