I cannot host at the moment because I can usually only host on Fridays and Saturdays and I am gone for most weekends or have friends/family coming over until the end of August, but happy to meet up after work.

ABOUT ME

I am a nature / outdoor fan, vegetarian . I am life-loving and smile and sing a lot. :) I enjoy taking photos and editing them and also discovered the fun in filming and video-editing.
Since I took up some studies in statistics I have been fascinated with data. Moreover, I am teaching myself guitar and scatch random things into my notebook.
Alone-time and meditation (Plum village style) are things I value as much as encounters with fun souls from all around the globe.
It's about co-creation: sharing, connecting and accepting.

PHILOSOPHY

Two quotes from a book I read recently:

* Not everything that is true can be explained and not everything that can be explained is true.

* We see only what we already know. We project our own capacities—for good as well as evil—onto the other person. Then we acknowledge as love primarily those things that correspond to our own image thereof. We wish to be loved as we ourselves would love. Any other way makes us uncomfortable. We respond with doubt and suspicion. We misinterpret the signs. We do not understand the language. We accuse. We assert that the other person does not love us. But perhaps (s)he merely loves us in some idiosyncratic way that we fail to recognize.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I can host people on my couch, but since I am travelling a lot, I mostly surfed myself and met up with couch surfers during my travels.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I stayed at some CS places and with other couchsurfers I just hung out in the afternoon. While I was in New Zealand I also did some wwoofing and stayed with all kinds of people and some families - sometimes in exchange for help with the garden, sometimes just for the sake of getting to know each other. I always enjoy getting to know other people, their food, culture and life style and I am happy to share mine with you as well!
Having travelled China almost exclusively by couchsurfing and night trains last summer, I am very impressed how much of a difference it makes when you stay with locals - in terms of getting an insight into the culture, but also in terms of having a glimpse into so many different lives / ways of life / personal stories - it is truly enriching.

Interests

Nature, photography, singing, field hockey and sports and outdoor activities in general (doing not watching :p), taking in through the eyes of a child, being fascinated by the small miracles right before my eyes - and getting to know people and the stories they tell.

Making music together, jam sessions,... I am currently trying to teach myself playing guitar, after three years of piano and seven years of violin lessons I want to learn something that can easily be carried around and at times produce nothing more than nice background sounds.

• culture
• books
• singing
• photography
• dining
• cooking
• vegetarian
• meditation
• flying
• gardening
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• violin
• outdoor activities
• surfing
• skydiving
• sports
• field hockey
• teaching
• statistics

Music, Movies, and Books

With movies and music it really depends on my mood... I recently watched and liked Captain Fantastic (not an action movie as it might sound like).
Generally, I love movies that are well thought through and have a deeper meaning, making you think. At the same time I like action movies and comedies IF they have an interesting plot... oh and I am a friend of black humor, so everything along that line I like as well.
I am very open when it comes to music. At the moment I am listening mainly to alternative rock music and piano- or guitar plus voice pieces, but most of all I love soundtracks. Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, As in Heaven, Amelie, Once...
Books... Hermann Hesse definitely. I also love fantasy books such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Black Magician Trilogy. I also really like some books of Paolo Coelho and Erich Fromm. I really liked 'The Art of Hearing Heartbeats' (Jan-Philipp Sendker) and read several beautiful books by Thich Nhat Hanh or in the plum village tradition. At the moment I am giving Karl Ove Knausgard a try, along with reaching out into the field of philosophy by reading the History of Western Philosophy (a field that I have strangely neglected for a long time)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I love skydiving! I did it once - in Taupo, New Zealand, and ever since I have been dreaming of doing it again or even becoming a skydiving teacher. Looking into paragliding opportunities at the moment. Flying, far above, freedom, ...

Teach, Learn, Share

I can get excited about almost everything and I love exchanging ideas, tips and expereinces. Tell me what you're fascinated by - I would love to hear about it, whatever it is. Might be I have not even heard about it yet...
I can teach you how to cook and bake some pretty simple and yummy food. I can tell you about my travels to New Zealand or China, train trips through Eastern Europe, a 10-day Vipassana meditation classes, about loneliness and togetherness, and my exchange semester in Israel & Palestine... well that is: If we find the time for all this and your stories at the same time :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I always like to hear what people think about education, their country's history, politics, where things are heading and I am very happy to share my own thoughts and ideas.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, Germany, New Zealand