CURRENT MISSION

Expand my knowledge through positive and earnest interaction with others

ABOUT ME

Well...where to start? I have lived in a number of places dotted around the south of England until the age of 7. At this point I moved to France with my two brothers and my parents. At the age of ten I moved back but have always lived in the country and have had a desire to explore. This is still going strong, so now that I am free from university I am enjoying the ability to move when and where I want.
However, prior to university I spend several months travelling through Oz, NZ and Thailand. Since the end of UNI I have spent a year living in Vancouver and travelling around North America. Now back in Europe and keen to check out the home land :-D

PHILOSOPHY

I believe that we all have something to contribute to this growing and expanding world...yet we must all be able to help or be helped by another for a relationship to be valid, if we perpetuate pain for the sake of it we ultimately hurt ourselves as well as others.
If we learn to accept the fluidity of reality, and understand the role we play in the construction of this reality, we may be able to restructure our lives so as to make the most of this world.
Only through positive interaction/language can we ever hope to be happy! So help when you can, accept the help of others when it is needed and know when to act!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I started using CS when I first arrived in North America. Firstly by surfing with a few hosts and then by hosting when I had a place of my own. I have now cycled the West coast between Vancouver (BC) and San Francisco, during which time we had fantastic experiences with many CS! I feel that being a surfer alows you such an opportunity to give, either by cooking, teaching/sharing, cleaning, or even just talking and telling your stories!
I wish to meet people all over the world in order to share in the search for understanding. I wish to help all I can, whilst trying to be wise enough to accept help when it is offered. I know now that CS is the only way I want to travel from now on and so I talk to everyone abut it! ;-)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Well I have CSed all the way from Vancouver to San Francisco, during the 23 days from leaving to arriving we camped for 6 days and surfed for 17! In its self this was amazing, showing us the wonderful kindness of man :-)
In this trip we stayed with hosts from 23-75 years old; we stayed with couples, parents with kids, bachelors, a house full of girls; we shared sofa beds, double beds, used air mattresses, had our own rooms and even our own fully functional summer house!
CS has given me so much and I help spread the word! :-D

Interests

psychology and sociology, philosophy, discussions, sharing and expanding knowledge. Cycling, rowing, kung fu, swimming...I guess anything a bit active. Juggling, Devil sticks, Poi, Staff...most things to do with fire play :-)

• cooking
• drinking
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• cycling
• swimming
• rowing
• psychology
• sociology
• fire spinning

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I can not say really as I like everything, from Slipknot to Mozart, from D'n'B to folk, from the 60's to the present...almost any form of music can be justified as being lyrically or musically pleasant/meaningful/appropriate.

Books: I love a good horror story(have read nearly all of Stephen King's books), a variety of war books, fantasy, mystery, Sci-Fi, etc

Movies: I have seen so many I do not know where to start. I guess I would have to say in the top five (not in order): Life of Brian, The Fountain, The Lovely Bones, Ink, The Matrix...well I can think of more but those are definitely up there with the best :-p

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I guess one of the first things that comes to mind, was a time when I saved a friend from drowning. Now it is not that glamours but it helped me to see how easily life can slip away and also the power of appreciation.
It was a summer afternoon in our small village. As was often the case on these rare hot days, many people were down the Mill. From here there were jumps into various parts of the river. People sat around smoking, drinking and watching the more daring flip, dive and leap into the water bellow. At some point I was talking with a friend, during which time I asked him why he was not swimming. It arose that he did not know how and was quite scared of the water. This was lost in the rest of the conversation and was all but forgotten.
Later as I was preparing myself to leave, everything in my pockets, all dried and simply saying my good byes, some of the others were trying to throw people into the water. This was fine except that the friend I had spoken to previously was involved. So, as was inevitable, he was dragged in.
It was a moment later, as he was flailing in the water that I remembered what he had said. I shouted "Oh fuck! He can't swim". In one motion I threw the contents of my pockets to the ground and leaped into the water (sadly in a highly ungracious fashion) and swam him to the shore.

It was only because of that conversation that I acted, had I not spoken to him I fear what might have happened. All had stood by watching. He has been forever grateful, buying me drinks whenever he sees me, but what I feel most about the whole thing is the appreciation of life and the joy at knowing I helped. It was one of the greatest things I have done and yet remains a very simple act of remembering and reacting.

Teach, Learn, Share

I have spent the last four years at university studying Applied Psychology and Sociology, this has helped me to create an image of society and people. I have adopted a Social Constructionist view of how things fit together and feel that if people can appreciate the origins of meaning then they can master their problems. By seeing all meaning as being based in language then one can potentially reconstruct their view of the world,so as to be happier :-D

I also love to teach juggling and everything that goes with that...

But I am happy to try and teach all I know and of course am open to all you can offer me!!!!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United States, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, United Kingdom

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