CURRENT MISSION

Good question. Any suggestions?

ABOUT ME

About the author:

"High school in Paterson till 17, Columbia College, merchant marine, Texas and Denver, copyboy, Times Square, amigos in jail, dishwashing, book reviews, Mexico city, market research, Satori in Harlem, Yucatan and Chiapas 1954, West Coast 3 years. Later Arctic Sea trip, Tangier, Venice, Amsterdam, Paris, read at Oxford Harvard Columbia Chicago, quit, wrote Kaddish 1959, made tape to leave behind & fade in Orient awhile. Carl Solomon to whom HOWL is addressed, is an intuitive Bronx dadaist and prose-poet."

Wait... that's Allen Ginsberg!

I live in Irbid, a city in northern Jordan, where I'm working on my Masters degree in refugee studies. I spend my days sitting with the wonderful Syrians living here, talking about family, dreams, and love--and trying to find ways that life could be made easier for brave people looking for a future.

If you want to know more, check out http://matthewrstevens.weebly.com/

PHILOSOPHY

The world is too big to stay in one place for long. The secret to happiness isn't living life the way you're told to. Play an instrument. Get joy from cooking your friends breakfast. The best choice is the most exciting one. "Do it for the memoirs."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I host and I surf whenever I can. I believe that we all get out of this what we put into it. I like spontaneous decisions, unexpected surprises, and new friends.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

All my friends are doing it, so it must be cool

Interests

Coffee. Beer. Tea. Juice. Cultures. Languages. Politics. Religions. The environment. Playing guitar and singing loud. Bicycles. Ice cream.

• writing
• books
• singing
• environment
• cooking
• breakfast
• beer
• coffee
• partying
• politics
• guitar
• languages
• religion

Music, Movies, and Books

Folk music, Vietnamese food, and Hemingway

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-Teaching sentence stress to Vietnamese teenagers
-Writing about Iraqis lost in Egypt
-Living with Salvadorian refugees in Costa Rica
-Realizing that my Damascan landlord speaks Aramaic, not Arabic, and that's why I can't understand a thing he says.
-Joining the post-revolution party in Cairo
-Watching the 2am mayhem outside my hotel in the Medina of Casablanca

...and everything in between.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Spain, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Peru, Switzerland, Viet Nam

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