Hello everyone(!), my name is Tom. To me, one of the most important things in life is to keep one's curiosity and never stop experiencing new things. I enjoy putting myself out of my comfort zone in order to perceive myself in new circumstances. Traveling for me is to understand the nations, religions and people of this world better to obtain a greater picture of the whole, developing empathy and awareness of how people live and interact. I want to experience all those different cultures and countries that compose this absurd and contradicting world. Therefore I try to use most of my spare time to travel the countries of this world.

I enjoy people that are interested in the world and the things surrounding us, nerds and knowledgable people are my favorite partners for conversations. I am quite sensible and empathic, it is quite easy for me to connect with people that are just authentic and themselves. I am always up for a Late-Night-Kitchen-Chats leaving the superficial small talk aside and having lively discussion and stories to be told.

Personally, I am studying computer science. During the last years I have developed a strong interest in Machine Learning. It romantically combines Neuroscience, Mathematics, Logic, Psychology and Computer Science. At the moment, I enjoy the university lifestyle a lot more than the free economy and can imagine myself continuing with a phd investigating in the field of Machine Learning.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because there are many beautiful and whole-hearted people out there, it is a great opportunity to meet locals when traveling and just in general, you get to know people you would never have met just staying in a hostel with the same type of people.

Interests

• culture
• architecture
• photography
• education
• traveling
• music
• electronic music
• hiking
• scuba diving
• sports
• soccer
• history
• journalism
• languages
• logic
• mathematics
• psychology
• hitchhiking
• world politics
• table soccer

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: My favorite authors of all time are Hermann Hess, Haruki Murakami and Milan Kundera. Generally I enjoy reading books in magical realism, Marquez, Allende, Borges or Cortazar as well as I am normally following newspapers and journalism.

Music: For a long time I have been a music nerd in regards of electronic music, where I enjoy most genres that are not commercial. From Techno, House, Trance to Experimental, Ambient and Disco and in some exceptional pieces as well Dubstep.
Besides that genre I enjoy quality music in Jazz, Classical music, Guitar, singer songwriter stuff, Indie and from time to time pop and rock, too.

Movies: movies I really enjoyed in the last years were The Square, The darkest Hour, Call me by your name, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, Western, Toni Erdmann, Youth, Snatch, every Film from Pedro Almodovar (my favorite director!), Victoria, Jobs, Her, The Grand Budapest Hotel,Closer, Waking Life. I love going to small independent cinemas and watching an unknown film or a good documentary instead of heading to a big commercial cinema, unless it's a newly released Bond or a have to see Blockbuster.
I don't like Series a lot, I think there are very time consuming. There might be as well really good ones, but I rather spend that spare time on reading some articles or a good book.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

° I hitchhiked all over Australia, up the coast and back through the outback, visiting Uluru. Hitchhiking brings you together with all types of people you would usually never meet in your ordinary daily life - I realized that humans are kind and often willing to help, regardless which social class they belong to or what political views they have. I might have not agreed with most of their opinions, but they still gave me a lift and we had interesting conversations.
° When traveling Cuba we experienced one of the last examples of actual communism. By the time we got back to Berlin, it gave me a lot to think about our consumeristic way of living in this neoliberal western world. We didn't have internet for 3 weeks which was weird at the beginning, but by the end of the travels we started to appreciate this more simplistic version of life where the real-world human interaction still matters.
° I twice went scuba-diving. Still I am planning to make my license. Scuba diving is almost like taking a drug, your whole perceptional field changes, in this parallel reality under water, all of your senses get mixed up, giving them a new oder of priority when moving around, feeling both at the same time weightless and the pressure of water all over your bones.
° In 2014 I was that lucky to happen to be in Brazil during the world cup, it was unique to experience football in the country of football. I was able to see a match in the legendary Maracana Stadium - a long time childhood dream.
° On a school exchange we did a piggyback-race on 'The Great Wall' of China and unfortunately lost it. :-(
° Ten years ago I threw a peanut-flip with the first shot in the half-opened mouth of my best friend over a distance of 3 meters.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, China, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Australia, Germany