CURRENT MISSION

Life is not about finding yourself - it's about creating yourself.

ABOUT ME

I am a collector of memories.
I prefer observing and describing things to commenting on them.
I rather want to experience than to possess.
I am better with words than with pictures.
I believe that everything can be poetry.
And I believe in the power of jesters.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is not about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself.

Work like you don't need the money, dance like no one's watching, sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on earth.

Je me fous du passé.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

As another Couchsurfer put it: Couchsurfing is one of the reasons why internet has been invented. I enjoy living in this world. And the least thing I can do to show my gratitude is to share this joy with as many people as possible. Couchsurfing is the perfect way to do so.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My whole CS-biography can be reconstructed from the references I got and left - but here's the summary of how Couchsurfing changed my life:

April 2007:
Met Konstantin in Eindhoven. He told me about Couchsurfing.
Konstantin introduced me to his CS-guest Andre. Andre and Anja became my housemates
I uploaded my CS-profile.

June 2007:
Hosted Tanja, my first CS-guest, for one rainy, stormy night. Had dinner and a great evening together.
Spent two nights at Martin's place in Dublin with Chiara.
Hosted Peter for two nights, went to the Irish pub and a drum-festival together.

July 2007:
Picked Sergio up at the airport, had breakfast with together.
Hosted Caley for one night. Great common dinner with him and my housemates.
Spent a night at my friend's place (Kathi) in Vienna, convinced her to join CS.
Spent a day with Martha in Eindhoven, visited Van Abbe Museum.

August 2007:
Met Halim, who went out with my creek for one night while being on a business trip in Eindhoven.
Hosted Chantal for one night. Made music together.
Hosted Nicolas for one week. He became my temporary housemate :-)

September 2007:
Met Veronique and Olivier for dinner, went out, then hosted them for one night.
Spent one night in Amsterdam with my schoolfriend Katrin at Tapan's place.
Hosted Mareike for one night, went to the "Wir sind Helden"-concert in Eindhoven.

October 2007:
Hosted Janaina for one night. Had dinner and talked for hours.
Participated in my first CS-meeting: Day trip with approx. 20 people to the Efteling, a Dutch attraction park, organised by Maikel. And although I thought before that this was impossible, I love Couchsurfing even more after that...

October 2007 - My very personal tour d'Europe in 10 days...
-spent 2 nights at Petra's place in Budapest
-spent 2 nights at Rudolf's place in Pecs
-met Caley again in Szarvas and spent 2 nights at his
-spent 2 nights at Sebastian's place in Dublin, went to CS-Halloween-party in Dublin

November 2007:
Hosted Zain for one night, he explained Anja and me how to use the Malaysian spices and how to wrap the dressing cloth he had brought us.
Hosted Katja, who discovered how easy it is to get to Eindhoven...and how difficult it is to leave the place again.

December 2007:
Hosted Cedric for 2 nights. Unfortunately, I had so little time to spend with him, but fortunately, Anja and Andre took over. And he told me about travelling books.

January 2008:
Hosted Marion for one night, still have to send her the poster she forgot at our place - I will do that, I promise!
Went on a business trip to Backnang and spent a wonderful evening at the probably coolest cafe in Stuttgart with Nils.

Found out that I had to reduce my CS-activities dramatically for a while due to exhausting time at work.

February 2008:
Halim came to Eindhoven again and chose me as host for a fantastic weekend. And we had a marvellous time...

March 2008:
Again...business traveller Halim meeting me for a marvellous evening at Cafe Spijker. Nice to see how CS not only extends number of friends, but also intensifies existing friendships.

Interests

Well...I like travelling and socializing, but is there one single couchsurfer who doesn't?
Altogether, I am interested in a lot of things. I studied languages and literature, but now I work in a field that can best be located in the area of business informatics. Just to give you an idea :)
So...a short list of things that I (currently) find interesting: Verbs & prepositions, databases, India, Habsburg-history, concepts of "home", square numbers, the artificial and the fake, folktronica, the interface between psychology and business administration, medieval concepts of space & time, the final season of Lost.

• books
• literature
• poetry
• singing
• concerts
• festivals
• dancing
• breakfast
• partying
• pub crawls
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• music
• business
• teaching
• history
• languages
• psychology
• business travel

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
All-time favourites: Tori Amos, Nick Cave, Lambchop, Leonard Cohen, Mike Oldfield, Melanie, Beatles, Bob Dylan, Belle and Sebastian, Rammstein.
Current crushes: Department of Eagles, Camera Obscura, Peter,Bjoern&John, Shantel, Peter Doherty.
Genres: Austropop, Folktronica, Indie-pop&rock, Flower Power, Triphop, Singer&songwriter, Smooth jazz.

Books...influence me lot. A short selection of what has been particularly important to me: "Sophie's world" made me start thinking about the world we are living in at the age of 15. Klaus Mann's novels made me dream of a bohemian way of life at the age of 18. Ingeborg Bachmann made me study languages. Novalis helped me understand the concept of poetry. Robert Menasse showed me that I hadn't succeded in creating bohemian surroundings at the age of 22. Joachim Ringelnatz and Christian Morgenstern are my favourite poets. Wolf Haas makes me laugh. Thomas Glavinic sent me nightmares. Oscar Wilde is allowed to lie in my bed next to me. Harry Mulisch represents the literature of the country where I live. Paul Auster gave my ideas and feelings shapes and names. And, last but not least: Wonderful Erich Fromm's "To Have or to Be?"

Movies - my preferances are not very original...The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, La vita e bella, About a boy, Knocking on heaven's door, Good bye Lenin, Remember me, Big Fish, Benny and Joon, Lost in Translation, the Dark Knight, and a lot of Austrian movies: Hundstage, Freispiel, Silentium, Nordrand, Indien, Muttertag, Brüder, Komm süßer Tod, Nordrand, Der Knochenmann.

And I also want to mention my favourite painter here: Marc Chagall

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Three years ago, I have learned how to love life, how to get up in the morning with the thrilling thought of "What's going on?", and this state of mind is the most amazing thing I have ever felt.

And I have seen the Danube from a plane and felt everything you can feel at the same time. Probably I will never be able to describe that to anybody and probably I don't have to.

Teach, Learn, Share

What can I, as a resigned teacher, really teach other people? Well, I know interesting and entertaining things about languages (linguistics is fun!). I know some basics in juggling and in some traditional dances, and I know how to make huge soap bubbles. I am experienced with Excel and know for instance everything about VLOOKUP. So if you consider any of these things as valuable skills, I would love to share them with you!

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, France, Hungary, Netherlands

• 

•