I like experiencing life both through my mind and my body. Sometimes I do things that merge the two, like yoga and theatre. I like doing dumb things with smart folks. I try my best to look at old and mundane things through a child's eyes. I enjoy being around people who are both very sensitive and sensible. I'm curious about things I don't know and I'm energised by people passionate about different things than me.

I try to understand the mind through artificial intelligence. I like playing with some friends in board-game cafés, or with some others putting the world to rights over a couple of drinks and cycling my way back home through deserted narrow streets in the early morning. I like traveling in distant cities, reading and writing, hiking and wild camping. I enjoy botanical gardens, the smell of British books, waves crashing on the shore, photography, bites of pasteis de nata, biology, the smell of pines, bodyboarding, the shapes of teapots, walking in an unknown street and hearing someone practicing the piano through an open window, yellow oilskins, walking on rooftops, Japan, painting galleries, the sound of a cello, the feeling when you hear or use certain peculiar words. I believe in reincarnation. I run. Heaven is a long nocturnal walk on a beach alongside someone you care about, dreaming or understanding the world or both, probably somewhere in Italy.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm the happiest when surrounded by people coming from all around the world who can expose me to their ideas and culture in a relaxed and informal way. I can't host someone right now because I'm a student with a small room in an already crowded apartment share, but it's a delight to show the Paris I know to travellers, practice my English with them or help them learn a bit of French.

Interests

• writing
• literature
• poetry
• theater
• architecture
• photography
• yoga
• music
• classical music
• electronic music
• jazz
• philosophy
• science
• japanese culture
• artificial intelligence
• philosophy of science
• studio ghibli

Music, Movies, and Books

Books :
I enjoy magical realism, like The Garden of Forking Paths for example. The Wind in the Willows is also a favourite; it's a poetic, whimsical, sometimes mystical ode to a contemplative life. And Nausicaa, a series of 7 mangas borrowing from literary, religious, fantasy, war chronicle, and science fiction traditions to make an unusually deep epic about our relationship to our ecosystem, with highly nuanced characters. I also read a lot of science books and books on science. A bit of philosophy too. And poetry (Octavio Paz, Antonio Machado, Paul Valéry).

Movies:
Still the Water, Monty Python, An, Ghibli animes, Ex Machina, Aquarius,Wes Anderson, Her

Series:
Westworld, Stranger Things, Penny Dreadful

Video games:
I don't usually play video games, but I make exceptions for creators who treat the media as an art form. For example Journey, a game that makes you experience wonder, fear, sadness and transcendence just by gliding through the sand and air of a mysterious barren land.
Or Monument Valley: a small game inspired by Japanese prints and minimalist sculpture, that puts you into some kind of M. C. Escher impossible drawing.
A last one is The Witness, which is the closest thing I've seen to the practice of science: it's a contemplative stroll on a luxurious island that makes you feel the deep joy of understanding nature by both looking at its patterns and constantly refining and refreshing your ideas about its hidden logic.

Music:
I listen to new classical American composers, like Bryce Dessner, Caroline Shaw, or Nico Muhly
But also a mix of different styles: Son Lux, Dave Brubeck, Satie, Brock Berrigan, etc.

Food:
Italian, Japanese, French, Indian. I also definitely enjoy trying to poison others. I'm semi-vegetarian for the environment.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Scotland

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, France