ABOUT ME

http://www.facebook.com/wiola.kowalczyk

I'm a Polish girl living right now in Warsaw, but I used to live in Spain (Granada, Cordoba), France (Dunkirk), Scotland (Edinburgh) and Italy (Bologna). My career is based on law, Spanish philology and cultural studies about maditerranean civilization. I'm realizing an individual interdisciplinary program in humanities at University of Warsaw. When I was living in Spain I was studying translation and interpreting at University of Granada, in Italy - anthropology and archaeology at University of Bologna.

As you can see my main occupation is basicly multi-studying, but after hours I used to turn into a superheroine, saving people stucked somewhere in the Peruvian desert with broken legs, taking the unfortunate ski-enthusiasts back home with my super bat-air-ambulance, and speaking on the phone with some crazy whitch-doctors persuading them not to use any phony magical medicine on our clients. In order not to run mad I traveled a lot, and because I did my super-job (coordinator of international medical help) almost voluntarily, I don't usually have any money. Because of that I have developed a special superpower over the years of my traveling: there is no sink too dirty, no water too cold, no path to narrow, no couch too hard, or hitchhiking driver too chaty... In fact the best place to sleep have always been a tent illegaly pitched under an ancient Roman aqueduct :)

Last year I became quite boring - I was working in huge international company as Spanish market analyst 40 hours a week, from 9:00 to 17:00. But guess what? My team was so awesome, comprised of people from 9 different countries, all with enormous international experience, open-minded, willing to travel, learn new languages and party hard, that I felt like on my 3rd Erasmus ;) Of course apart of having fun together, we released some huge and interesting projects, what brought me a lot of satisfaction. Apparently working in that boring international corporation appeared to be great experience for me.

Now I can call myself a blogger too. My plan is to present an amazing world culture diversity and promote intercultural dialogue. If you're interested take a look at http://villsethnoatlas.wordpress.com

Oh, and one another thing: I may not have the looks for it, but in the depth of my heart, I'm a hopeless nerd, who named her cat Cthulhu... ;)

PHILOSOPHY

Have you ever heard about Narrativum from the books of Terry Pratchett? Briefly speaking that's what I believe in. ;)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Once my best friend from high school told me about interesting internet community. And here I am :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

At the beginning I was a little bit shy. I used couchsurfing only to find new friends while I was living in Cordoba. I entered a competition and won a Spanish intensive course in Spain. I went there completely alone and what's more I was an only student at my level, because the language school was a brand new one. After the lessons I was a little bit borred. I desperately wanted to spend some time with Spaniards, so I tried to find them by couchsurfing. I met wonderful people. We still stay in touch and visit each other. This very first experience was so gripping that I could not stop here.

When I went to Granada to find a flat for a new academic year I didn't even look at hotel's announcements. I stayed at charming home in Albayzin with a stranger who I found on couchsurfing. And that was a great decission. Only on a little patio andaluz spending time with Spaniards you can discover what does it mean "southern way of life".

That's how I became an active host who firstly was recibing couchsurfers in Granada and now is doing that in Warsaw.

Interests

I'm deeply interested in: anthroplogy, etnography, Al-Andalus, Sephardic Jews culture, history of Mediterranean area, especially Spain and Greece, foreign languages, comparative histories of civilizations, etc.

Of course, I have also normal hobbies ;) I love music (check my music taste: http://www.lastfm.pl/user/Velmyle) and film. I'm a great fan of fantasy literature and all that 'funny' RPG-nerd-geek culture ;)I'm an admirer of Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" saga. Construction of Westeros as a fictional world is a fascinating masterpiece for me. I like dancing and parties with my friends), and lazy days at the seaside ;)

• cats
• culture
• humanities
• books
• literature
• dancing
• running
• partying
• traveling
• music
• skiing
• anthropology
• cultural studies
• history
• languages
• law
• medicine
• study abroad
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

It's really hard to pick out one name describing all things which inspire me.

In the field of cinema I like artistic and cross-cultural works. "The Fall" by Tarsem Sigh I find absolutelly dazzling. I have a lot of respect to Carlos Saura and Claudia Llosa. I like some works by Pedro Almodovar, but not all of them ;) And I like subtle sense of humor of Woody Allen. On my list of favourites movies I can enroll "The Fall", "The White Ribbon", "Madeinusa", "Talk to her", "Blindness", "Secret of Kells", "Chicago", "The Piano", "Mr. Nobody", "Life is beautiful", "Achilles and the Tortoise", "Salome", "Dancer in the Dark", "Howl's Moving Castle", "Lord of the Rings Trilogy", "An Education", "Match Point", "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", Once", "The Milk of Sorrow", "Requiem for a Dream" and "Avatar".

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I can't tell it in public ;)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Italy, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom