CURRENT MISSION

what to do next

ABOUT ME

Idler, 'couch' thinker, sometime writer.

PHILOSOPHY

To understand the world in all its frustascinating complexity.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've travelled a bit but mostly stayed in hostels. When I first arrived in Italy I couldn't find a flat so I stayed with this 80-year-old nonna and her alcoholic son for a couple of weeks, that was like nothing else. She'd castigate me for going out for a drink, tell me I would go to hell, and she came in and soaked everything in my room with bleach every day - I've still got the white-bottomed socks to prove it. I didn't understand why her son was so loud and frightening until about a week in when I saw him in a bar at 8.30am sinking double gins with campari. Once I woke up and he was standing in the hallway in a bib and nappy with a dummy in his mouth - I thought he was taking the whole living with mummy thing too far till I went outside and realised that it was some Italian fertility festival or something - all the blokes were dressed the same way.

Interests

Reading, writing, linguistics, people and their ways, being abroad

• writing
• literature
• festivals
• drinking
• reading
• guitar
• history

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Burma!!

Teach, Learn, Share

Italian and French, a little Chinese. Linguistics, language teaching, a bit about literature and philosophy. can play the guitar quite badly too. I want to know more about history ancient and modern and about Africa and South America.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Cambodia, China, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Spain, Thailand, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Italy, United Kingdom