Bonjour, Bonsoir
It's time to introduce myself!
My name is Neyla and I am a 23 year old french woman.
My daddy is turkish and my mommy is algerian but I was born and raised in the Bordeaux' region, in the south-west of France. That is maybe the reason why I am fascinated about other countries and cultures. I would not even exist if all the borders were closed.
About four years ago I moved to Spain for 7 months to improve my spanish, I worked as an aupair there. It was the first time I went abroad on my own. It was a very rewarding experience. I met a lot of people from a lot of different countries for the first time in my life and I felt in the right place. I spoke english most of the time because it was harder to make spanish friends than erasmus/english assistant/aupair friends. I met my boyfriend there, we are together since then. We are in a long distance relationship because he lives in Minnesota. I also met an awesome friend who's from China and taught me some mandarin words. I didn't know anything about China before meeting her... but you'll read later that I am studying mandarin now! :)
These years, as I am a student, almost every time I traveled was to see my boyfriend and travel with him. We went to Spain a lot - it is very closed to my city we always go by bus/blablacar , to our city and we recently visited Baltimore, Washington DC and New York city together.
We are going to be reunited soon for a long period and I am very excited.
As I mentioned, I am currently studying chinese and english at the university of Bordeaux, it is my second year. My goal is to speak mandarin fluently in the future. I am planning to move to Taiwan for a year in 2018. We'll see what's next when the time comes.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Before starting, I would like to say that I might have been a couchsurfing member since 2014 - it is the period when I moved to Spain - I never actually used it! I should have because there are meet ups, but I didn't know about it. When my best friend visited me in Madrid, as I could not host her, she used couchsurfing for the first time and I still remember how nice the couchsurfing host was, showing us around his place, letting me come at his place and eat breakfast with them etc! I really like the spirit of the couchsurfing community and I would like to start myself being involved as an host and as a surfer.

Right now I am not able to host anybody, because I am leaving for the US for a month and then I'll be busy with exams.
From July I'd be able to host females only and one (max three) at a time because I live in a little studio (19m2) in a student residency. If you are cool having no intimacy and sleeping in the same room, I'm here!
From October I'd be also able to host males 'cause my bf would be living with me, but max two persons. I don't want people to choose me because they didn't find anybody else, I prefer people to choose me because they would like to hang out with me/my boyfriend and I. So I won't accept people that only seem to be interested by the perfect location of my studio. When I look for couchsurfing hosts, I only select the people that could fit with my personality, not anybody. You should do the same.

If I am ok to host people in a very very little space, it is because I already experienced it myself. Let me explain. I visit my mom's side family in Algeria since I am 4 and we always chosed (out of 5 uncles/aunts) to stay with my poorest auntie that lived in a little studio. We all slept in one room on mastress put in the floor. We chosed to stay there almost for the entire month of our stay because it was the happiest place ever! We sometimes were 7 family members sleeping in that little studio because we all wanted to talk and laugh all night together. They recently moved to a bigger place (which I am very happy about) but still, when I visited them last year I missed the older place.
I recently felt as my place was that happy place. Last fall, my good friend from Brooklyn finally visited me and he came with two of his friends. We were 4 in my place (there were literally no place left when the mastress were on the floor!), To hang out with them around and share our life was the coolest experience I had in my city last year. My friend's friend are now also good friends and I am going to visit them in NJ and London next month.

Interests

• cooking
• traveling
• music
• languages
• frienship

Music, Movies, and Books

A lot of different styles really. From the British "Artic Monkeys" to the Senegalese "Youssou N'dour". I cannot really quotes all of the music I listen to. I just like hearing things that sounds great to me, from any countries. I mostly listen to African (mostly from west Africa but also Ethiopia and RDC) and Jamaican songs these months. Beyonce is my favorite artist ever. I went to Baltimore alone last spring to see her concert. It was such a great show.

Slumdog Millionaire, Django unchained, Into the Wild, The Hateful Eight, Intouchables, Demain tout commence ...

I don't read a lot of books excepted for school but I bought "Io e te" from Niccolo AMMANTI and " El Mundo Amarillo" from Albert ESPINOSA and I would like to start reading them this summer.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I haven't done anything I qualify as amazing yet...

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can teach french, share stories about my travels, cook a french dish (do you like crêpes?), and even become long distance friends! The one that hosts me will always be considered as a friend that I would gladly host wherever I live.

Countries I’ve Visited

Algeria, China, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Spain, Taiwan