Heya, my name is Ilan (the nickname is so that Google doesn't lead here)

Aside from travelling and meeting new people (which I'm sure we all love here on CS right?) I love photography, mostly but not only street photography.

I consider Chinese food to be the best in the world, and I'm always excited to explore it further. I'm obsessed with plants and tend to jungle-ify all places around me, at home and at work. I build furniture out of palet wood, a bit of a hipster (the good kind, let me explain haha). I'm obsessed with teapots so I own quite a few.

I enjoy thinking about philosophy, utopias, feminism and social justice in general. In short trying to figure out how do we make a better place out of this mess. Quite a fan of anarchist ideas.

I enjoy meeting people in small groups and talking, not much of a social person when it gets too crowded. I used to flee clubs and loud music but that was before living in Berlin for 5 years. Now my horizons have expanded a bit :D

By chance I've become a product manager for a dating website (started as a customer support guy and rose through the ranks of a Berlin startup) it's quite random and unexpected but I love it and I have a lot of stories to tell about it. Now I'm freelancing for them as I travel.

Map of my current trip so far https://www.polarsteps.com/ilankaribou/1246313-asia-2019

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is very very old. Probably much older than money. And it will exist a long time after money is gone.

I've met old people in remote villages in China who were in that spirit. Trading a place to stay for stories and the pleasure of briefly (or not so briefly) getting to know a stranger.

The more I think about what's wrong with our world, the more I see couchsurfing as a radical and powerful tool for change: to host/surf is to prove to everyone that we can trust each other and that friendship and fraternity can replace distrust and money as a basis for human relationships.

Couchsurfing is peaceful and harmless and yet it's profoundly subversive.

My girlfriend Chloé's profile :
http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/clochette_starz/

Interests

books from Shakespeare to dragon ball Z
Science fiction, philosophy talking about humans and the strange things they do. Languages that I want to use someday and also languages that sound cool (yay Swedish!), mending broken things understanding new things PLANTS

Cycling (as a tool to get around, not a team sport, but everyday in every kind of weather (I love the principle of public transportation and seeing trams makes me happy but man do I hate being in buses and subways ! So I cycle in the rain instead.

• cats
• dogs
• books
• photography
• chinese food
• movies
• reading
• music
• cycling
• languages
• science
• food
• anarchism
• evolution

Music, Movies, and Books

Chanson, industrial techno, minimal wave, traditional celtic music, cheesy pop... many things. let's meet and talk about it yeah ?

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-Being an actor in a TV show and in a documentary in China during my Kunming years
-the journey that took me here (yeah it's cheesy, so what haha)

Teach, Learn, Share

Now the only thing I can think of I can really teach is the basics and bits and pieces of some more advanced stuff in photography.
I love DYI-ing so I might be able to help with projects that involve wood

If you like poi and juggling I like it two I'm just not very good :)

oh and I love fixing bikes :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

Everything exept my toothbrush (actually if you ask nicely I think I probably would )

Countries I’ve Visited

Bolivia, Cambodia, Czech Republic, England, Greece, Indonesia, Laos, Morocco, Scotland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, France, Germany, United Kingdom

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