CURRENT MISSION
Wholeness

ABOUT ME
"Hey patsanchik, siga est? A semki? A che po melochi?" — my initiation into Russian slang ;)

I’m from São Paulo, Brazil, and currently live in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. I work with soil science and have also spent several years teaching high school. Whenever possible, I like to stay in touch with the energy of nature. I prefer natural spots over urban ones and enjoy learning from landscapes and ways of life different from my own.

I’ve been vegetarian since 2001 (lately mostly vegan). I compost my soil. I’m a sporty guy: lately running, doing calisthenics, or going to the gym. I’ve also spent many years practicing judo, capoeira, and skating.

I’m interested in the spiritual side of all religions and also follow the anthroposophical movement. I sing in a choir.

When I travel, I like to explore more than just touristy spots. Art, culture, history, and architecture can be interesting, but they’re not the most important. I prefer to experience the atmosphere of everyday life—the soul of ordinary people and the taste of immaterial things.

I’ve been fascinated by Russian culture and history for a long time, especially 19th-century Russian realism—I love Tolstoy. Besides growing up and living most of my life in Brazil, I spent one year of my undergraduate studies in Paris, France (2009–2010), and one year in a PhD program in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain (2021–2022).

I’m quite a mixed guy. My DNA:
25% African: Maghreb 4%, Sub-Saharan Africa 21% (Gulf of Guinea 12%, West Africa 5%, East Africa 4%)
32% American: Amazon Basin 9%, Central America 9%, Andean America 8%, East Coast 6%
43% European: Italy 24%, Iberian Peninsula 10%, Eastern Europe 7%, Western Europe 1%, Balkans 1%

Hosting through:
http://www.bewelcome.org/members/Geobelisco

PHILOSOPHY
"The question is not what you look at but how you look and whether you see." Henry Thoureau

"What a man did yesterday is today still present in its effects. A picture of the connection between cause and effect is given in the simile of sleep and death. Sleep has often been called the younger brother of death. I get up in the morning. My consecutive activity has been interrupted by the night. Now, under ordinary circumstances it is not possible for me to begin my activity again just as I please. I must connect it with my doings of yesterday if there is to be order and coherence in my life. My actions of yesterday are the conditions predetermining those actions that fall to me today. I have created my destiny of today by what I did yesterday. I have separated myself for awhile from my activity, but this activity belongs to me and draws me again to itself after I have withdrawn myself from it for awhile. My past remains bound up with me; it lives on in my present and will follow me into my future. If the effects of my deeds of yesterday were not to be my destiny of today, I should not have had to awake this morning, but to be newly created out of nothing." Rudolf Steiner

IG: @gerajdf

Fully vaccinated by the way (Janssen: 07/2021; Pfizer: 12/2021)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I’ve been an active member here for nearly two decades. From hosting to being hosted, or just meeting people along the way, I’ve had many experiences. Some were very nice, others not so much, but overall far more good than bad.

Interests

Nature, soil, plants, geography, and biology.

Literature and art history.

Sports: capoeira, swimming, biking, workouts (gym, bodyweight, calisthenics), and dancing. I like to move and do outdoor activities!

Animal liberation and nonviolence.

Russia and Galicia (such special places on Earth)!

Der Kollaps der Modernisierung: Vom Zusammenbruch des Kasernensozialismus zur Krise der Weltökonomie.

• arts
• architecture
• dancing
• capoeira
• beer
• vegetarian
• yoga
• working out
• traveling
• cycling
• sports
• religion
• science
• nature
• calisthenics

Music, Movies, and Books

Writers / Thinkers:
Hermann Hesse, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Buber, Guy Debord, Albert Camus, Robert Kurz, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Marcel Proust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Clarice Lispector, Fernando Pessoa, Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Rudolf Steiner, Virginia Woolf, Jack Kerouac, Cecília Meireles, Bertolt Brecht, Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett…

Film directors & cinema:
Tony Gatlif, Lars von Trier, Spike Lee, Luis Buñuel, Stanley Kubrick, Wong Kar-wai, Federico Fellini, Pedro Almodóvar, Quentin Tarantino, Stephen Daldry, Walter Salles, Fernando Meirelles, Sérgio Bianchi, Sofia Coppola — and films with Audrey Hepburn.

My favorite films are Todo sobre mi madre, Pina, Le notti di Cabiria, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Machuca, and Le Grand Voyage.

Music:
A bit of everything (not very into electronic music).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Russia: twice (2010, 2013)

White Nights in St. Petersburg. I still don’t know if it was real or if I was dreaming.

Drank ayahuasca tea in the Amazon rainforest (2006 and 2008).

Fight Club: twice, with close friends (but I shouldn’t talk about it, because “the first rule of Fight Club is…”).
Okay, I know it’s stupid, but we were young, we were drunk, and I must confess: it was great.

Painted plants with watercolors every day for four weeks, watching them bloom and grow.

Hitchhiked 3,000 km from San Matías (Santa Cruz, Bolivia) to Salvador (Bahia, Brazil), crossing part of South America.

Traveled through almost all the states of Brazil.

Short bike trips around São Paulo state.

Member of a contemporary dance group and a theater group in college.

Every week in São Paulo there are many exhibition openings where you can find free drinks and food. The secret is that some friends and I know the schedule of these vernissages.
The funny thing is that we usually go there by bike, sweaty and badly dressed, wearing Havaianas (popular Brazilian flip-flops), right in the middle of all those fancy and pretentious people.

Survived a PhD program.

Teach, Learn, Share

All kinds of knowledge are welcome!

I could teach capoeira, natural sciences, weightlifting, and share tips about my city, my country, or my travels.

Sharing is caring

What I Can Share with Hosts

Paths, teas, beers.
I enjoy talking and listening about art and nature.
Moments in sport.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Russian Federation, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, France, Spain

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