Hello there!

My name is João Vinícius Hämäläinen Franke Tavares Bastos Gama. (Not joking. This is my birth name) I'm an out-going people person with an adventurous spirit and always up for learning and experiencing new things, be they new cultures, languages, sports, gastronomy and most of all music.

I lived the first five years of my life in several places in the hot and sunny Brazil then moved to the other side of the world: Finland, where I grew up, went to fundamental school and where I've been living since. So what comes to places I've seen it in all scales, from big metropolises to small towns you wouldn't even see on the map.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

My purpose on Couchsurfing is not only saving money but also learning about the local culture by connecting them with someone who lives where I'm visiting.

Interests

I'm into a lot of things: discovering natural beauties, hiking, all sorts of cuisine, sports in general but my absolute favorite would be wall-climbing.
I've also wanted to improve my chess game to a higher level.
But most of all music! Playing in bands and doing music projects :)

• culture
• partying
• chess
• cars
• music
• hiking
• sports
• rock climbing
• emergency services
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

I'd say my favorite artist of all time is the Brazilian popular music singing-song-writer CaetanoVeloso. Yet if I had to choose what kind of music I'd listen for the rest of my live, it definitely be classical music.

Best movie I've ever seen is Relatos Selvajes, an Argentine cinematic spectacle, translated to Wild Tales in English.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One time my friends and I were throwing this aerodynamically designed frisbee with a hole in the middle in a typical Helsinki-park, when one of my friends grabbed a stick from the ground and started swinging it around with the frisbee attached to it. The frisbee swung once, twice and on the third time it went airborne and fell on a large tree's branch way up-high, about 7-8 meters up.
This frisbee had emotional value to me show we had to get it one way or the other. So we threw sticks and rocks even our own shoes to see if it'd fall down. But our effort was useless.
It came to me that the only way to get it was if someone climbed there and got it. So that's exactly what I did. The first part of the climb was the hardest since the first lower branches were too high for me to jump and grab them. So I literally had to hug the tree and work my way up closer to branches. The rest of the climb was relatively easy.
The moment I'd reached the 7-meter part I suddenly heard a shout from the street. This lady who had been taking a stroll around the park shouted "Stop! Get down from there this instant!" to which I replied saying that she needed not worry, I had the situation under control. The discussion went on like this and she was convinced I was in danger so she dialed 911 for the fire department. I told her to cancel the rescue party but it was useless by that time.
The firefighters were on their way along with two police cars and an ambulance. I looked at my friends down below with a confused face to which they answered saying "YOLO!" So they set the fire truck's platform to get me, broke 2 to 3 branches just to get to were I was located on the tree and cracked one more branch to get the frisbee too. The whole event went on national newspapers and radios, but more important I got my frisbee back.

Oh yeah! One more Amazing thing: Once I saved a girl from drowning :)

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm more than eager to engage in meaningful conversations of any subjects, always wanting to learn to see new points of view and I firmly believe that sharing is caring.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Share my time, attention and enthusiasm.

Countries I’ve Visited

Brazil, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, Finland