Hi!

I'm just your regular bloke from Finland who likes to travel and try out new things. My passions, hobbies and interests include music, art, theatre, board games and all other stuff that's fun. I also love the free feeling of unplanned traveling, ever since I participated in my first hitchhiking competition in Finland back in 2015. Since then I've also gone thumb-trekking in Japan during my research-exchange in 2017, and I definitely want to do more trips like that. Life feels like a constant stream of possibilities and surprises when you are on the road and going with the flow, and a week of travel can seem to spring a month's worth of memories of meeting new people and seeing amazing new places.

By temperament, I'm a pretty relaxed and calm and like to spend time by myself. When travelling, my favorite pastime is usually just walking & exploring, looking around and eating good food. I love to walk in nature, so a hike in the forest or up a mountain is probably the best. That said, I'm not averse to conversations, even the long ones. For fun with my friends, I enjoy things like board games, card games or a pint of good beer at the local pub. I'm not much of a person for the night club scene. My highest personal values are honesty and open-mindedness.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Connecting sincerely with new people in the spirit of curiosity and good faith brings out such amazing possibilities that would otherwise be impossible (for example, travelling on a student budget). Trusting people, getting that trust rewarded, and being at the receiving end of somebody else's trust feels very good and bring out the best in people. This much I have witnessed in my hitchhiking travels so far. Reciprocal willingness to help out sprouts some of the most cherished connections between humans, even if they might be brief in time. In my travels I've used plenty of different home-stay channels, and a common theme in people who lend out their homes seems to be that they are often extremely nice and friendly.

Interests

• singing
• board games
• music
• dance
• theatre
• hiking in the mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I'll listen to pretty much any music. I've been entrenched in the world of choral and a cappella music since I was 7 years old. My favourite artist right to listen on the road is Jacob Collier.

My favourite movies include the usual nostalgic suspect like The Lion King and Princess Mononoke, but I think my all time favourite moview would have to be Primer. It's intellectually tantalizing and can take so many rewatches :) . I've also enjoyed much of the popular series like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Wired, Stranger Things, Westworld... the list goes on. I also like to watch japanese anime, and the list of those would be even longer.

Most of my books read in the past are probably fantasy such as LoTR, but as for non-fiction, "Waking Up" has to be one of my favourites.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I would consider my one-man hitchhiking trip from the north end of Japan (Sapporo) to Tokyo, ending with climbing Mt. Fuji, as definitely one of my most amazing experiences. I learned so much about myself, made friends with amazing people (including people like a didgeridoo guru and a buddhist pastor) and it served as a great way to test my accumulated language skills at the end of my year-long research exchange at a Japanese University. At that time I used AirBnB instead of Couchsurfing though, so I'm willing to CS a try this time.

That, or getting to perform with my choir at the Royal Albert hall in the Proms festival of 2015. That was pretty awesome too :D .

Teach, Learn, Share

I have acquired many of very random skills over my life, some less useful than others, haha... I can't imagine why anyone would want me to teach things like card tricks, solving the Rubik's cube, choir conducting... but nonetheless those are things I can do. Apart from that, I play various instruments like the piano, guitar, and the didgeridoo. But I probably won't be carrying any of those with me when I travel, hehe, so... maybe I can teach some songs to sing instead.

I have some experience in teaching poi dance, and I can teach some juggling too.

Obviously I can teach some key phrases in the languages that I know. Due to my academic education (in computational neuroscience), I have some skills in math and programming if those are of any use. Although O doubt anyone host would find those too exiting..

I wouldn't consider myself amazing at cooking, but I know one or two traditional Finnish recipes if you're interested.

Needless to say after the above, I am a huge learning buff, and always get excited by the opportunity to be introduced to a new skill.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Finland, Japan, United States