CURRENT MISSION

to spread peace, love and understanding

ABOUT ME

Meeting new people, connecting and communicating is one of the things that make life great to me. I love learning about different cultures, ways of life and perspectives. I guess this partly stems from living in Botswana, Africa, with my family from the age of 3 to the age of 7, and so growing up with two languages (Swedish and English) and two very different cultures at an early age - as well as some of my earliest friends being the political refugees from South Africa that stayed with us from time to time, being helped to find a new life elsewhere by my parents. :-)

I am an easy-going, open minded person. My current job is recording audio books and newspapers/magazines for sight-impaired readers/listeners, and I love it. I also write and give talks on GLBT stuff, mostly bisexual, gender bender and/or polyamorous issues. I've been involved in GLBT activism for six years and have met loads of brilliant, interesting, strong people through it. I am interested in making the world a better place generally, with regards to human rights, ecology and equality.

As you may see in one of my photos, I am a smoker, but I am a very considerate one. I do not smoke indoors in my own home or in anyone else's.

PHILOSOPHY

Some quotes from some of my heroes to illustrate stuff I believe in and consider important:

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
Mahatma Gandhi

"When you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same."
Nelson Mandela, Inauguration Speech

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
Martin Luther King Jr

"Alice laughed. ‘There's no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can't believe impossible things.’
‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
From chapter five of Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have a lot of experience sharing housing with people - for three years I shared an apartment with Darnia, who also has a profile here. I and my ex girlfriend lived in Ireland for a bit over a year 2004-2005 and shared living quarters with a number of people there - Indian, Canadian, Brazilian and Polish. That was loads of fun!
Darnia and I hosted a German couple, three Italian guys and a Swedish girl, her French boyfriend and his mother since we started couch-hosting, and that worked very well.

Interests

I read A LOT - both fiction and fact. Have loved books 'n' words since I was a kid. I still re-read the Narnia chronicles every few years. Other favourites include Shakespeare, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, Milan Kundera, Jasper Fforde, Sarah Waters, Michael Moore and Patricia Cornwell. Oh, and T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats, I adore good poetry.

I also dearly love my piano, my guitar, singing, and performing, although it's been a while since I did any acting. Crafts, design and interior decorating are also interests of mine. Oh dear, now everyone will expect my living quarters to be exquisitely designed, that is not the case... :D

Other interests include politics, human rights, spirituality (mainly Buddhism and paganism), psychology, travelling, board games and other games, languages, and laughing. I try to play a lot. Grownups should play more.

• writing
• books
• poetry
• singing
• design
• acting
• human rights
• breakfast
• crafts
• politics
• board games
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• buddhist
• ecology
• journalism
• languages
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

Loads. And different. :-) I enjoy movies from David Lynch, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, as well as Charlie's Angels and Sahara. And a lot of stuff in between.

Re: music I have a big soft spot for singer-songwriters. Favourites across the board include Leonard Cohen, Elton John, Pulp, Suede, Belle & Sebastian, Scissor Sisters, The Ark, David Bowie, Dolly Parton, Barbara, Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Bruce Springsteen. I have a very nerdy obsession with the Eurovision Song Contest. And country music has a large place in my heart. I also write songs, but only the very lucky get to hear them. :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I spent a month in Zambia 1995 for my graduation project at Journalism College, writing a series of articles on HIV/AIDS. During this month I met so many amazing people, most of them with HIV/AIDS, and a lot of them with a will to fight and stand up for their and other people's rights. That was amazing. It also gave me a lot of perspective on my own very privileged life.

Teach, Learn, Share

I could teach people to read music and the basics of piano playing, as well as some music theory. I guess I also have some acting/improv skills to share, as well as public speaking, self esteem and positive thinking. Oh, and the Swedish language, of course!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia

Countries I’ve Lived In

Botswana, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom

•