CURRENT MISSION

Travelling by train from China to Belgium

ABOUT ME

I was born and raised in Düsseldorf (Germany) where I grew up doing lots of sports and hanging out with friends and playing in a punk band named Dreary Junk. By the time I was done with school and my civil service (during which I helped socially disadvantaged elderly people managing their lives) had I undergone quite a massive change. The person who protested with a sign against his parents' plan to move to Berlin (that wasin grade seven) now could not wait to get out of his hometown. Since then I have been possessed by a certain restlessness which manifested itself in my never living in one and the same place for more than three years. I have moved around Europe quite a bit (and have even ventured out to the States for a while), have lived in Germany, Spain, Belgium, and Scotland and have studied at four universities in pursuit of the universal truths of philosophy (a project that has probably had the greatest influence on my personality in the last few years). Whether or not I have managed to get a hold of many of them I don't know but it looks as though I have been lucky enough to be able to pursue my passion at least for a few more years which, for the first time in my life, led me to *return* to a place in order to live there (Leuven since July 2008). From September 2010 until July 2011 I lived was lived in Manhattan's FiDi and spent lots of time working in the rooftop lounge of my high-rise condo as well as various museums and concert halls. Now I am back in Leuven and, by the looks of it, am set to be around for a while since I recently got a permanent job at the university. That said, I will continue travelling starting in April with a road trip along the coast from Seattle to L.A. Well, that's my life in a nutshell.

PHILOSOPHY

I don't think I can answer that here...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have hosted a bunch of people and been hosted as well. Moreover, I attend some of the events organized by the Edinburgh CS community and plan on continuing in this way when I move to Belgium. (Hopefully, I will have a bit more space than here so that I will be able to host more people)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My experiences so far have only been positive. The people I have met were extraordinarily nice and, in particular the ones I have hosted and with whom I have stayed have been extremely friendly and sympathetic.

Interests

PHILOSOPHY, traveling, literature, art (mostly contemporary), cinema, music, hanging out and going out with friends, sports (typically the ones that involve a ball, but also notably skiing and recently I have even discovered the virtues of going to the gym--who would have thought...)

• arts
• literature
• concerts
• movies
• traveling
• music
• skiing
• sports
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Films: Most films by "Blue Velvet", "Eastern Promises", "A Clockwork Orange", "Todo Sobre Mi Madre", "Hero", "The Consequences of Love", "Taxi Driver"

Music: Folk (Emily Haines, Leonard Cohen, The National), Classical, Jazz (John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett), Electronica (Kraftwerk, MGMT) and some Indie (Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and classic rock (Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd)

Books: Descartes's 'Meditations', Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason', Plato's 'Symposium', literature: "Stiller", "For Whom the Bell Tolls" "The Stranger", "Crime and Punishment", "Anna Karenina", "the Process"

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Registered homeless in Cambridge after being found sleeping in a public park during a hitchhiking trip from Edinburgh to Paris.

Teach, Learn, Share

Obviously, I have quite a bit of knowledge about philosophy and related skills such as analytical thinking to share. Since I have lived in a number of different places I am also interested in sharing experiences about that (by sharing here I mean not talking about my experiences but also other's experiences).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mongolia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

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