CURRENT MISSION

learning how to live in France again

ABOUT ME

i am a potter
a reader
a jogger
a languages lover
a maker of things and a letter writer
a sister, an aunt
a vegetarian foodie

and I enjoy a lively chatty dinner party with a handfull of friends a lot, lot more than a wild night out.

PHILOSOPHY

try. fail. try again. fail better.

'Ce ne serait rien, si seulement on n'avait pas en face de soi, l'infini' (Alessandro Baricco)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have travelled couches in Europe, the US and Asia;
From september 2010 to june 2011 i hosted frequently in Cork, Ireland, (where i lived for 7 years) and enjoyed it a lot;
i spread the word!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I surfed and hosted plenty.

Interests

feeling the sun on my face
looking at cities from above
ceramics
reading
linguistics
speaking japanese
ethnography
NPR, BBC and RFI
writing
haikus
shadows
singing
book-binding
vegetarian/vegan cooking
spices and hot sauces
picnics
trampolines!
farmers markets
apples and soups and creme brulee and custard
organic farming, WWOOFing! (http://www.wwoof.org/)
sketching
mail art
photography
typography
graphic design
bookshops
coffee shop
tea
ping-pong
watching tennis on TV!
hiking
rowing
cycling
swimming
dancing
yoga
meditation
buddhism
self-sufficiency
trees
storms and lighting
horizon lines
heatwaves

i like dawn better than dusk,
i really hate dressing gowns, bath robes and empty restaurants.

• arts
• writing
• books
• singing
• design
• graphic design
• photography
• sketching
• dancing
• cooking
• coffee
• baking
• vegetarian
• vegan
• yoga
• meditation
• partying
• shopping
• clothing
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• pottery
• cycling
• hiking
• sailing
• buddhist
• tennis
• paragliding
• swimming
• rowing
• history
• languages
• wwoof

Music, Movies, and Books

a bunch of favorite writers: Jose Sarramago (The cave, Blindness), Paul Auster, Alessandro Baricco (Ocean Mer, Les chateaux de la colere), Nicolas Bouvier, Stephen King (for The Dark Tower, not the horror stuff), Steinbeck, Suskind (Le parfum), Irving (the World according to Garp), Art Spiegelman (Maus), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), Janette Winterson (The Passion), Roal Dahl (ah, Charlie...), Orwell (1984), Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities), Capote (In Cold Blood), Goran Tunstrom (Le buveur de lune), Tony Hillerman, Fred Vargas, Armistead Maupin, Alice Munro, Krishnamurti, Arnaud Desjardins, Colm Toibin, Franck Mc Court (Angela's ashes), Bill Bryson, Tolkien, Queneau (Les fleurs bleues), Barbara Kingsolver (Poisonwood bible), Hiromi Kawakami (les annees douces), Agatha Christie...

Books about self-sufficiency, ecology, arts and ceramics... travel books, books about spirituality. Louise Hay's 'You can heal your life'. 'Eat, Love, Pray' by Elizabeth Gilbert. The Power of Now.

Movies: lots
All about my mother, In the mood for love, Babel, The Life of others, Lost in Translation, Melinda and Melinda, De battre mon coeur s'est arrete, Le gout des autres, Un air de famille, American Beauty, Maria full of grace, La vie est un miracle, Walk the line, Le peuple migrateur, Crash, The bubble, Les visiteurs, The field, La vie est belle, 8 Femmes, all Hitchcok, Miyazaki and Charlie Chaplin, Wallace and Groomit, The L Word, In treatment, Eddie Izzard, Flight of the Concords and more stand-up comedians... The Simpsons!

Music: eclectic! From Bach to Sufjan Stephens, Dianne Reeves to The Chemical Brothers, Camille & Brel & Barbara to The Clicks, Tiken Jah Fakoly to Desmond Dekker, Sigur Ros to the Super Rail Band of Bamako or the Eels, Mariza or Regina Spektor to Neutral Milk Hotel... from Zebda to Jeff Buckley or Linda Lemay...

I also love listening to the radio: on NPR, This American Life, The Moth and Rachel Maddow's podcasts; BBC 4; Les papous dans la tete et Les pieds sur terre(Radio France)...

Teach, Learn, Share

Would love to learn wolof and improve my japanese
try playing tennis (maybe it's not too late ?)
practise my spanish
learn paragliding
sailing
proper baking with sourdough
medicinal plants
sewing and making my own clothes
working with wood
eco-building
kiln building
basket-making
grafting trees
travelling freight trains and cargo boats
take time to make a zine and read about history...

i can teach french, english and ceramics, how to make custard and mayo from scratch...

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mauritania, Netherlands, Portugal, Russian Federation, Réunion, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Ireland, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Wales

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