COUCHISTA

Current Mission: My current mission is to bring peace and justice to this world. Together with the rest of humanity of course, I can't do it all alone.

Personal Designations

₁₉

Community Designations

Netherlands
Noord-Holland
Haarlem

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General Information

COUCHISTA is a CS Ambassador Alumni!
COUCHISTA has been vouched for
Couch available	Maybe
CouchSurf requests replied to	84%
member since	May 23rd, 2006
profile views	13,347
age	49
gender	Several people
membername	COUCHISTA
occupation	I train people in prepress and publishing companies
education	I left university before getting any degree
grew up in	(did not grow up yet)
ethnicity	primate
	Direct Profile URL

Languages

Dutch^Expert
English^Expert
French^Expert
German^Expert
Spanish^Intermediate
Lingala^Intermediate
Italian^Beginner

Groups I Belong To

Crazy Snow Camp 2012^15:44	Amsterdam^21167:44972 Why: it's my back garden
Haarlem^480:949	Ambassador's Public^6183:15168
Active in 61 more groups. Show them all

Couch Information

Couch Available: Maybe
Preferred Gender: Any
Max Surfers Per Night: 2

Shared Sleeping Surface: No
Shared Room: Depends

You will sleep in a separate room. Two people can sleep in a bed. If you are more, or if there are other guests already, we'll improvise with thermarests in that same room or in the living room. Shared shower/toilet.
We don't host for only one night unless we know eachother already.

We live at the very edge of the city center of Haarlem, famous for its historic architecture and museums, 20 minutes from Amsterdam, 20 minutes from Schiphol Airport (car; bus = 35 mins) and 20 minutes from the beach. Good public transport nearby. Ideal for cyclists.

By the way: Haarlem is NOT a suburb of Amsterdam. It is an independant city, that even got its city rights before Amsterdam. Haarlem has 1000 years of history.

Our cat Domino, well known to many couchsurfers and always giving them a warm welcome, died Dec. 30, 2009 :-( but as my girlfriend moved in now together with her cat, there IS A CAT in the house so we hope you don't have allergy against cats. Actually our cat is very social, curious, playful and sometimes a bit wild so if you feel uncomfortable with cats, this might not be the place for you.
Our house is on a court. We'll be happy to show you around and we wouldn't mind if you cook for us but that is certainly not a condition.
Weekdays we like it quiet from 21.30 but we don't lock the door early... Weekends are less strict of course.

We really enjoy hosting and being hosted, and we hope that you will enjoy being together with us.

No smoking in the house or within 2 meters from our doors or windows.

Please do not ask us to host you if your only goal is to save on accomodation costs.

Check out the Haarlem group here on CS!

Some of the things to see and do in Haarlem

(not by far comprehensive!) (did not update for a while, so some links might not work)

Events: Most of them are annual
· Bevrijdingspop, one of the Netherlands' biggest free open air festivals (rock/pop etc). May 5
· Luilak, regional tradition. All night long there is a huge plants/flower market and in the morning the youth goes through the streets making noise (to wake up people) and draw on windows and cars with candle wax and butter. Friday before Whitsunday.
· Haarlemmerhout Festival with music, dance, food from around the world. June
· Dancevalley festival July
· Jazz festival August
· Vaardagen Big nautical event on our river Spaarne, not in 2008
· Open Monumentendagen. "Open door days" in most of the historical buildings (and there are lots of them!) September
· Jopen festival Historic festival with live music, craftsmen at work, etc September
· De Stad als Podium Music, theatre, exhibitions, etc etc etc September
· Haarlem Salsa Dance Festival, October

Some of the museums etc:
· Frans Hals museum Dutch masters of the Golden Age (and more)
· Teylers Museum science and art in Hollands oldest museum
· National Psychiatry museum
· Museum de Cruquius Former giant steam pumping engine, now museum about how the Dutch fight with the water and claimed land from the sea. Part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage
· Vleeshal and Vishal contemporary arts inclusing photography
· Nieuwe Vide contemporary arts
· Historical photography archive
· Kunstfort exhibitions in a 19th century fortress
· Mechanical Organ Museum
· small historic trams and buses museum
· De Adriaan museum in a windmill
· De Zandhaas working windmill where wheat flour is made
· Archeology museum and lots of info on archeology in Haarlem

Nightlife:
· Salsa @ the railway station
· dance and world music @ the railway station
· Reggeaton, Merengue, Bachata, Salsa, Zouk
· Live bands (Dance, Rock, Alternative)
· Dance club
· sunday afternoon jazz
and countless bars and restaurants of course

Some of the hangouts @ the beach: relaxed · trendy

Some other things:
· National Park (recreation and widlife)
· Theatre, modern dance and arthouse movies in a beautiful building
· Typical village
· Ice skating open October - March
· Serious indoor ski
· Serious indoor climbing
· Haarlem Night Skate 7 evenings throughout summer, starting in May
· Grote Markt (our 'Plaza Mayor') and its webcam and its 700 years old church
Tourists tend to see Haarlem as a good base camp for visiting Amsterdam. Although this does indeed apply, most of the venues listed here not only attract people from Haarlem but actually attract people that live in Amsterdam.

Friends (128)

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Map of friends

MGIEDRIAUSIA 35, Female Haarlem, Noord-Holland Netherlands Friends since April 2007 "He is my boyfriend" Friendship Type: Best Friend	Marta Cremers 30, Female The Hague, Zuid-Holland Netherlands Friends since June 2007 "We had great time in Haarlem & Amsterdam!" Friendship Type: Close Friend
Ira Palubok 26, Female Caracas, Distrito Capital Venezuela Friends since July 2006 "I've been his guest in Haarlem for one night and so far complain I haven't had more time in travel schedule to stay in Klaas' place for more time." Friendship Type: Good Friend ¹ ³	Andrea Szalai 28, Female Gyal, Pest Hungary Friends since August 2006 "my first CouchSurfing experience (1st long-term host)" Friendship Type: Good Friend ¹⁶
Trike 28, Several people Vancouver, British Columbia Canada Friends since February 2009 "He's God" Friendship Type: Best Friend ³	Maria Grazia Maffucci 41, Female Turin, Piemonte Italy Friends since July 2007 "... I came back in Haarlem :)" Friendship Type: Close Friend I vouched for COUCHISTA ⁶
OLENKA84 27, Female Ternopil, Ternopil Ukraine Friends since May 2007 "we met in the chat room" Friendship Type: Good Friend ²	MACARRONI 30, Female Madrid, Madrid Spain Friends since September 2009 "He guided me around Haarmel and hosted me" Friendship Type: Good Friend ²
Annelea Blignaut 43, Female Centurion, Gauteng South Africa Friends since August 2008 "Surfed his couch for 3 nights" Friendship Type: Good Friend ³	Basia Pavlik 52, Female Glastonbury, Somerset England Friends since May 2007 "We met through the Hospitality Club" Friendship Type: Good Friend ⁴
118 more friends

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Personal Description

Did you know that people that don't have a credit card can not get the green 'verified' tick?

Predictability is what I don't like in life. What I do like, is raising my teenage daughter (am doing that as a single parent since she was 3,5 years old). Then until recently I coordinated (part time and together with others) a small 'social company' where we helped people that have a background in psychiatry reintegrate in society. And I have my own small business for training and advice to graphic arts companies (studios, printing companies etc).

Ever since my first trip abroad, when I was 6, my travel hormones have taken over. "A day without laughing is a day lost - a year without travel is a year lost".

As we host together and often travel together, this profile is as much my daughter's as mine. As for her, she is a very creative person, always drawing, painting or making music.

So after 2 and a half years of dating, Nov. 2009 my girlfriend moved in :-))) but she has her own profile on CS

How I Participate in CS

- So far (sep 2009), hosted some 200 people and were hosted by some 40.

- Organised some CS meetings
· HaarlemHosts and GlobalGuests meeting
· Midsummer night Aftercamp 2007
· Flower parade meeting 2008
· Liberation Day Picknick & Festival
· Houtfestival meeting
· Midsummer night Aftercamp 2008
· Typical dutch NYE
· Let's go ice skating!
· Eat&Meet Homedinner and Afterparty
· Eat & Meet Homedinner & BALKAN BEATZ at Patronaat
· DAROM 2009 - Couchsurfers help clean the Lithuanian forest!
· CS at Annual Flower Parade, 2009
· CS at Bevrijdingspop open air music festival, May 5, 2009
· TRIKE - spectacular CS band from Canada live on stage!
· CS at Houtfestival open air world music, June 21, 2009
· Midsummer Night Aftercamp/Ivana Kupala 2009
· Culture Immersion
· CS edutainment meeting: Are you normal? Are they mad?
· Haarlem -> Hamburg invasion
· Party @ Hafenklang Hamburg
· Typical Dutch NYE celebration
· Brussels Invasion
· Trike concert
· Midsummer Night Aftercamp/Ivana Kupala 2010
· "typical" Dutch NYE celebration 2010/1011
· Crazy Snow Camp 2011 in Switzerland

and more to come, for example:

· Crazy Snow Camp 2012 in Austria

- Promote the idea in my social and professional environment :-)

CouchSurfing Experience

In most of our non-European trips we have been surfing couches, before joining this site. Our couch has been surfed by people from Honduras, Cameroon, Congo, Poland, Israel, Iran, USA, Belarus, Hungary, Greece, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia and many many others.
My daughter and I have stayed with hosts in Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Austria, Hungary, Belarus, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia.

Interests

Mountains, music, photography, languages and linguistics, architecture, cats, sub-saharan Africa, cooking & eating, maps, history, ski, railways, graphic arts, publishing, parenthood and above all: human diversity

Philosophy

"difficult" is not the same as "impossible"

It's the easy things and the difficult things together that make life worth living.

Music, Movies, Books

Music: Koffi Olomide, Zaiko Langa Langa, Wenge Musica, Bozi Boziana, Magic System, Samira Said, Ranin, Devendra Banhart, Victor Manuelle, Velvet Underground, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Unicorns, Regina Spektor, Antsy Pants, Cansei de ser sexy, Hot Chip, TRIKE!!!!, De Marvas, Lhasa de Sela, An Pierlé, Goran Bregovic, Lucky Fonz III and some 300 others.
Movies: Luis Buñuel, Black Cat White Cat, Abel, Samsara, the science of sleep, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, Laurel and Hardy, Symetria, etc etc
Books: no novels please. I like language when it's spoken. And I am an image person.

Types of People I enjoy

People that are willing to get rid of their prejudice and that help me get rid of mine. And humor is a key element in life.

Teach, Learn, Share

I would like to learn how to spit fire. Maybe we can do a photography project together (check my portfolio at www.vanhuizen.info) and if you are not a photographer, maybe you can model for me. Or maybe I can help you with that printwork that you need for your non-profit organization. Or we can exchange massage. Or I can show you the successes and failures of social housing projects here because you are writing your thesis about this.

One Amazing Thing I've Seen or Done

The most negative experience: living under Mobutu's dictatorship in Congo (then Zaire) in 1994
The most positive experience: living with the hospitality, solidarity, humor and optimism of the people of Congo (then Zaire) in 1994

Opinion on the CouchSurfing.org Project

Couch surfing should be a standard part of every persons education. Yes, this site is great!

About the list of traveled locations below: For some reason, CS does not allow me to indicate the following countries, even though I did really travel in them: GDR and TRNC

Locations Traveled

TRAVELED: Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, DR Congo (Kinshasa), Denmark, England, Equatorial Guinea, France, Germany, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Laos, Lithuania, Montenegro, Palestinian Territory, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United States
LIVED: Bangladesh, DR Congo (Kinshasa)
WANTS TO GO: Yemen

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What do these numbers mean?

This summary is not a replacement for reading references; it's a quick summary to help you get started. At a glance, you can see how many references a member has, and how many of them are positive, neutral, and negative.

In the second line, you'll see how many references came from people who hosted this member, surfed with them, and traveled with them. These numbers won't always add up to the total: some references are not categorized, and some may be categorized as more than one thing.

When viewing this summary, don't jump to conclusions! Things that are negative for one person may be positive for another, and vice versa. It's important to read references carefully and evaluate what that information means to you.

References (141)

140Positive
1Neutral
0Negative

35From Hosts
68From Surfers
15Traveling

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From NOLWENNN
Courbevoie, France
^{Nov 19, 2011}

Positive

It was nice to spend some times with Klaas and Giedre. To speak about Paris and Lithuania ;)

From Rositsa Pencheva
Barcelona, Spain
^{Oct 7, 2011}

Positive

I host him and we had very interesting conversations. Me han encantados los dulces que me trajiste, mmm las sabore una semana entera, pensando, CS its Great!!! :)

From ILOVESHOES
London, England
^{Sep 12, 2011}

Positive

A lovely family and a pleasure to host..

From Helen Wright
Watford, England
^{Sep 10, 2011}

Positive

Klaas and Maan were lovely guests. They stayed for a night and we sat in the garden and had dinner together and I unleashed my wonderful friend, Mike, on them! They are both very interesting to talk to and I was glad to have met them both, even if just for a short time.

From MANOFKENT
Bromley, England
^{Aug 3, 2011}

Positive

I have always liked the Dutch. They speak better English than many English folk, they are always interesting to talk to, have a great sense of humour...and have given us many outstanding footballers! Klaas and Maan underlined what wonderful people the Dutch are - and more. We spoke about anything and everything, it was immediately obvious Klaas's experiences in travelling to Africa and Central America marked him as a special guy. He taught me much, the sort of person you could chat to all night and then some. Maan may be a teenager but she is an adult in so many ways. I ordered Klaas that they must both return.

From Kamal Ahamada
Lille, France
^{Jun 13, 2011}

Positive

In few days we were not able to see all the aspects of klaas beautiful personality...but we could see a lot of it through his marvellous, Haarlem ( which is not a part of Amsterdam :)) city and through the great personality,maturity and talents of his daughter Maan...Thank you all of you for making our stay so delightful and charming...
see u soon , Inch`Allah :)

kamal

From Eugenija Kovaliova
Siauliai, Lithuania
^{Jun 13, 2011}

Positive

Hell yeah! That was a great CS experience! Klaas, Giedre, Maan and Hippie made our stay very cozy and helped us a lot with little things. But one of the best parts was to be shown around Haarlem and discover this beautiful city! We had some great laughs and stories sharing and next year we will make a CS flashmob in the birds costumes ;-) :DDD Definitely, see you again, guys!

From ELLI76
Paris, France
^{Jun 2, 2011}

Positive

Klaas's family was very nice to host us in their house in Haarlem ! We stayed in the attic in our own guest room, it was great ! They cooked a nice dinner for us and we enjoyed their garden.

From CHAVUNT
Amsterdam, Netherlands
^{May 26, 2011}

Positive

I met Klaas in Midsummer camp 2010 first and I was lucky to join SnowCamp 2011-Switzerland where he arranged everything perfectly. He is a great event organizer, trustworthy and honest. thanks to him, we had amazing time together and also realized that how much I like snowboarding. He was also so kind to drop me back until my door despite late time. hope to keep in touch and meet again soon.

From Ursula Ollinger
Besancon, France
^{May 3, 2011}

Positive

We spent one nice evening with Klaas and his family, he showed us the surroundings of Haarlem. It was interesting to dicuss with him and his girlfriend about the Netherlands, journeys and other things. Thanks a lot and have a good time in your beautiful town !

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