Ivan Zhur's Photo

Verified Profile

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Accepting Guests

  • 94% response rate
  • Last login about 13 hours ago

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Overview

  • 36 references 33 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English, Russian, Ukrainian; learning Estonian, French, Polish
  • 25, Male
  • Member since 2015
  • Software Engineer
  • Computer Science at Kyiv National University
  • No hometown listed
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

I'm a Ukrainian living in Estonia. I was born in Kyiv, lived there almost all my life, studied at university. Always wanted to travel and explore new places, visited many countries, mainly in Europe. In my student years I was traveling on a low budget using Couchsurfing, camping, hitchhking, cheap promotion tickets, etc. I also was involved in some volunteering projects in Ukraine few years ago. Covid and then the war in Ukraine affected traveling a lot. In opportunities and in perception. But life still goes on and I want to believe all the changes are for the best.

When I lived in Ukraine I barely had an opportunity to host, but now I have it, maybe not always but don't hesitate to ask. Obviously, I am not the best at Estonian history and culture, but still I have decent knowledge and exploring it more and more while I live here. Believe me, I will find what to talk about :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Honestly, a long time ago I registered here to be able to find people who can host me for free during my trips. As a student with a very limited budget it was hard to underestimate the influence of CS, basically, without this platform many trips would just not happen. And from the very beginning I understood the idea that staying for free is nice, but meeting people from other countries, taking, sharing cultural differences and doing many other things can sometimes be even more joyful and important. So like, I think, any other CS member, I see this platform as a perfect solution for travelers who want to explore more and get unique experiences, for those who consider themselves travelers and not tourists.

Interests

--- This part and others below were not updated since maybe 2018-19, maybe will update soon ---

I have such personality that I like to explore the world and how different things work especially something somehow technical. I can quickly get interested in something, maybe for a short period, spend some time reading articles about that just because I think it's fun.

Some of my, let's call it "constant" interests are:
• Traveling, of course. This includes searching for interesting places where to go, their history, exploring routes how to get somewhere, when I'm bored I can just open Google Maps and my brain instantly starts generating ideas.
• Technical mechanisms. I like that tech stuff, especially transport, when I was a small kid I liked to even just see the trains on the station, how these big pieces of metal move, I liked to explore (and I still like!) how different mechanisms work or just exist: engines, ships, trains, cars, airplanes, helicopters, bicycles, electricity, natural things like rivers, clouds, mountains, musical instruments, and so on, no sense to continue :D
• A bit of music. I cannot call myself a music addict, but a few years ago I started playing the guitar and I like sometimes to just abandon all things for few minutes and play some song, this can sometimes be relaxing.
• Languages, I'm not a polyglot and not a linguist, and this is rather not so serious, I just like to find similarities between different languages, connections between them. I've tried some basics in many languages but I don't have much time and passion to really learn them all. Now I speak Ukrainian, Russian and English, studying French. Also, I found that I could understand a descent amount of Polish and even speak a bit, that's because it has a lot common with my native languages :)

  • photography
  • cars
  • music
  • guitar
  • cycling
  • camping
  • geography
  • history
  • hitchhiking
  • travelling
  • exploring new places
  • trains

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

It's better to call it not the most amazing, but most spontaneous thing I've done. A few hours before New Year's eve I've decided to go celebrate it with the company of almost unknown people which I found in local couchsurfing group, in 200 km of my actual location.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can share travel experiences and knowledge about my country, my city, places I've visited and any other thing I know. I can teach you some words in languages I speak and how to play some basics on guitar. I'm a programmer so I could teach you some basics or not such basics if you are more into it, but please, don't ask me to "try to watch what's wrong with computer" :D

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share my positive mood, travel and life stories or just a nice conversation. And I can also bring some souvenirs from Ukraine.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Martinique, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Estonia, Ukraine

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