CURRENT MISSION

Love and do what you want (St. Augustin)

ABOUT ME

I try to share with others what I have got; learn to know other people, cultures, languages, traditions.

PHILOSOPHY

The dreamers are those who are awake. Those who don´t dream have no future, they have died.

Be kind. Respect every organism in his/her/its own value.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Hosting and surfing - open to almost everyone and everything.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have the best experiences with CS.
I surfed with Sílvia and Maria in Lisboa; Manolo and Mara in Spain; Andrea in Vienna; Jesse in Miami; and several people apart from the system.
I hosted Matthias from Germany; Soojin and Huy from Korea; Angela from Germany; Michael and Peter from Germany; Jitka and Lenka from Czech Republic; Beth from USA; Juan Manuel from Argentina; Xiao Chen from China; Zulee and Lynn from Indonesia; Adela and Alex from Rumania; Ana and Roger from Spain; Carmen and Emily from Canada, Anneke from Holland... ... and several others apart from the system

Interests

Travelling, gardening, literature, swimming, biking

I love to read and write, but also to be active; to have a chat with a glass of wine or beer watching the sunset or having a coffee or glass of cocomilk at sunrise; I like to travel to new places, but also to places you know it´s good to be; I love to receive old friends in my foreign living place in the nature but also to learn to know new people over and again; I love to get to know new food; I love to feel the sun on my skin and to experience a sudden warm summer-rain; I love to run in a beautiful park and to stop to admire a tree; I love to swim in the sea or in a lake surrounded by mountains; I love to mountainbike fastly in the forest but also to do there a quiet morning walk; I love to get up early and to go sleep late - the combination might be difficult, however... C´est la vie!
There´s so much interesting and beautiful.

• literature
• dining
• wine
• beer
• coffee
• running
• gardening
• traveling
• cycling
• surfing
• swimming
• languages
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Novels: Virginia Woolf: To the lighthouse; Paulo Coelho: The alchemist; Sandor Marai: Gloed; Javier Marias: Corazón tan blanco, Joseph Roth: Die Kapuzinergruft; Thomas Mann: Die Buddenbrooks; Milan Kundera: The unbearable lightness of being; Gustave Flaubert: L'éducation sentimentale, Trois contes; Dostojewski; Hemingway, The old man and the sea; Streuvels: Het leven en de dood in den ast; Szerb Antal, Journey by moonlight

Poets: Roland Holst, Rilke, Heaney, Szymborszka, Neruda, Juarroz

Pop: U2, Sinéad O'Connor, Amy MacDonald, Pixies, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithful, Tori Amos, Enya, Simon & Garfunkel

Classical: Bruckner, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler

Dutch ´kleinkunst´: Boudewijn de Groot, Ramses Shaffy, Herman van Veen, Wim de Craene, Zjef Vanuytsel

Chanson: Jacques Brel, Gilbert Bécaud, Edith Piaf

Fádo

Irish Folk

Film: American beauty; Forrest Gump; The Shawshank redemption; Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona; Fightclub; La meglio gioventu;

Films of Julio Medém; Pedro Almodovar; Stanley Kubrick

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

If I try to find the one thing that changed my life, my thinking and view on the world and people, than it´s certainly travelling. At 18 started one citytrip after the oter; later I´ve been living longer periods in different countries.

Teach, Learn, Share

Something about my working philosophy you can find on my professional website:
www.vanclooster.com

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Spain