CURRENT MISSION

“Engrave this upon your heart: there isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you heard their story.” -- Mary Lou Kownacki

ABOUT ME

After 22 years in Vienna, 3 in Porto, 1 in Seville and 3 weeks in Epinal, I now know for sure that...

... I want to keep going my way teaching, learning, sharing and growing as much as I can.

Also, recently I've decided that it IS essential to get rich as I go along.
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I wanna find and walk my path[s] - the many short ones that will eventually all add up to The Big Picture - and not stand in anybody else's.

I am a good, patient teacher of the things I know and that's the quality I appreciate most in others.

I love food.

I've come to believe there are two kinds of people on this planet: those who are here to support and create and those who are here to complicate things. I definitely count myself into the first category.

I can accept anyone and I love our differences. What matters is the link between us.

PHILOSOPHY

If I was organized, I'd be dangerous! -- And I'm getting organized. Get ready.

I sincerely believe, I feel every single day that we all could make so much more of each other if we were raised to pride ourselves in saying "No, I DO NOT know this - can you please teach me?"

I also believe, not any less sincerely, that the conventional educational system breaks something in us that we spend the rest of our lives putting back together.

I love to build bridges between (me and) people that nobody would have thought feasable. POOORTOOO is the city of bridges! -- and so will be al the other ones, in their way and mine.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

By having subscribed, doing the one-more-grain-of-sand-thing; by hosting quite a couple of people back then in Vienna and during my thee years in Porto; by participating in forums, helping people out and let myself be helped out. Also by surfing + enjoying myself whenever I can, by teaching, learnig and sharing within and outside of the CS world - and by spreading the word of course!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

As a guest in Portugal, Germany, Spain and France; as a host in Vienna and Porto.

Wonderful. Beautiful. The ONLY way of t.r.a.v.e.l.l.i.n.g. -- see Marcel Proust quote above. Moooore!!

Interests

Learning, understanding, feeling language/s -- this is my means of getting through to the world, of biting off a little bit more everyday, of chewing it and sucking it, and it makes me laugh, laugh, laugh because it tastes so good. These are my teeth, tell me [about] yours!

Reading, contemplating, going for walks.

Enjoying different people, places, weathers, moods, [vegetarian] food & drink, books, comics, music, dances, films, tv series, radio programmes and lots of moments that were not on the schedule and open up unknown layers of this Wonderful World.

• writing
• books
• singing
• dancing
• waltz
• dining
• cooking
• vegetarian
• walking
• drinking
• comics
• movies
• reading
• tv
• painting
• drawing
• music
• guitar
• piano
• surfing
• skiing
• snowboarding
• rock climbing
• teaching
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Yes, yes, yes - lots, lots, lots. Some:

Amélie Nothomb - anything!; Pessoa - "Livro do Desassossego"; "The Picture Of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, for about the 7th time and for its wonderful, heart-wrenching subtext; "Vida feliz de un joven llamado Esteban" by Santiago Gamboa; "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx; "Häutungen" by Verena Stefan

Jorge Drexler [I wanna marry that guy n.o.w.!], Edith Piaf, Jane Birkin, Rodrigo Leão, ! Fiona Apple !, Mercedes Sosa, Chavela Vargas, U2, David Bowie; Rui Veloso, Paulo Gonzo [a sério!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5X8aZwVR8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgcxd9wtXUE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU

"El secreto de sus ojos", "My Beautiful Launderette", "La vita è bella", "Hable con ella", "Lisboa", "The Life of David Gale", "Babel", "Cube", "Flight Plan", "Kiki + Tiger", "Wilde", "The Science of Sleep", "Slumdog Millionaire", "Aniki-Bóbó", "Django Unchained" + all these fascinating documentaries about natural, empowering birth!

"Six Feet Under", "Scrubs", "Family Guy", "The X-Files", "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" [in spite all the criticism that can be made... Cool show, great actress.]

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Losing the ground beneath my feet when falling from a high wall, breaking my jaw an, in retrospect, having to say that there is definitely worse.

Writing a few sentences that were almost true.

Discovering that we learn from bloody e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. We just have to realize.

Walking up to the outmost end of the cliff in Finisterre, Spain, in the thrashing rain, wind and fog on the road winding uphill and thinking I would make it neither forth nor back -- and stuff like that. But conscious adventures never impress me much, neither during the experience nor in hindsight. What really amazes me is the constant process of learning and the connections and conclusions that only arise, that are only born after so many things have happened. These are the moments.

Climbing rocks.

Yesterday night.

Falling in love with a Catholic priest.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: Languages - [suave, Viennese] first-language-German and dearly beloved second-language-English, some Portuguese, some Spanish - and how to learn them, with intensity, understanding, looove. And what you can learn through them.

And oui, how to get through life dealing with the fact that you only speak French passively, even though you could have... GAAAAH!, as Bridget Jones' always puts it so very, very aptly.

Share: Love & enthusiasm for, intense perception & enjoyment of language/s. And places. And food. And moments.

Learn: I truly, madly, deeply want to learn every language I can get my ear on, mouth around and mind into - especially ¡Spanish! and Portuguese. And to play at least one musical instrument (guitar? piano? drum? ...?) - not being able to play one has definitely been a deficit in my life so far. And not to be shy about singing anymore. And to worry less and organize and seize my time better. And to draw/paint what I see. And to be[have] unashamedly artsy and bolder in general. And, being Austrian, I guess I should at last also learn to dance Waltz and to ski or snowboard... Yuck. Oh yes, and how to cook creatively and fast. And how to type using all 10 fingers! And certainly lots of things that I don't even know about yet.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Cuba, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, France, Portugal, Spain

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