CURRENT MISSION

Mind open. Heart warm.

ABOUT ME

Depends who you ask!

My brother would say "feral-hippy-uber-nerd" meaning I don't always shave my legs, believe giving a crap about the environment and other people is more than a hobby, and don't hate studying.

My housemates would probably mention something about my propensity to engage in scatalogical humour (fart jokes) but it's ok, I'm gonna stop that soon. Unless you ask me to keep going.

I used to be an environmental engineer working on flood modelling, but corporate life and offices with no windows aren't really my thing so I got out of there :)

I'm now doing a PhD on Water and Sanitation (toilets etc) in East Timor (although I'll be in Australia for the next year or so).

I sometimes wrap myself in gladwrap and tour a circus show that i perform with a friend of mine.

PHILOSOPHY

To have as healthy and positive an effect on myself and everyone around me.

To keep learning.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Couch surfers, official and unofficial stream fairly regularly through our house, usually for eating and drinking sessions and occassionally some couch crashing, road trippin and day trippin.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've met lots of CSers at meetings/bars/on the road and have had a few homeless wanderers keep our cozy house full of fun and many a German/French lesson!

Interests

Good stories (embelished or not), travel, circus, heated arguments, live music, rock-climbing and bouldering, hiking, hippy environmental stuff, camping, park-soccer, dancin, bike-riding, challenging the status-quo, learning new things, being out of my comfort zone and taking willing others along. And farting of course.

• performing arts
• environment
• dining
• drinking
• traveling
• bouldering
• music
• live music
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• rock climbing
• soccer
• engineering
• language exchange

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies? - I don't get a lot of screen action...buuuuuut I have enjoyed Almodovar's films immensely. There's a lot of good Aussie film out there too.

Music - Reggae/ska/dub music will usually snap me out of any bad mood and I have a bad dancehall habit. But the stuff that gets me on the table and breaking wooden spoons on a wok is gyspsy/balkan beats e.g. Amsterdam Klezmer, Kayah and Bregovic, Dunkelbunt, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Flap!, The Band Who Knew Too Much etc.
I have plenty of listening time for more mellow stuff like Beirut, The Middle East, Jose Gonzalez, The Books, Luluc, Toumani Diabate, Kid Sam and plenty that I don't know the names of.

Books - I used to be an avid reader. I'm trying to retrain myself. Everything Is Illuminated is hard to beat. A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani is one of my favourite books. Matilda by Roald Dahl is another.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

An awesome 3-day bush bash with a dear friend, Cam the man, in Mongolia. We got (very) lost, ran out of water and food, drank a bottle of vodka, slept on a boulder, braved the wolves, saw the top of the world and lots of spiders and somehow made it back to Ulaan Baatar!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can speak English, Dutch and Chinese and am always looking for a language exchange...if anyone can teach me something dirty in French, i promise i'll teach you how to say 'g' in Dutch ;)

And i love showing people how to make tofu taste good ;)

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China, Netherlands

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