Martin Near's Photo

Verified Profile

  • Payment verified
  • Phone verified
  • Government ID not verified
  • Address Verified

Not Accepting Guests

  • Last login about 4 years ago

Join Couchsurfing to see Martin’s full profile.

Overview

  • 22 references 14 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in Arabic (Morocco), English, Spanish; learning French
  • 40, Male
  • Member since 2008
  • Digital Director at multinational advertising agency
  • Masters from French Business School
  • No hometown listed
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

To meet new interesting people from all over the world

ABOUT ME

I am a positive optimistic happy guy with a deep interest in meeting people from different places, whether that be in my home country or travelling around myself. I love cooking, yoga, current affairs, business/marketing and putting the world to rights with a nice glass of wine. I enjoy karaoke, going out, visiting UNESCO world heritage sights, going for meals and many other things.

I've lived in Cuba, Mexico (twice), Spain, Argentina, UK, Canada, UAE and France however now I am embarking on the craziest trip of my life, leaving the rat race behind me to live out of backpack, travelling around the world working from my laptop.

NOTE TO NEW COUCHSURFERS:

If you are new to couchsurfing read this article to help you learn how to be a good surfer/guest:

http://www.couchsurfing.org/surf_tips.html

http://wiki.couchsurfing.org/en/How_to_be_a_good_guest

PHILOSOPHY

I'm an eternal optimist who believes the glass is always half full.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I joined Couchsurfing before I went to live in Grenoble, France to do my Masters and met a couple of nice people for coffee.

Then did a lot hosting and organizing/attending CS events in London.

Ahora vivo en Mexico y me gustaria regresar a la comunidad!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Mainly hosting in London up to now - have met some great and interesting people and made some good friends in the process.

I've also couchsurfed in South Africa, staying with a guy from Zimbabwe who had the same surname as me and showed us some really warm Southern African hospitality.

We're now accepting more requests and are especially interested in people from little known or different countries!

visited 52 states (23.1%)Create your own visited map of The World or Brazil travel guide for Android

Interests

Yoga
Optimism
Politics & current affairs
Good Food
Football (Liverpool!)
History
Economics
Photography
Films (cinema & DVDs)
Marketing
Social Media
Cooking
Museums
Languages
Finding out about different cultures
day-dreaming
socialising and meeting new people
and of course.........
The Second Most Photographed Clock in the World!

  • photography
  • dining
  • cooking
  • wine
  • coffee
  • paleo diet
  • yoga
  • meditation
  • politics
  • movies
  • traveling
  • socializing
  • karaoke
  • backpacking
  • soccer
  • business
  • communications
  • economics
  • teaching
  • history
  • languages
  • tourism
  • football
  • pr
  • marketing
  • meeting new people
  • optimism
  • digital marketing

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:

Amores Perros, The Godfather Trilogy, The Big Lebowski, Raging Bull, Casino, Goodfellas, Crimen Ferpecto, Hable con ella, La Mala Educacion, Blood Simple, Hudsucker Proxy, El Crimen Del Padre Amaro

Music -

Most types but especially cheesy Latin American pop and the Beatles!

Books -

The Four Hour Work Week - Tim Ferriss
The $100 startup - Chris Gillebeau
Thinking Fast and slow - Daniel Kaneham
The Now Habit - Neil Fiore
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
Globalisation and its discontents - Joseph Stiglitz
Freakanomics - Dubner & Levitt
Animal Farm, 1984 - George Orwell
Anything by Noam Chomsky
How to Make Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Lonely Planet to just about anywhere!
Social Media Marketing, An Hour a Day - David Scott Meerman
The Paleo Approach - Sarah Ballantyne
The Unhealthy Truth - Robyn O'Brien

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Queueing up for hours in the wee small hours of the morning to get to the front of the crowd and see Fidel Castro give a speech in front of over a million people and feeling the atmosphere consume you completely!

Teach, Learn, Share

hmmmmm,

My passion is cooking and food - i love cooking with wine, sometimes i even put it in the food! (UPDATE - CURRENTLY I AM ALCOHOL FREE)

Im a qualified English teacher so I guess I could teach a bit of English, or Spanish to beginners.
I have a masters in International Business and like to look at different theories in business and politics.
I work in digital marketing and create marketing strategies for brands if anyone wanted to talk about that!
I can also flick my pen round my thumb, I guess I could teach you to do that too!

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Argentina, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Botswana, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Canada, Cuba, France, Mexico, Morocco, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

Old School Badges

  • 2 Vouches
  • Pioneer Badge

Join Couchsurfing to see Martin’s full profile.

My Groups