CURRENT MISSION

meet; visit; learn; have fun

ABOUT ME

favourite cuisine: Mediterranean and Japanese
favourite sport: swimming
favourite animal: tiger
star sign: Libra (well combined with Scorpio)
Chinese star sign: Rabbit

PHILOSOPHY

1. Qian li zhi xing, shi yu zu xia (Even the longest journey begins with the first step) [Laozi]
2. Eit ord - ein stein i ei kald elv. Ein stein til - Eg må ha fleire steinar skal eg koma over.
(A word - a stone in a cold river. One more stone - I must have more stones I shall come across.) [Olav H. Hauge, 1966]
3. Nu locuim într-o ţară, locuim într-o limbă. Patria asta înseamnă şi nimic altceva.
(One does not inhabit a country, one inhabits a language. That is our fatherland - and no other.) [Emil Cioran]
4. Ik weet wat ik wil, heb een doel, heb een mening, heb een geloof en een liefde. Laat me mezelf zijn, dan ben ik tevreden.
(I know what I want, I have a goal, I have opinions, a religion and love. Let me be myself and I'll be satisfied.) [Anne Frank, 11 April 1944]
5. Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. [Howard Thurman]
6. Bara en enda gång, finns där nån som sjunger samma sång som du själv.
(Just once, there is someone singing the same song as yourself.) [Ingela 'Pling' Forsman, 1983]

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

My input wasn't big at first, but I made it up quickly. I was hosted for some time before I started to host myself; obviously the place where I first lived wasn't attractive enough. I willingly organize a stay for my guests.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My first host drove me to her cosy place, which that time seemed to me as 'the shady nook' of the country. According to the mass media, even already beyond the state border.
I guess I'd never meet so many diverse and open-minded people without CS. Assuming that some of them may become my life-long friends, I believe I'm being given a priceless opportunity. CS helped me to understand that even if we were raised in totally different environments, latitudes and longitudes, deep down we're very alike one another.

Interests

• wine
• beer
• politics
• traveling
• hiking
• swimming
• geography
• history
• international relations
• languages
• cultures
• astrology
• islands

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
Slumdog, Mermaids [with Winona Ryder!], Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement), Lola rennt (Run Lola Run), Una farfalla nel cuore (A Butterfly in the Heart), Hable con ella (Talk to Her), Vantage Point, The Hunting Party
+ SF movies: Star Wars, Star Trek, Knowing, Surrogates, K-PAX, Gravity, Independence Day, The Martian, Tomorrowland
+ documentaries: Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey, The Secret History of Eurovision

Books:
Un indovino mi disse (A Fortune-Teller Told Me), Life of Pi, Ginga tetsudou-no yoru (Night on the Galactic Railroad)
pieces of Vargas Llosa, Coelho, Zafón, von Däniken
science-fiction, travel books and dictionaries

Music:
I'm not a big fan of one particular band, though there are a couple I enjoy most songs of, for example, Abba or Roxette.
For years I've been a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest: http://eurosongtext.blox.pl
From the classics I like Strauss, Vivaldi and Chopin.
I've got a habit of listening to local songs wherever I go and pick some with good lyrics. It's a fine method of learning a language as well.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

* Climbing Mt Fuji at night to watch the sunrise from its top.
* Snorkeling on an almost deserted Pacific island with fantastic coral reefs.
* Looking at a clear sky in the windless eye of a typhoon.
* Devising a method at high school (long before Google) to count a distance between any two places in the world basing on their coordinates
* Making my speech at a Japanese-language contest in the Okinawan language (I did have to take my courage;)

Teach, Learn, Share

I'd like to learn a little of your language, along with your culture, customs and cuisine. I like sharing a mug of beer, a glass of wine or another "relaxing" drink.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I definitely could help you to learn a language and explain some issues in the field of linguistics, geography, politics, recent history or astrology.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Aruba, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan, Norway, Poland

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