hello, i'm a human bean from the east of england. i studied in edinburgh, scotland for three years & have lived in various places in germany before, during & after my degree (leipzig, husum, flensburg, tübingen) and iceland for a summer. i now have been living in birmingham for 3 years where i am doing a PhD on sign language acquisition. i am interested in mental health, trans issues and lefty politics. i'm trans myself, if that's a problem please don't offer to host/surf with/meet up with me :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

i've hosted in edinburgh (lots) & in leipzig (once). surfed in the netherlands, germany, england, wales, denmark, finland, sweden, hungary, croatia and bosnia & herzegovina. i've also been to cs meet-ups in england, scotland & germany. balance of hosting and surfing about even at the minute. i was particularly active in the tübingen cs group, going to our stammtisch/regulars' table and meeting up for cooking, hiking, punting, dancing, cycling, concerts &soweiter.

hosted 37 people from 19 countries in 2 countries
surfed with 12 people from 6 countries in 5 countries

but these numbers are a bit out of date and hey, borders based on the bottoms of my boots, please

Interests

languages (signed & spoken) & their linguistics (specifically language acquisition & psycholinguistics), cycling, wandering, mental health, post (surprise & otherwise), knitting, things people throw away, things people keep, conservation, coffee, cooking, new experiences. a nice game of badminton.

• concerts
• cooking
• coffee
• vegetarian
• running
• traveling
• juggling
• knitting
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• badminton
• languages
• sign language
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

films: pan's labyrinth, into the wild, good bye lenin!, nightmare before christmas, die fetten jahre sind vorbei, fantastic mr fox, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, withnail & i, the hunt, the motorcycle diaries, das leben der anderen, micmacs, delicatessen, the breakfast club, some like it hot, memento

music: million dead, from monument to masses, gy!be, frightened rabbit, tom rosenthal, jeff buckley, sigur rós, tom waits, 65daysofstatic, british sea power, my vitriol, el ten eleven, saul williams, the weakerthans, and so i watch you from afar, elliott smith, do make say think, radiohead, broken social scene, john martyn, massive attack, the dresden dolls, fugees

books: his dark materials and other pullman-sally lockhart series etc., mister god this is anna, the last king of scotland, kafka on the shore, the diving bell and the butterfly, the time traveller's wife, the god of small things, a thousand splendid suns, the accidental, the life of pi, the outsider, if nobody speaks of remarkable things, trainspotting, ein licht über dem kopf, brave new world, the day of the triffids, of mice and men, 1984, 1q84, homage to catalonia, animal farm, the bell jar, kanak sprak, hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy, a streetcar named desire, the good person of szechuan

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

hiking up the volcano-glacier snæfellsjökull in the midnight sun

Teach, Learn, Share

i can teach you some sign language (BSL/DGS), how to juggle (the secret is non-demoralising surfaces), how to knit a sock/scarf/glove (british or german style) how to make a wallet from a juice carton, basic massage, die deutsche sprache, some fingerpicking-y things on the guitar, how to cook a few vegetarian dishes :-)

i want to learn to fix things, and play your instruments & sign/speak your language/s!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Iceland, United Kingdom

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