CURRENT MISSION

Finding my life partner

ABOUT ME

I am, to borrow Anne Frank, a bundle of contradictions: adventurous yet domesticated, easy-going & passionate, chatty yet a good listener, respectful & irreverent, God-fearing yet skeptical, idealistic & old-fashioned, optimistic yet cautious, lively & stoic, flexible yet uncompromising, inquisitive yet oddly incurious. People hold me in thrall, stimulating exchanges of ideas & insights with those who care, dare or both in any of my eight tongues. Night owl, bookworm, chameleon, crane & cat all call me kin. Causes swim inside me like fishes in the deep blue sea of lovely pearl-string islands I call home. This mélange makes me, if the mood catches, a Gauguinesque child of the tropics, a wondering nomad like Waugh, deconstructed intellectual with Sartrean leanings, uppercase Romantic in the best Pushkin tradition and glass-half-full fellow in Mandela mold.

My work and vocation may find me itching to travel to yet another country, but before anything, I am a Filipino who enjoys exploring his own country. This much I've done, this much is a part of me.

I've visited 101 states (52.6%) out of 192 in the world. In the Philippines, my Lakbayan grade is B!

Although my nickname here is THYTHIA, I prefer to be called Deric.

PHILOSOPHY

Ataraxia | ἀταραξία : By suspending judgment, by confining oneself to phenomena or objects as they appear, and by asserting nothing definite as to how they really are, one can escape the perplexities of life and attain an imperturbable peace of mind - Pyrrho

Vita brevis, ars longa

一生勉強一生青春 - 相田みつを/Mitsuo Aida

Weder erhabene Intelligenz noch Phantasie, noch alle beide zusammen vereint machen ein Genie aus. Liebe! Liebe! Liebe! Das ist die Seele des Genies. - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

L'amicizia è come un castello di sabbia: difficile da fare, facile da distruggere, bellissimo da ricostruire.

Those who were skillful in a thing vie in competition; those who have no skill, judge. - Diogenes Laertius

Anacharsis: I have traveled here from afar to make you my friend.
Solon: It's better to make friends at home.
Anacharsis: Then it is necessary for you, being at home, to make friends with me.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

«Я религиозный православный человек и религию понимаю буквально, как re-ligio — восстановление связи между жизнью и высотой идеальных установок и абсолютных ценностей, постоянное воссоздавание legato жизни. Жизнь разрывает человека на части. Он должен восстанавливать свою целостность — это и есть религия. Помимо духовного восстановления нет никакой более серьёзной причины для сочинения музыки» (I am a religious person...and by 'religion' I mean re-ligio, the re-tying of a bond...restoring the legato of life. Life divides man into many pieces...There is no weightier occupation than the recomposition of spiritual integrity through the composition of music.) - Sofia Gubaidulina

The less said about life's sores the better. - Oscar Wilde

When you start to know someone, all their physical characteristics start to disappear. You begin to dwell in their energy, recognize the scent of their skin. You see only the essence of the person, not the shell. That’s why you can’t fall in love with beauty. You can lust after it, be infatuated by it, want to own it. You can love it with your eyes and your body but not your heart. And that’s why, when you really connect with a person’s inner self, any physical imperfections disappear, become irrelevant. - Lisa Unger, Beautiful Lies

Что привело меня на Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I used to moderate the Russia Group and some 60+ subgroups.

I used to organise get-togethers in Moscow, help set up or participate in events in Manila, Seoul, and Hong Kong. Now I live in Abuja, Nigeria.

I used to host guests from within and without Russia. Here is my guestlist for 2006-2009:

GUESTS (Incomplete)

2006 (85)
31 Mar-03 Apr: *Jordi Riera/Barcelona, Spain
03-04 May: Milica Popovic/Belgrade, Serbia
03-07 May: *Gert Slettenhaar/Nijmegen, NL
03-07 May: *Francisca Westgeest/Leiden, NL
25-28 May: Tomasz Bączkowski/Warsaw, Poland
25-28 May: Łukasz Pałucki/Warsaw, Poland
31 May-3 Jun: *Patricia/Almería, Spain
31 May-3 Jun: *Tobias März/Erlangen, Germany
11-15 Jun: Dakota Gale/Portland, USA
11-15 Jun: Finn Gale/Moscow, USA
17-19 Jun: Loren Everly/Honokaa, USA
20-24 Jul: Sheena Pinder/Cambridge, Canada
24-25 Jul: *Sohrab Karimi/Tehran, Iran
22-25 Jul: *Markus Meyer/Oldenburg, Germany
22-25 Jul: *Lena Haug/Oldenburg, Germany
28-29 Jul: *Lina Mogenyte/Kaunas, Lithuania
30 Jul-01 Aug: *Anna Haas/Szczecin, Poland
30 Jul-01 Aug: *Laetitia Vimberg/Villeneuve-sur-Lot, FR
30 Jul-01 Aug: *Sebastien/Noisy-le-Grand, France
31 Jul-02 Aug: *Willemijn van Gastel/Utrecht, NL
31 Jul-02 Aug: *Arjan van Laarhoven/Utrecht, NL
31 Jul-06 Aug: *Katharina Schmidt/Halle (Saale), DE
31 Jul-06 Aug: *Marie-Therese Mäder/Berlin, Germany
01-03 Aug: Johanna Velo/Grenoble, France
01-04 Aug: *Gilta Jansen, Mareike Pöhling/Berlin, DE
02-03 Aug: Xavier LaCruz/Barcelona, Spain
03-05 Aug: *Mélinée Prochasson/Maisons-Alfort, FR
03-04 Aug: *Piret Avila, Laur Kiik/Tallinn, Estonia
04-06 Aug: *Audrey Morice/Nantes, France
04-06 Aug: Manon Naulin/La Rochelle, France
07-08 Aug: Kathrin Schwaiger/Tulln, Austria
07-10 Aug: *Leena Kotilainen/Turku, Finland
07-10 Aug: *Miina Karasti/Kuopio, Finland
07-12 Aug: *Alica Ute Noatsch/Leipzig, Germany
11-17 Aug: *Nina Volker/Göttingen, Germany
11-17 Aug: Markus Drew/Braunschweig, Germany
15 Aug: *Julie Laure Muscat/Paris, France
17-19 Aug: *Kampi Mubanga/Lusaka, Zambia
17-19 Aug: Caroline Cyr/ Montreal, Canada
17-19 Aug: Xavier LaCruz/Barcelona, Spain
17-19 Aug: Takahashi Miyako/Osaka, Japan
17-20 Aug: Zhandos Aitimov/Karaganda, Kazakhstan
17-20 Aug: *Mélinée Prochasson/Maisons-Alfort, FR
18-23 Aug: Mélanie Ceyssens/Ghent, Belgium
19-25 Aug: *Jean-Baptiste Brelière/Rully, France
21-23 Aug: *Dragan Jovanovski/Skopje, Macedonia
26-31 Aug: Mark Lodge/London, UK
26-31 Aug: *Katja Mackold/Cologne, Germany
28 Aug-01 Sep: Marie-Antonia Witzmann/Berlin
28 Aug-01 Sep: Juliette Rahn/Bremen, Germany
31 Aug-03 Sep: *Mélibée Forget/Lyon, France
31 Aug-03 Sep: Virginie Petit/La Rochelle, France
31 Aug-03 Sep: *Alexander & Katharina Riedel/Dresden
02-05 Sep: Régis Etienne/Bruxelles, Belgium
05-07 Sep: *Tobias Winter/Hohenstein-Ernstthal, DE
05-07 Sep: Ralf Bachmann/Hohenstein-Ernstthal, DE
09-13 Sep: Alain Bolomey, Laure Favre/Vaud, CH
09-13 Sep: Vincent /Lausanne, Switzerland
14-19 Sep: Sylvie Geiger/Strasbourg, France
29-31 Sep: Marie-Antonia Witzmann/Berlin
29-31 Sep: Juliette Rahn/Bremen, Germany
29-31 Sep: Ksenia Pilipenko, Verena Wiget/Bremen, DE
07-12 Oct: Leila Alexandra/Melbourne, Australia
09-17 Oct: *Marc & Myroon Halpern/Denver, USA
16-17 Oct: Maarten van Hardenbroek/Utrecht, NL
17-24 Oct: Julia Haba Osca/Valencia, Spain
17-24 Oct: Claudia Romero/Buenos Aires, AR
25-26 Oct: Luba Nosova/Nizhny Novgorod
28 Oct-01 Nov: Ryan West/Vancouver, Canada
29 Oct-03 Nov: Rennie Silva/Northampton, USA
31 Oct-03 Nov: *Ari Salinger/Brisbane, Australia
31 Oct-03 Nov: *Ekaterina Illarionova/Ufa, Russia
05-06 Nov: *Yuliya Shyshliayeva/Minsk, Belarus
05-06 Nov: Tamara Shahnazaryan/Minsk, Belarus
08-14 Nov: Rennie Silva/Northampton, USA
08-14 Nov: *Goh Chun Ping/Singapore
10-13 Nov: Christina Simon/St Petersburg, Russia
16-17 Dec: *Teemu Markkanen/Helsinki, Finland
16-17 Dec: *Alisa-Katia Shklyar/St Petersburg, Russia

2007 (113)
05-06 Feb: Patrick Boys Smith/Seattle, USA
05-07 Feb: Isaiah Tuthill, Nicholas/Acworth, USA
13-15 Feb: *Jeff Hobert/Santa Barbara, USA
22-28 Apr: Thomas Bøndergaard/Copenhagen, Denmark
25-27 Apr: *Marta Jankowska/Warsaw, Poland
07-11 May: *Elina Koskinen/Helsinki, Finland
01-02 Jun: Paul Heggart/Oxford, UK
01-04 Jun: Xinying Ke/Singapore
01-04 Jun: Meeshell Koh/Singapore
03-05 Jun: Raquel Galeano/Asunción, Paraguay
03-05 Jun: Nora Tonkin/Watersmeet, USA
08-09 Jun: Steven E Schubert, Ania Spyra/Iowa, USA
08-12 Jun: Kin Yan Chew/Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
08-12 Jun: Andrew Lim/Singapore
08-12 Jun: Luke Pang/Singapore
11-16 Jun: Kristen Brewer/Vancouver, Canada
12-13 Jun: Raquel Galeano/Asunción, Paraguay
12-13 Jun: Nora Tonkin/Watersmeet, USA
12-13 Jun: Steven E Schubert/Iowa, USA
14-15 Jun: *Richard Tanner/Los Angeles, USA
14-19 Jun: Alex Flynn-Padick/Denver, USA
14-19 Jun: Milos Maricic/Belgrade, Serbia
16-20 Jun: Anne-Laure Dubois/Arles, France
16-20 Jun: Anna van Raaij/Breda, The Netherlands
16-20 Jun: Lisa Radtke/Berlin, Germany
16-20 Jun: Johannes Kasimir/Hamburg, Germany
19-21 Jun: Matt Smith/Melbourne, Australia
19-21 Jun: Dan Donaghey/Gold Coast, Australia
29 Jun-01 Jul: Sandra Dupuis/Lausanne, Switzerland
30 Jun-14 Jul: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
02-03 Jul: Milos Maricic/Belgrade, Serbia
02-03 Jul: Marta Derska/Warsaw, Poland
02-03 Jul: Katarzyna Dominikowska/Łódź, Poland
02-03 Jul: Paweł Grymuza/Łódź, Poland
02-03 Jul: Łukasz Kobza/Warsaw, Poland
02-03 Jul: Dorota Koper/Warsaw, Poland
02-05 Jul: Noraneath Phlek/Paris, France
03-05 Jul: Jacqueline van den Ende/Utrecht, Holland
21 Aug-02 Sep: Salwa Abdultawab/Cairo, Egypt
22-24 Aug: *Sarah Strick/Cologne, Germany
25-29 Aug: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
26 Aug-12 Oct: Maria Theresia Borlinghaus/Bayreuth
26 Aug-12 Oct: Johanna Pausch/Bayreuth, Germany
30 Aug-02 Sep: Maria Timofeeva/Glazov, Russia
30 Aug-02 Sep: Birgit Hoeft/Mannheim, Germany
30 Aug-02 Sep: Annett Hübener/Dohna, Germany
30 Aug-05 Sep: Sonya & Nigel Bates/New Plymouth, NZ
01-02 Sep: Tatiana Zaitseva/Lipetsk, Russia
01-04 Sep: Stamatis Kotouzas/Athens, Greece
02-04 Sep: Robert Schikowski/Munich, Germany
02-08 Sep: Jasmina Zaharieva/Ruse, Bulgaria
05-07 Sep: Anton Lastochkin/Perm, Russia
06-09 Sep: Denis Antipov/Dudinka, Russia
06-09 Sep: Mao Wenjing (Luca)/Shanghai, China
06-11 Sep: Li-Chen Yu/Hualien, Taiwan ROC
06-11 Sep: *Yu-shiuan Tseng/Hualien, Taiwan ROC
06-12 Sep: Sarah Bro Pedersen/Odense, Denmark
06-12 Sep: Maria Friis Jensen/Odense, Denmark
08-11 Sep: Céline Meyrat, Dirk/Bern, Switzerland
10-15 Sep: Sergey Klimenko/St Petersburg, Russia
12-13 Sep: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
13-15 Sep: Kim Yoonjung, Kim Yongtae/Seoul, S Korea
14-16 Sep: Annett Hübener/Dohna, Germany
15-17 Sep: Corina Heck, Gianluca Rossi/Zürich, CH
22-28 Sep: Veerle Pirson/Zemst, Belgium
22-28 Sep: Dave Forrester/London, UK
26-28 Sep: Tatyana Isayeva/Irkutsk, Russia
28 Sep: Joerg Puehrer & Agnes Peterseil/Vienna, Austria
28-30 Sep: *Fazliddin Kuziev/Tashkent, Uzbekistan
29 Sep-03 Oct: Peter Carney/Cowbride, Wales
30 Sep-01 Oct: Anton Lastochkin/Perm, Russia
06-11 Oct: Mark Tamura/Auckland, New Zealand
11-12 Oct: Alexis Chalot/Paris, France
11-12 Oct: François Picard, Thomas Grenier/Paris, France
11-19 Oct: Martin Trasmundi/Odense, Denmark
11-19 Oct: Sarah Bro Pedersen/Odense, Denmark
11-19 Oct: Kristine Rex/Odense, Denmark
12-15 Oct: Patrick & Jayne Michel/Geneva, Switzerland
15-21 Oct: Laetitia Cordier/Rouen, France
15-22 Oct: Su-Au Hwang/Munich, Germany
25 Oct-01 Nov: Frederic Cambus/Toulouse, France
27 Oct-01 Dec: Sarah Bro Pedersen/Odense, Denmark
27 Oct-1 Dec: Maria Friis Jensen/Odense, Denmark
28-29 Oct: Philipp Schließer/Passau, Germany
28-29 Oct: *Annegret Oette/Halle (Saale), Germany
08-10 Nov: Jenny Nilsson/Linkoping, Sweden
08-10 Nov: Eric Halling/Krokek, Sweden
08-10 Nov: Felix Weideryd/Malmo, Sweden
12-16 Nov: *Jonathan Stray/San Francisco, USA
22 Nov-06 Dec: Karlagash Iskakova/Astana, Kazakhstan
26 Nov-07 Dec: *Swetlana Romaniko/Akkol, KZ
11 Dec-19 Dec: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
13-16 Dec: Amber Taylor/Whangarei, New Zealand
14-16 Dec: *Olga Yastrebova/St Petersburg, Russia
17-28 Dec: *Swetlana Romaniko/Akkol, KZ
17 Dec-14 Jan: Su-Au Hwang/Munich, Germany

2008 (242)
02-12 Jan: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
07 Jan-01 Feb: *Swetlana Romaniko/Akkol, KZ
12 Jan-03 Feb: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
22-27 Jan: Christine van Haaren/Kalkar, Germany
23-26 Jan: *Zivile Viteikaite/Vilnius, Lithuania
24-26 Jan: Kathrin Böker/Hannover, Germany
25-31 Jan: Celik Karakas/Istanbul, Turkey
25-28 Jan: Anna Karpushova/Saratov, Russia
27-28 Jan: Katharina Stehr/Cologne, Germany
27-28 Jan: Lisa von Wahl/Cologne, Germany
01-03 Feb: Tom Hancock/Oxford, UK
03-06 Feb: Denis Zuyev/Krasnoyarsk, Russia
05-08 Feb: *Hanna Rabushka/Minsk, Belarus
05-08 Feb: Aliaksei Kamushenka/Minsk, Belarus
07-10 Feb: Aino Sutinen/Espoo, Finland
10-11 Feb: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
11-12 Feb: Celik Karakas/Istanbul, Turkey
11-13 Feb: Lisbeth Frost/Pandrup, Denmark
11-13 Feb: Keld Christensen/Pandrup, Denmark
12-13 Feb: Aino Sutinen/Espoo, Finland
16-18 Feb: *Pierre Picart/Nancy, France
16-20 Feb: *Thibault Demange/Nancy, France
17-19 Feb: Justine Hochart/Bordeaux, France
17-19 Feb: Marine Rozès/Bordeaux, France
17-20 Feb: Lisbeth Frost/Pandrup, Denmark
17-20 Feb: Keld Christensen/Pandrup, Denmark
18-19 Feb: Celik Karakas/Istanbul, Turkey
20-27 Feb: Larisa Lysyakova/Ufa, Russia
20 Feb-14 Mar: Enzo Striano/Ercolano, Italy
21-28 Feb: Elizabeth Nelson/Wilmington, USA
25-27 Feb: Irina Starostina/Ufa, Russia
25 Feb-02 Mar: Celik Karakas/Istanbul, Turkey
29 Feb-02 Mar: Polina Klishova/St Petersburg, Russia
29 Feb-02 Mar: Dmitry Leshchev/St Petersburg, Russia
29 Feb-02 Mar: Lada Shalyt/St Petersburg, Russia
29 Feb-02 Mar: Katherine Bobrova/St Petersburg, Russia
02-12 Mar: Edith Dumon, Bram de Backer/Leuven, BE
10-11 Mar: Elizabeth Nelson/Wilmington, USA
14-18 Mar: Anna Karpushova/Saratov, Russia
14-23 Mar: Milka Zehlike/Dresden, Germany
15-16 Mar: Maxim Drachinsky/Moscow, Russia
18 Mar: Olga Alimova/St Petersburg, Russia
18-19 Mar: *Maria Krüger/Trier, Germany
18-20 Mar: Andrea Schulze/Trier, Germany
18-21 Mar: Thierry Baud, Sophie Dabrowski/Ancelle, FR
18-30 Mar: Polina Isaeva/St Petersburg, Russia
25-30 Mar: Lyn Egen/Magdeburg, Germany
26-27 Mar: Tilman Speer/Bielefeld, Germany
26-27 Mar: Karolina Wasikowska/Łódź, Poland
26-27 Mar: Aneta Kacprzak/Łódź, Poland
26-27 Mar: Wanda Budzyn/Łódź, Poland
27-29 Mar: Justine Hochart/Bordeaux, France
27-29 Mar: Marine Rozès/Bordeaux, France
29-30 Mar: *Olga Shimyakova/Nizhny Novgorod, RU
29-30 Mar: Katya Mordvina/St Petersburg, Russia
29-30 Mar: Asya Solodova/St Petersburg, Russia
29-30 Mar: Irina Venediktova/St Petersburg, Russia
01 Apr: Cecile Pompei/Sceaux, France
05-06 Apr: *Olga Shimyakova/Nizhny Novgorod, RU
05-08 Apr: Elise Laker, Alex Hoban/Nottingham, UK
08-09 Apr: Sascha Deutsch/Hamburg, Germany
10-13 Apr: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
10-12 Apr: Peter Tempfli/Budapest, Hungary
10-15 Apr: *Fazliddin Kuziev/Tashkent, Uzbekistan
11-17 Apr: Fabienne Fabaraka/Paris, France
12 Apr: Monika Komenda/Budapest, Hungary
12-13 Apr: Niguina Rakhmatova/Nizhny Novgorod
12-15 Apr: Ivan Bezborody/Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
14-17 Apr: Matthew Rocklin/Berkeley, USA
15-17 Apr: Michelle Ono/Los Angeles, USA
16-17 Apr: Peter Tempfli/Budapest, Hungary
16-17 Apr: Monika Komenda/Budapest, Hungary
16-17 Apr: Fanny Stroh/Berlin, Germany
16-25 Apr: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
17-18 Apr: Carlos Rau/Santiago, Chile
19-24 Apr: Antonio Hedilla/Madrid, Spain
19-24 Apr: Aurora Perez-Seoane/Madrid, Spain
22-23 Apr: Vyacheslav Zhmakin/Moscow, Russia
27 April-05 May: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
06-07 May: Svetlana Aniskina/Moscow, Russia
06-07 May: Irina Danilkina/Pushkino, Russia
10-12 May: Celik Karakas/Istanbul, Turkey
12-14 May: Aivars Andersons/Rīga, Latvia
12-14 May: Giovanni Merzari/Verona, Italy
12-14 May: Thibaud Lhomer/St-Malo, France
12-15 May: Roberto Quaglia/Genova, Italy
12-16 May: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
15-18 May: Tiago Oliviera/Lisbon, Portugal
15-18 May: Carlos Ramos/Lisbon, Portugal
16-19 May: Erwin Dwi Saputra/Jakarta, Indonesia
16-19 May: Isaac Ng/Hong Kong, China
16-21 May: Marie-Antonia Witzmann/Berlin, Germany
16-21 May: Jair Mariano Jr/Sao Paolo, Brazil
17-19 May: Nuno Cerca/Aveiro, Portugal
19-23 May: Shannon Branock, Yasuo Ichikawa/Brisbane
21-22 May: Delphine Frecaut/Nancy, France
21-23 May: Amaury de France/Paris, France
21-23 May: Maud Heran/Paris, France
21-24 May: *Nicole Oude Oosterik/Nijmegen, NL
21-24 May: *Amy Mulder/Heumen, The Netherlands
23-25 May: Irina Borisova/St Petersburg, Russia
23-25 May: John Tilden King/Freestone, USA
24-27 May: Irina Fedina/Rīga, Latvia
24-27 May: Ināra Tjurjapina/Rīga, Latvia
24-27 May: Wolfgang Kaller/Dortmund, Germany
24-27 May: Eeva Maria/Kotka, Finland
26-29 May: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
26 May-02 Jun: Marco Morza/Luxembourg City, LU
27-30 May: Pascal Dumont/Montréal, Canada
28-31 May: Sylvain Raucy, Julie Balay/Paris, France
30 May-03 Jun: Guy Lamiche/Carmignano, Italy
02-04 Jun: Myriam Fink/Münster, Germany
02-04 Jun: Jan Flasche/Bonn, Germany
02-11 Jun: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
03-06 Jun: Josh Sanders/Buderim, Australia
05-09 Jun: Alexa Furphy/Brisbane, Australia
06-13 Jun: Elena Gorshkova/Irkutsk, Russia
09-16 Jun: Lina Johansson/Bureå, Sweden
09-16 Jun: Cecilia Truedsson/Malmo, Sweden
10-11 Jun: Sergey Klimenko/St Petersburg, Russia
13-16 Jun: Catherine Moureau/Sprimont, Belgium
13-16 Jun: Zoé François/Remouchamps, Belgium
15 Jun-05 Jul: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
16-17 Jun: Anita/Quebec, Canada
16-17 Jun: Julie & Dan Baas/Sacramento, USA
16-20 Jun: Charlotte Debunne & Pascal Lessard/Montréal
17-22 Jun: Amélie Le Cam, Anouck Manzoni/Paris, France
18-19 Jun: Diana Dragomir/Montréal, Canada
18-19 Jun: Francis-Yan Cyr-Racine/Montréal, Canada
18-20 Jun: Ekaterina Baranova/St Petersburg, Russia
19 Jun-07 Jul: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
20-22 Jun: *Elena Nedozhogina/Voronezh, Russia
20-23 Jun: Francesco Piccinini/Suzzara, Italy
23-26 Jun: *Raul Muñoz/Santiago, Chile
24-25 Jun: Irina Danilkina/Pushkino, Russia
24-26 Jun: Donnacadh O'Briain/Dublin, Ireland
25-28 Jun: Audra Lambert/Jersey City, USA
26-28 Jun: Francesco Piccinini/Suzzara, Italy
28 Jun-02 Jul: Val Yeong/Singapore
29-30 Jun: Alex Parkyn-Smith/Manchester, UK
01-03 Jul: Lisa Lotte Damm/Berlin, Germany
02-05 Jul: Peter Norris/Norwich, UK
03-04 Jul: *Raul Muñoz/Santiago, Chile
03-05 Jul: Nicole Justin/Chicago, USA
06-09 Jul: Florian Kröll, Lena Dell/Graz, Austria
07-08 Jul: Jennifer Kungsman/Umeå, Sweden
07-08 Jul: Josef Lilljegren/Umeå, Sweden
07-10 Jul: Florian Pageaud/Nantes, France
07-10 Jul: Grégory Monnier/Nantes, France
07-10 Jul: Ulrich Allais/Nantes, France
07-19 Jul: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
10-12 Jul: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
13-15 Jul: Florian Reischauer/Vienna, Austria
13-15 Jul: Katharina Roßboth, Manuel Fröschl/Vienna
16-24 Jul: *Marita Goth/Detmold, Germany
16-24 Jul: *Valentin Stroh/Detmold, Germany
17-18 Jul: Neil West/Huddersfield, UK
17-18 Jul: Michael Canizares/Manchester, UK
17-19 Jul: *Marta Tarridas/Calella de la costa, Spain
19-20 Jul: Natalia Gudimova/St Petersburg, Russia
19-20 Jul: Robert Heijtel/Rijsenhout, The Netherlands
18-20 Jul: Olia Makshanova/St Petersburg, Russia
20-21 Jul: *Natalia Kalicińska/Zielona Góra, Poland
20-21 Jul: Yulia Ivanova/Vladimir, Russia
20-22 Jul: Xavier Lavry/Couthin-Wanze-Huy, Belgium
20-23 Jul: Fanny Stroh/Berlin, Germany
21-22 Jul: Irina Borisova/St Petersburg, Russia
21-27 Jul: Kyoungsuk Cho/Seoul, Korea
21 Jul-04 Aug: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
04-05 Aug: Mart van Amerongen/Utrecht, Netherlands
04-05 Aug: Ram Eisenberg/Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
05-07 Aug: Amelia Childress/Monterey, USA
05-08 Aug: Andrea Neuhaus/Bern, Switzerland
05-10 Aug: Virginie Fraisse/Toulouse, France
05-10 Aug: Jérémie Bethmont/Toulouse, France
10-22 Aug: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
17-31 Aug: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
25-27 Aug: Tatiana Isaeva/Irkutsk, Russia
26-27 Aug: Ville Kantola/Tampere, Finland
26-27 Aug: Sanna Tukia/Pietarsaari, Finland
28-30 Aug: *Manuela Pohl/Potsdam, Germany
28-30 Aug: Katharina Maria Heymann/Heidelberg, DE
28-29 Aug: Fanny Stroh/Berlin, Germany
04-06 Sep: Marina & Sofia Syomina/Chukotka,Russia
04-06 Sep: Leo Mourzenko/St Petersburg, Russia
05-10 Sep: Alex Henri/Houston, USA
05-12 Sep: Rubén Alba Aguilera/Málaga, Spain
05-15 Sep: *Leire Orduna/Pamplona, Spain
06-07 Sep: Anna Nekrasova/Moscow, Russia
07-08 Sep: Fábio Vaccaro da Rocha/São Paulo, Brazil
08-11 Sep: Jan Harnisch/Hamburg, Germany
10-13 Sep: Maxime & Stéphane Cornu/Orléans, France
11-13 Sep: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
15-18 Sep: Paulin Brossard/Bayonne, France
16 Sep-02 Oct: Shawn Ligocki/Pasadena, USA
16 Sep-02 Oct: Cecilia Yu/The Woodlands, USA
22-26 Sep: Anna Karpushova, Vera Maltseva/Saratov, RU
23-26 Sep: Ingrid & Terje Eckhoff/Oslo, Norway
23-26 Sep: Martin & Ingvild Eckhoff/Oslo, Norway
25-29 Sep: Christophe Meneboeuf/Vincennes, France
25-29 Sep: Sindy Carpentier/Vincennes, France
01-03 Oct: Barbara Puehringer, Heinz Grünwald/Vienna
09-12 Oct: Jimena Niño/Bogotá, Colombia
09-12 Oct: Aura Lucia Nivia/Bogotá, Colombia
13-14 Oct: Anna Nekrasova/Odintsevo, Russia
13-14 Oct: Alidyar Autalipov/Almaty, KZ
13-24 Oct: Mareiki Aden/Hamburg, Germany
14-15 Oct: Irina Danilkina/Pushkino, Russia
21-22 Oct: Irina Danilkina/Pushkino, Russia
21-22 Oct: Irina Koblents/Ivanteevka, Russia
25-28 Oct: Julia Akhmetshina/Ekaterinburg, Russia
25-28 Oct: Liya Nizamova/Ekaterinburg, Russia
09-10 Nov: Gulsum Nabiullina/Ufa, Russia
09-10 Nov: Irina Danilkina/Pushkino, Russia
16 Nov-2 Dec: Fábio Vaccaro da Rocha/São Paulo, Brazil
17-18 Nov: Melissa Levacic/Cannes, France
21-22 Nov: Irina Koblents/Ivanteevka, Russia
22-24 Nov: Irina Danilkina/Pushkino, Russia
27 Nov-2 Dec: Chris Adam/Calgary, Canada
27-28 Nov: Irina Danilkina/Pushkino, Russia
07-08 Dec: Maria Yefremova/Ufa, Russia
07-08 Dec: Svetlana Yakovleva/Ryazan, Russia
11-12 Dec: Steffen Jung/Buehl, Germany
11-12 Dec: Mikhail Dorofeev/Toronto, Canada
11-14 Dec: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
12-13 Dec: Heather Zueff/Beausejour, Canada
12-13 Dec: Matthew Mangold/Baltimore, USA
22-23 Dec: Liya Nizamova/Ekaterinburg, Russia

2009
20-23 Feb: Mariel Stringer-Fehlow/London, UK
20-23 Feb: Kari Foster/Denver, USA
20-23 Feb: Spencer Gourley/Salt Lake City, USA
26 Feb-14 Mar: Akin Duru/Istanbul, Turkey
27 Feb-01 Mar: Christoph Deschka/Vienna, Austria
27 Feb-01 Mar: Reza Khorsand/Terheijden, NL
03-08 Mar: Çelik Karakaş/Istanbul, Turkey
04-05 Mar: Marina Tengery/Ulan-Ude, Russia
12-16 Mar: Andrea Zefferer/Vienna, Austria
12-16 Mar: Verena Randolf/Vienna, Austria
14-22 Mar: Kathi Möller/Fulda, Germany
14-22 Mar: Elena Barth/Fulda, Germany
19-20 Mar: Sarah Shireen/Ipoh, Malaysia
22 Mar-02 Apr: Mariel Stringer-Fehlow/London, UK
23-24 Mar: Çelik Karakaş/Istanbul, Turkey
24-28 Mar: Anna Chulkova/Samara, Russia
25-26 Mar: Lisa Zenker/Magdeburg, Germany
25-26 Mar: Richard Müller/Magdeburg, Germany
25-27 Mar: Max Stockmann/Magdeburg, Germany
26-27 Mar: Justine Hochart/Bordeaux, France
26-27 Mar: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
26-29 Mar: Anna Dontsova/St Petersburg, Russia
26-29 Mar: Olya Bolshakova/St Petersburg, Russia
27-29 Mar: Lada Shalyt/St Petersburg, Russia
27-29 Mar: Dmitry Leshchev/St Petersburg, Russia
27-29 Mar: Valentina Domenjuk/St Petersburg, Russia
27-29 Mar: Elena Silkina/St Petersburg, Russia
29 Mar-01 Apr: Piotr Sobczak/Wrocław, Poland
30 Mar-03 Apr: Jakob Höber/Munich, Germany
01-02 Apr: Akin Duru/Istanbul, Turkey
04-11 Apr: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
11-17 Apr: Katarina Ludrovska/Bratislava, Slovakia
16-18 Apr: Lara Echávarri Fontecha /Madrid, Spain
16-18 Apr: Oscar Navarro/Mexico City, Mexico
16-18 Apr: Camilo García Alba/Bogotá, Colombia
18-20 Apr: Mélyssa Vachon/Québec, Canada
18-20 Apr: Catherine Plasse/Québec, Canada
18-21 Apr: Joannie Savard/Québec, Canada
19-21 Apr: Louise Lakeb/Québec, Canada
19-26 Apr: *Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
26-28 Apr: Anna Magyar/Budapest, Hungary
26-29 Apr: Josefin Lindgren/Uppsala, Sweden
28-30 Apr: Michael Singer/Radolfzell, Germany
29 Apr-1 May: Camila Bauer/Porto Alegre, Brazil
29 Apr-1 May: Marta Canabal/Madrid, Spain
29 Apr-1 May: Sebastian Todt, Nikolaus Weihe/Halle, DE
02-05 May: Tine Dessein, Marieke Huysmans/Bruges, Belgium
02-05 May: Katrien Callewaert/Bruges, Belgium
04-06 May: Luuk Mulling, Zayde Salvador/Barcelona, Spain
05-06 May: Anna Mayorova/Chelyabinsk, Russia
05-06 May: Liya Nizamova/Ekaterinburg, Russia
08-09 May: Katrien Callewaert/Bruges, Belgium
08-11 May: Tine Dessein, Marieke Huysmans/Bruges, Belgium
08-17 May: Shira Bezalel/Jerusalem, Israel
08-17 May: Esther Draakje/Dordrecht, NL
10-13 May: Tina Braden, Eva Peter/Graz, Austria
12-15 May: Maxwell Chernoff/Vancouver, Canada
14-16 May: Yulia Ivanova/Vladimir, Russia
14-19 May: Masha Smirnova/Vienna, Austria
16-17 May: Elisabeth Wilamowitz/Freiberg, Germany
16-17 May: Svetlana Romaniko/Akkau, Kazakhstan
17-22 May: *Julia Killet/Düsseldorf, Germany
17-30 May: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
19-22 May: Maxwell Chernoff/Vancouver, Canada
23-24 May: Gulsum Nabiullina/Ufa, Russia
24-26 May: Ariella Bar-Nissim/Brooklyn, New York
24-27 May: Alena Odnopleskova/Novosibirsk, Russia
26-27 May: Anastassia Mikhaylova/Samara, Russia
26-27 May: Elena Tatarinova/Samara, Russia
26-27 May: Katya Shishchenko/Novosibirsk, Russia
26-28 May: Joanna Baxter/Brighton, UK
28-31 May: Anna Chulkova/Samara, Russia
28 May-28 Jun: Liya Nizamova/Ekaterinburg, Russia
30-31 May: Elisabeth Wilamowitz/Freiberg, Germany
30-31 May: Maxwell Chernoff/Vancouver, Canada
01-02 Jun: Katya Shishchenko/Novosibirsk, Russia
01-04 Jun: Denis Beriau/Quebec City, Canada
01-09 Jun: Konstantin Gorshkov/Moscow, Russia
03-04 Jun: Katya Shishchenko/Novosibirsk, Russia
05-06 Jun: Alberto Fornasier/Milano, Italy
12-14 Jun: Ekaterina Bubnova/St Petersburg
12-14 Jun: Sergey Dulin, Alexander Grigoruk/SPb, Russia
16-18 Jun: Elisabeth Wilamowitz/Freiberg, Germany
18-20 Jun: Sally Brooking, Simon Grove-White/Oxford, UK
18-21 Jun: Liubov Taran/Yaroslavl, Russia
19-22 Jun: Kristoffer Olsson, Henrik Lundahl/Gothenburg, Sweden
19-24 Jun: François Aubin, Hélène Katz/Paris, France
20-21 Jun: Katya Shishchenko/Novosibirsk, Russia
20-22 Jun: Anna Yarmolenko, Alexandra Bogdanova/Vladivostok
22-26 Jun: *Josue & Silvia Partida/Mexico City, Mexico
23-28 Jun: Ewan Kingston/Wellington, NZ
25-27 Jun: Marie Köller/Hamburg, Germany
25-27 Jun: Johan Saarela/Vaasa, Finland
27 Jun-13 Jul: Elena Baygoulova/Izhevsk, Russia
28-29 Jun: Peter Naderer/Innsbruck, Austria
28-30 Jun: Bérénice Dartevelle, Sandrine Zicot//Bruxelles, Belgium
29 Jun-01 Jul: Camille Sage, Nicolas Racana/Clermont-Ferrand, France
01-03 Jul: Ricardo Cabeços, Pedro Cabeços/Faro, Portugal
01-03 Jul: Aude Friren/Lyon, France
02-03 Jul: Katya Shishchenko/Novosibirsk, Russia

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

PROTO-COUCHSURFING - If a tree falls in the forest & there was no one to witness it, how can we know the tree actually fell? If I was couchsurfing but no one told me what it was, how can we be sure I really was doing it? From way back in 1984, without knowing it I was already a proto-CouchSurfer. Back then, a Rotary Club student from WI stayed at our home. Since then, from Japanese and Korean students to two French choir boys from Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois, my family has been lending its "couch" to travelers and students from different parts of the world. By the time I left my country to live in Japan in 1994, I had become a committed CouchSurfer/Surfee.

HOSPITALITY CLUB - After becoming a member of CS precursor Hospitality Club in February 2005, I started to learn about meeting complete strangers. It took a while before I finally was able to ask for accommodation while travling alone in a strange city but the warm & hospitable people of the Baltics helped me break into the whole HC ethic.

EXPERIENCE - Since April 2006 I've hosted some 850 people from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Paraguay, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. In turn I've been hosted in Baku, Bali (Seminyak), Berlin, Bratislava, Caen, Dresden, Halle-Saale, Inari, Kaunas, Leipzig, Minsk, Paris, Prague, Riga, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Tartu, Tbilisi, Vilnius, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Yerevan.

HOSTS (Incomplete)

2005
20-21 Dec: Kristina Skaburskyte/Kaunas, Lithuania
21-22 Dec: *Paule Zaksauskiene/Kaunas, LT
21-22 Dec: *Mindaugas Zaksauskas/Kaunas, LT
22-23 Dec: Aushrine Kersanskaite/Vilnius, Lithuania
23-24 Dec: *Inga Dievulyte/Vilnius, Lithuania
24-25 Dec: Aija Stikane/Bajari, Latvia
25-27 Dec: Kristine Ciirule/Rīga, Latvia
27-29 Dec: *Kristina Argel/Tartu, Estonia
29-31 Dec: *Kristel Kask/Tallinn, Estonia

2006
02-06 Jan: *Suvi Kivelä/Inari, Finland
10-12 Apr: *Frédérique Laffont/Paris, France
13-14 Apr: *Renaud La Joie/Caen, France
24-26 Jun: *Mina Dos Santos/St Petersburg, Russia
18-20 Nov: *Antoine Bernard/Baku, Azerbaijan
23-25 Nov: George Machtidze/Tbilisi, Georgia
26-30 Nov: *Mihran Sahakyan/Yerevan, Armenia
26-30 Nov: *Hasmik Hovhannisyan/Yerevan, Armenia
09 Dec: *Ekaterina Salinger/Ufa, Russia
27 Dec: *Regina Nasyrova, Anton Babovnik/Vitebsk, BY
27-28 Dec: *Lilija Bojka/Minsk, Belarus
29 Dec: Iza Gralla/Torun, Poland
29-30 Dec: Sylwia Kolodziejczyk/Warsaw, Poland
30 Dec-1 Jan: *Anastasia Khaustova/Warsaw, Poland

2007
01-03 Jan: *Maria Smolarek/Wrocław, Poland
03-04 Jan: *Zuzana Gavulova/Bratislava, Slovakia
04-06 Jan: *Zuzana Klackova/Prague, Czech Republic
04-06 Jan: *Jindřich Beneš/Prague, Czech Republic
06-07 Jan: *Jana Aurig/Dresden, Germany
07-08 Jan: *Janna/Leipzig, Germany
08-09 Jan: *Markus Nowatzki/Halle (Saale), Germany
08-09 Jan: *Katharina Schmidt/Halle (Saale), Germany
09-10 Jan: Marie-Antonia Witzmann/Berlin, Germany
15-17 Mar: Hanna Stoff/Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia
01-04 Aug: Monolita Chatterjee/Cochin, India
07-08 Aug: Aparna Roy/Mumbai, India
11-13 Aug: Saazid Singha/Delhi, India
15-16 Sep: Olga Alimova/St Petersburg, Russia
01-02 Nov: Adi Yaniv/Jerusalem, Israel
03-04 Nov: *Yasser Alhaj/Deheishe Camp, West Bank
05-06 Nov: Sarit Hashkes/Jerusalem, Israel
06-07 Nov: *Oded Mordechay/Kibbutz Yiro'n, Israel
24-25 Nov: *Olga Shimyakova/Nizhny Novgorod, RU
22-25 Dec: Agnes Peterseil/Vienna, Austria
25-27 Dec: Sarina Kriechbaum-Ikhine/Graz, Austria
27-30 Dec: Ines Kočar/Ljubljana, Slovenia
30-31 Dec: Ivana Pripuzović/Zagreb, Croatia

2008
01 Jan: Ivana Pripuzović/Zagreb, Croatia
01-03 Jan: Neubacher Rudolf/Pécs, Hungary
03-04 Jan: *Danko Delač/Osijek, Croatia
04-05 Jan: David Myers/Novi Sad, Serbia
05-07 Jan: Milica Popovic/Belgrade, Serbia
08-11 Jan: Lisa Steele/Budapest, Hungary
11-12 Jan: *Zuzana Holla/Bratislava, Slovakia
12-13 Jan: Agnes Peterseil/Vienna, Austria
08-11 Mar: Olga Alimova/St Petersburg, Russia
20-22 Mar: Olga Shimyakova/Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
26-27 Apr: Marina Reingold/Vladimir, Russia
28-30 Apr: Su-Au Hwang/Munich, Germany
30 Apr-01 May: Stephanie Haneberg/Augsburg, DE
30 Apr-01 May: Alex Wimmer/Augsburg, Germany
01-02 May: Lu Gabel/Stuttgart, Germany
02-03 May: Nahia Galar/Tübingen, Germany
03-04 May: Charlotte Morel/Strasbourg, France
04-05 May: Anika Grübel/Karlsruhe, Germany
05-06 May: Enite Murswiek/Stuttgart, Germany
31 May: Nikolay Lazitsky/Novgorod, Russia
31 May-01 Jun: Olga Petrova/St Petersburg, Russia
20-21 Jun: Vladas and Inga Sapranavicius/Vilnius, LT
21-22 Jun: Reda Ketleriute/Klaipeda, Lithuania
22-23 Jun: Aija Stikane/Bajari, Latvia
05 Jul: Elena Lavrenova/Vyborg, Russia
05-06 Jul: Irina Borisova/St Petersburg, Russia
02-03 Aug: *Olga Maximova/Barnaul, Russia
08-10 Aug: Paul Olai-Olssen/Oslo, Norway
11-13 Aug: Kati Indrefjord/Bergen, Norway
15-16 Aug: Claude Goffeney/Tromsø, Norway
22-23 Aug: Deborah & Akihiro Ogawa/Stockholm, Sweden
24-25 Aug: Polina Isaeva/St Petersburg, Russia
14-15 Nov: Chrissy Klemens/Amsterdam, NL
15-18 Nov: Faizal Chery Sidharta/Den Haag, NL

2009
06-07 Jan: Nicolien Kegels, Walid Houri/Beirut, Lebanon
07-08 Jan: Jesse Wessan/Tyre, Lebanon
03-04 Apr: Arianna Isotti/Rome, Italy
04-06 Apr: Silvia Cannella/Palermo, Italy
08-09 Apr: Jamie Small/Siracusa, Italy
10-11 Apr: Filippo Occhipinti/Palermo, Italy
11-12 Apr: Arianna Isotti/Rome, Italy
18-19 Apr: Natalia Bayurova/Yaroslavl, Russia
02-03 May: *Shamil Sokolov/Pyatigorsk, Russia
11-12 Jun: Renat Pretsinieks/Makhachkala, RU
12-13 Jun: *Anna Lysenko/Pyatigorsk, RU
01-02 Aug: /Pskov, Russia
08-11 Aug: Breena Xie/Beijing, China
16-18 Aug: Breena Xie/Beijing, China
24-25 Oct: Julie Krøier, Pablo Kolbe/Copenhagen, DK
25-26 Oct: Natasja Liv Hansen/Copenhagen, DK
31 Oct-01 Nov: Alex Hoban/London, UK
01-02 Nov: Gavin Haynes/London, UK
14-15 Nov: Natasha Krasnova/St Petersburg, Russia
22-23 Nov: Teodora Lascu/Bucharest, Romania
23-24 Nov: Bogdan Micu/Braşov, Romania
24-25 Nov: Elisa Heuser/Sibiu, Romania
25-27 Nov: Adina Silvaş/Timişoara, Romania
27-28 Nov: Andrea Ewing/Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
04-05 Dec: Jon Stokes/Tirana, Albania
07-08 Dec: Jan Tomesek, Bea Ferenci/Prishtina, Kosovo
08-09 Dec: Dragan Jovanovski/Skopje, Macedonia
10-11 Dec: Elitsa Staneva/Sofia, Bulgaria
11-12 Dec: Shtiliana Andonova/Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Интересы

People, Alpine and cross-country skiing, taekwondo, Muay Thai, scuba diving, wall-climbing, blogging, snowboarding, cinema, music, football, Internet, travel, photography, trekking, languages, opera, badminton, cultures, ballet, wines, literature, coffee, cigars, tea, art, cuisine, history, theatre, religion, fountain pens, neckties, carpets, bespoke suits, women's rights, cosmopolitanism, diversity and universality

• cats
• photography
• environment
• cooking
• wine
• coffee
• partying
• news
• reading
• traveling
• opera
• hiking
• tennis
• history
• international relations
• philosophy
• urban exploration
• cinema
• football
• ballet
• tea
• africa
• craft beer
• china
• japan
• taiwan
• making friends
• foreign languages
• foreign cultures
• museums and exhibitions
• philippines
• women empowerment
• african culture
• climate justice
• anti-racism
• gender equality
• foreign affairs
• african dance
• foreign films
• food and drinks
• globalization
• afrobeat
• concerts and festivals
• nigeria
• studying languages
• binge watching
• west africa
• east africa
• indo-pacific

Музыка, кино и книги

AUTHORS: Mikhail Bulgakov, Salman Rushdie, Kawabata Yasujiro, Nikolai Gogol, Jose Saramago, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Ursula K LeGuin, Ambrose Bierce, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Milan Kundera, Natsume Soseki, Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Sebastien Japrisot, Mo Yan, Mishima Yukio, Andrey Kurkov, JRR Tolkien, PG Wodehouse, Fernando Pessoa, Endo Shusaku, Truman Capote, Louis de Bernieres
NOW READING: Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

FILMS : Amadeus, 羅生門 (Rashômon), Jeux interdits, Amores perros, The Pianist, Slumdog Millionaire, Dilber'in sekiz günü, Fight Club, Nuovo cinema paradiso, My Life Without Me, Before Sunrise, Ladri di biciclette, Fucking Åmål, Est-Ouest, 七人の侍 (Seven Samurai), Before Sunset, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, 공동경비구역 JSA (Joint Security Area), Hable con ella, À la verticale de l'été (Mùa hè chiều thẳng đứng), When Harry Met Sally, Mala Moskwa (Малая Москва), Броненосец «Потёмкин» (Battleship Potemkin), となりのトトロ (My Neighbor Totoro), Braveheart, 天国と地獄 (High and Low), Festen, L'odeur de la papaye verte, 8월의 크리스마스 (Christmas in August), Das Leben der Anderen, La stanza del figlio, Jean de Florette, 乱 (Ran), La femme du boulanger, The Darjeeling Limited, 海街diary (Our Little Sister), Shrek, Being John Malkovich, 12 Angry Men, Green Card, Bound, Groundhog Day, Memento, Sixth Sense, Dor, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Il Mare, In Bruges, Notting Hill, Wanted, Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas, Léon, Fa yeung nin wa
LAST SEEN : डोर (DorㅣThread) by Nagesh Kukunoor

MUSIC BY: [Algeria] Khaled [Antilles] Kassav' [Argentina] Enanitos Verdes, Soda Stereo [Armenia] Armen Chakmakian [Australia] Natalie Imbruglia [Austria] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [Brazil] Caetano Veloso [Bulgaria] Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares [Cabo Verde] Cesaria Evora [Canada] Feist [China] Cui Jian, Dadawa, Na Ying [Colombia] Shakira [Congo] Papa Wemba [Cuba] Buena Vista Social Club, Compay Segundo [Egypt] Mahmoud Fadl [England] Beth Orton, Aztec Camera, David Sylvian, Lily Allen, Portico Quartet, Sting [Estonia] Anu Taul ja sõbrad, Eda-Ines Etti, Maarja-Liis Ilus, Slobodan River, Tanel Padar [Finland] Angelit, Mari Boine, Niko Valkeapää, Jean Sibelius [France] Les Hurlements de Leo, Manu Chao, Les Nubians, Zebda [Georgia] The Rustavi Choir [Germany] De-Phazz, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdi, Ludwig van Beethoven [Hong Kong] Faye Wong [Ireland] Clannad, The Chieftains, Enya [Italy] Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Jovanotti [Japan] 2NE1, Girls' Generation [Korea] Hirai Ken, Love Psychedelico, Sakamoto Ryuichi, Shang Shang Taifu [Latvia] Cosmos, Hospitāļu iela, Rolands Ūdris, Egons Kronbergs [Lithuania] Saulės Kliošas, SKAMP [Mexico] Café Tacuba [New Zealand] Crowded House [Norway] A-ha, Edvard Grieg, Kings of Convenience [Philippines] Cynthia Alexander, Joey Ayala, Grace Nono, Hungry Young Poets, Philippine Madrigal Singers [Poland] Ania [Portugal] Madredeus [Russia] Гости из Будущего (Guests from the Future), Yulia Savicheva, Zemfira [Senegal] Orchestra Baobab, Youssou N'Dour [Singapore] Sun Yan Zi, Tanya Chua [South Africa] Ladysmith Black Mambazo [Spain] 10 de Paco, Camarón de la Isla, Corquien, Ella Baila Sola, Estrella Moriente, Kepa Junkera, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Paco de Lucia [Taiwan] Chiang Mei Chi, David Tao [Ukraine] 5'nizza, Mlada [Wales] Jem [USA] 10000 Maniacs, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews Band, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, Emi Meyer, Jewel, John Mayer, Natalie Merchant, Norah Jones, Racheal Yamagata, Six Pence None The Richer, Tori Amos, Tristan Prettyman

LAST-SONG-SYNDROME TUNE: Yeh Honsla by Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan from the OST of Dor (2007)

Классная вещь, которую я сделал(-а)

Travel to all continents save Antarctica in one year. (2003)

Witness the Arirang Mass Games, featuring over 100,000 participants in a 90min display of gymnastics, dance, acrobatics, and dramatic performance, at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium. (2009)

Experience an 18-degree drop in air temperature in just one hour of travel from Ljubljana to Izola on Slovenia's abbreviated Adriatic coast. (2007)

Survived being swept away by the rising tide on Pulau Manukan in Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park near Kota Kinabalu. (2011)

Ride in front of the train on the Circum-Baikal Railway in the face of freezing autumn breezes for almost 2 hours. (2006)

Meet and ask questions to such world leaders as Eduard Shevardnadze, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mary Robinson and Angela Merkel. (1997-2001)

Visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the South Korean side (Panmunjeom in 2001; Daeseong-dong in 2013) and the North Korean side (2009).

Party hard with war crimes tribunal officials to music played by DJ Mata Hari from Barcelona at the Balkan Caffe club in the Old Town of Sarajevo on the 2nd day of Eid al-Adha/Kurban bajram. (2009)

Hiked around Horton Plains National Park (stood at the top of the precipice on World's End) and up Sigiriya (Lion Rock) in Sri Lanka. (2013)

Take part as civilian observer in six-day joint US-Philippine military exercises in the South China Sea onboard the corvette BRP Artemio Ricarte (PS-37), formerly known as the HMS Starling (P241) during her service with the Royal Navy. (2000)

Successfully conspired to win a yearlong grant from the China Scholarship Council (国家留学基金委) to study intensive Mandarin at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (北京外国语大学), thus effectively saving myself from being inexplicably put in the freezer for nine months at the Department of Foreign Affairs. (2010)

Go dog sledding on a frozen lake in Lapland. (2006)

Cruise down the Mekong River in Laos by slow boat over two days from Huay Xai near the Thai border through Pakbeng up to Luang Prabang. (2011)

Hear the whole 3-hr Orthodox Easter service (the works: matins, liturgy) at Novodevichy Monastery in Moscow. (2007)

Go on a 125km, five-day horse-riding trek in the Altai Mountains in Russia. (2008)

Experience snow in Ifrane in the Middle Atlas in the morning, ride through rock desert in Ziz Valley through the day and see the sun set in a Berber camp in the Sahara 50 km from the Algerian border. (2002)

Take epic train rides from Cochin to Goa on the Konkan Railway; Pyongyang to Beijing on the Chinese Railway; Bangkok to Penang on the International Express (Ekspress Antarabangsa); and Perm to Beijing on the Transsiberian railway (broken up with stops at Tomsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ulan-Ude and Ulanbaatar). (2007, 2009, 2011)

Do the merengue while sipping a mojito in Castro's Cuba. Witness the Easter procession in Trinidad, the only place in Cuba allowed to mark a Christian holiday apart from Christmas. (2005)

Observe the laying and hatching of eggs by masses of nesting Green Sea Turtles on Baguan Island in the Philippines' Turtle Islands. (2011)

Hitch a ride going to and coming back from Selim Caravanseray between Aghavnadzor and Martuni in the the mountains of Vayots Dzor in southern Armenia - my first real HH experience. (2006)

Host more than 1,000 guests & be honored by 1,300 connections in my Friends' List in CouchSurfing. (2013)

Witness the signing of the Kyoto Protocol and scoop all news agencies in getting the Annex A percentage reductions in greenhouse gases. (1997)

Travel to Birobidzhan, capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region in the Russian Far East. (2007)

Take a train from Beijing through Harbin and the Chinese border city of Heihe and on a hovercraft over the frozen Heilongjiang or Amur River to go visit a friend in Blagoveshchensk on her birthday on Christmas Eve 2010. (2010)

Join a bloodless peaceful revolt to topple a dictator. (1986)

Catch an average of one sprat every seven minutes -24 in three hours of fishing- in the Black Sea. (2004)

Spend back-to-back nights in one of the oldest Palestinian refugee camps, Dheishe, as well as one of the most successful remaining kibbutzim, Kibbutz Yir'on, to get a fuller picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from within. (2007)

Witness the signing of the historic PH-MILF Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro at Rizal Hall of Malacañan Palace. (2012)

Went cross-country skiing at Losiny Ostrov National Park and then, not having any time to go home and change, went to see an opera at Moscow's prestigious Bolshoi Theatre garbed in red ski wear. (2004)

Interview Miyazaki Hayao, the world's greatest anime master. (1997)

Go ice-hole swimming during Epiphany (Kreshchenie) in the Moscow Region. (2008)

Cover the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano as a reporter. (1998)

Stand astride with feet on both banks of the Volga at the river's source in Volgaverkhnye village in the Valdai Hills. (2006)

Snowboard in the Arctic Circle. (2005, 2008)

Pilot a riverboat on the Shannon River. (2002)

Serve as guide to Akutagawa Prize laureate Henmi Yo （辺見庸）in pursuing the historical trail of a cannibalistic Japanese postwar unit in northern Mindanao, which made up Chapter 6 “The Tragedy of Food in Mindanao Island” 「ミンダナオ島の食の 悲劇」 in his 16th Kodansha Non-Fiction Prize winning work, “People Who Eat”（もの食う人々）. (1992)

Curate and/or host 51 film-screening sessions at my apartment in Moscow from July 2008 until December 2009 under the rubric "World Cinema Club", which had an average attendance of 30 people. (2008-2009)

Get sloshed before the bulls run in Pamplona. (2002)

Go on a wine road trip and degustation to Bordeaux and Alsace (France), Crimea (Ukraine), Kvareli and Tsinandali (Georgia), Upper Galilee and Golan Heights (Israel), Kuban (Russia), Pfalz (Germany) and Breshtovitsa (Bulgaria). (2002-2009)

Survive a snowstorm in Kazbegi in early winter and get back to Tbilisi in time for my train back to Baku. (2006)

Swam alongside a whale shark in Donsol, Sorsogon in eastern Philippines, and saw right whales in Mirissa, Sri Lanka. (2010, 2014)

Ride a local train for six hours return between Rome & Naples just to eat la vera pizza neapolitana at Trianon (Da Michele was being renovated). (2002)

Ate at the original Mongkok branch of dimsum specialists Tim Ho Wan, the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong. (2010)

Witness my first total solar eclipse at the Castles of the Mountain Spirits, near Bagatash Pass in the Iolgo Range of the Altai Mountains, 2,300m above sea level on 01 Aug 2008. (2008)

Take active part in the drafting of a common public statement against the excess of an incompetent regime in the face of widespread protests and come close to getting fired for it. (2001)

Visited tea plantations in Japan (Uji, 1996); Indonesia (Bogor, 2001); China (Longjing, 2011); Taiwan (Maokong, 2012); Korea (Boseong, 2013; Sulloc, 2014); and Sri Lanka (Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Haputale, 2013).

Visited the controversial South Korean island of Dokdo (which Japan calls Takeshima in its claim) on a summer trip in 2013 to Ulleungdo, which I've also visited in winter 2016.

Okay, that's more than one. This is as much as for me to remember as for you to know. :-P

Учу, учусь, делюсь опытом и информацией

TEACH - Do a Noam Chomsky & tell you about my inchoate theories on language-learning mixed with the state of the world.

LEARN - Humility, patience, respect, understanding & sincerity. On a more practical level I'd like to know more about automotive mechanics, especially how to fix car engines.

SHARE - I wish to share a passage from the visionary work Jihad vs McWorld penned by Prof. Benjamin R. Barber in 1996 that refers to the perils of globalization (of which CS is both a beneficiary & active agent) and the ways each of us should respond. It must be remembered that Jihad here refers not to Islam but to "forces of disintegral tribalism and reactionary fundamentalism"; nor does McWorld refer to America but rather to the "forces of integrative modernization and aggressive economic and cultural globalization."

Only the globalization of civic and democratic institutions is likely to offer a way out of the global war between modernity and its aggrieved critics, for democracy responds both to Jihad and to McWorld. It responds directly to the resentments and spiritual unease of those for whom the trivialization and homogenization of values is an affront to cultural diversity and spiritual and moral seriousness. But it also answers the complaints of those mired in poverty and despair as a consequence of unregulated global markets and of a capitalism run wild because it has been uprooted from the humanizing constraints of the democratic nation-state. By extending the compass of democracy to the global market sector, civic globalization can promise opportunities for accountability, participation, and governance to those wishing to join the modern world and take advantage of its economic blessings; by securing cultural diversity and a place for worship and faith insulated from the shallow orthodoxies of McWorld's cultural monism, it can address the anxieties of those who fear secularist materialism and are fiercely committed to preserving their cultural and religious distinctiveness. The outcome of the cruel battle between Jihad and McWorld will depend on the capacity of the moderns to make the world safe for women and men in the search of both justice and faith, and can be won only if democracy is the victor.

Чем я могу поделиться с хостами

Food culture of the many countries I've lived in.

Где я побывал(-а)

Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, China, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, England, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guernsey, Guinea, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Wales, Åland Islands

Где я жил(-а)

China, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Nigeria, Philippines, Russian Federation, South Korea, Spain

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