CURRENT MISSION

Summer break!

ABOUT ME

I love travelling, preferably to Latin America. By now I do speak enough Spanish to get along, but I still need to learn how to dance Salsa in order to survive there for a longer period of time ;-)
I like to listen to music, and to play or sing myself, I prefer cats to dogs and just recently got two cute little kittens. Unfortunately I'm a little bit allergic, but as long as they don't enter my bedroom, I can manage. A year ago I took care of several baby squirrels until they were old enough to be set free again. I'm a militant non-smoker, prefer watching movies in the original version, if I understand the language, sometimes I like to be surprised by going to sneak previews. I'm not doing enough sports, but would like to change that. At least the sports I do/did include somewhat fancy things like scuba diving, formation ballroom dance and studying for a private pilot license. And, yes, I'm a computer freak and proud of it ;-)

PHILOSOPHY

Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it everyday!

If your life would change if there were a God, you've already decided for yourself: You need a God.

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. Once you can fake that, you have it made.

You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.

It is impossible for anyone to learn that which he thinks he already knows.

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

At the moment I mostly host, enjoying to get to know people from all over the world and learning about their countries and cultures without having to pay for the flights myself :-)
I like showing guests around, giving them tips on what to see and do and talking with them about travel experiences.
But whenever I find the time and money, I try to go someplace new, maybe visiting some of the surfers that stayed with me, or finding new CS friends.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've surfed couches of friends of friends many times, and now with couchsurfing (sleeping on couches of friends that I had not known the day before) my way of travelling is changing, coz I can go to places where I don't know anyone yet! So far all my couchsurfing visits were great, I met really interesting and likeable people. I'm hoping to be able to go on a lot of other trips and surf much much more.
My hosts and guides so far:
2 nights in fall 2007: Vasilis, Santorini, Greece
coffee in fall 2007: Eirini, Tinos, Greece
2 nights in summer 2008: Setta and Bjarni, Reykjavik, Iceland
dinner in summer 2009: Jessica, Long Island, NY, USA
2 nights in summer 2009: Monica, Tarragona, Spain
1 night in summer 2009: Gabriel, Barcelona, Spain
4 nights in fall 2009: Julia and Andrea, Aachen, Germany
2 nights in fall 2009: Eirini, Sursee, Switzerland
3 nights in winter 2010/11: Mario, Barcelona, Spain
1 night in winter 2010/11: Luis Carlos, Barcelona, Spain
In Munich I've already had quite a few Couchsurfers visiting me, and I always enjoyed it. If you're coming to Munich, I advise you to stay more than one night. There's much to see and do here, and if you're only going to do the one-day tourist program, I won't join you, because I've done that often enough :-)
visited 36 states (14%)

Interests

travelling (obviously), computer, internet, web programming, playing the trombone (and a little bit piano & guitar), singing, composing, hiking (mountains), scuba diving, dancing (standard & Latin), cycling, swimming

• cats
• singing
• dancing
• education
• movies
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• scuba diving
• sailing
• swimming
• teaching
• mathematics
• physics
• science
• mountains
• science fiction
• star trek
• climate change
• trombone
• web development
• teacher
• renewable energy
• science and technology
• squirrels
• fridaysforfuture

Music, Movies, and Books

books:
Terry Pratchett: Discworld series and everything else;
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy in 5 parts;
Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials trilogy & others;
Trudi Canavan: Black Magician series & Age of the Five trilogy;
Robin Hobb: Assassin/Liveship/Fool series;
Patricia Briggs: Werewolve/vampire series;
Jasper Fforde: Thursday Next series and others;
Bill Bryson: A short history about everything;
Benjamin Kunkel: Indecision;
Oliver Hassencamp: Burg Schreckenstein series;
Michael Ende: Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer, Die Unendliche Geschichte and others;
Enid Blyton: The Mystery of... series;
Josephine Siebe: Kasperle series;
Donald Duck comics;
Lonely Planet guide books

music:
Pop, Charts, Dance, A Capella
bands/artists:
Wise Guys, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Jarabe de Palo, Ace of Base, Roxette, Beatles, Weird Al Yankovic, They Might Be Giants, Die Ärzte, Mika, Lily Allen, Amy MacDonald, Natalie Imbruglia, Pet Shop Boys, Outkast, Pharao, Calle 13, Mike Oldfield... some of them for just one or two (really good) songs...

movies:
Matrix, Cruel Intentions, Pirates of the Carribean, 13th Floor, Conspiracy Theory, The Trouble with Harry, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Very Bad Things, Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels, Snatch - Pigs and Diamonds, Hot Fuzz, Inglorious Basterds (generally movies in the spirit of Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, Woody Allen, Edgar Wright), Speed, Star Trek 8 - First Contact, What Women Want, Der Untergang, Shrek, Im Juli, As Good as it Gets

TV series:
How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, Chuck, Coupling, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Star Trek TNG-DS9-VOY-ENT, Terminator SCC, True Blood, Dollhouse, Monk, The IT Crowd, FlashForward

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Nursing several cute squirrel babies, which fell out of their nests. I make a good squirrel mum, just ask them ;-)

Taking a scuba diving class on the island Roatan, Honduras, at the world's second biggest coral reef.

And travelling there on my own by bus from Costa Rica without speaking a word of Spanish :-)

Swimming in frickin' cold water next to icebergs in Greenland. Ok, it was only for 10 secs to take a picture, but still...

Visiting the Galapagos islands, and almost drowning on a dive there.

Getting my luggage stolen out of the car in Prague.

Selling my car for $25 after it broke down on a trip from Boston to the Niagara falls, because repair would have been to expensive and time consuming, since I was about to leave the US. The gas in the tank was worth more than $25...

Teach, Learn, Share

If you ask me about the topic of my Ph.D. thesis that in theory I'm still working on, be prepared for a lengthy lecture about human induced climate change :-) Most people so far found it interesting though and kept on asking...

However, since September 2010 I'm a teacher for Maths and Physics at a secondary school (Gymnasium, a combination of high school and college, for those that are not familiar with the German school system). So I definitely can teach you these two subjects, but I doubt that you'd come all the way to Munich to hear about the refraction of light or the product rule of derivatives...

Instead I can tell you a little bit about German history and about the sights in Munich that are worth seeing.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bermuda, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Romania, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States

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