Peter Duchemin's Photo

Verified Profile

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

Not Accepting Guests

  • Last login almost 2 years ago

Join Couchsurfing to see Peter’s full profile.

Overview

  • 29 references 19 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English; learning Esperanto, French, Hebrew (modern), Italian, Latin, Russian
  • 47, Male
  • Member since 2012
  • Magician, Scholar
  • Life experience + lots of schooling in Humanities and gen...
  • From Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

Always Mission: to help other people feel good. Current Mission: Completing a thesis while living in Hong Kong... Playing magic, Wing Chun, Morris Dancing, and Unicycle Hockey!

ABOUT ME

Likes to have adventures, attracts magic, likes big words, is not horrible.

I would like to go to Sealand. It's not an option on this system, so I mention it here.

PHILOSOPHY
Our world is the illusion of an illusion. Our minds are the shadow projections of bodies in motion, under stress, negotiating pleasures and pains within a vast, inexhaustible abyss, in the company of strange others. The unlimited and the limited dance with one another, throwing off fractal streamers of complexity, swirling into negentropic vortexes that in chasing their own past, evolve into the future. Have fun, be kind, learn lots. Remain present.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I surf, sometimes alone, sometimes with my wife. We cannot host, as such but if you wish to visit Lantau, and I can, I would gladly show you some magic, or take you on a hike!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Traveled all around the world and Couchsurfed many many times, in the weirdest places... Had fantastic experiences. Made friends that I have come and visited for a second time. Network expands, network contracts... Breathe.

Interests

I like visiting ancient sites. I am a Phd candidate in philosophy, religious studies and sociology, and I do magic and circus shows on the side. I spend my time traveling and learning things. I never stop looking for knowledge. I am fascinated with the idea of polymathhood: universal method.

I like magic tricks, and can perform some.
I like chess, Chinese or Western. I am happy to play.
I know a little Tai Chi, Some Bagua, and Some Wing Chun.
I am fascinated with languages: each is a new world!
I love the study of where we are: Astronomy and Geography, Macro and Micro.

I am a GLBT, and Feminist Ally.

  • arts
  • books
  • literature
  • dancing
  • environment
  • running
  • meditation
  • gardening
  • chess
  • traveling
  • juggling
  • magic
  • martial arts
  • astronomy
  • geography
  • history
  • languages
  • mathematics
  • physics

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:Shpongle, GSYBE!, John Zorn, David Bowie, Beethoven, The Cardiacs, Lajko Felix.
Novels:ANATHEM, Dune, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, Left Hand of Darkness,The Incal, Little Big,The End of Mr Y, Embassytown, City and the City, The Windup Girl, Illuminatus!, The Magus,...
Other Books: A Thousand Plateaus, The Art of Memory, Spell of the Sensuous, Dimensions of Apeiron, Deep Time of the Media, What is Philosophy?, The Five Senses, The Troubadour of Knowledge, Logic and the Art of Memory...
Movies: Holy Mountain, The Wicker Man (original), Waking Life, Tron, Mad Max: Fury Road. Cabin in the Woods...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

(My running list)

Hitchhiked across Canada once, and ended up preventing a catastrophe. Ask me if you meet me.
Went to a dawn ceremony on Alcatraz island, where there were Aztecs.
Walked through a waterfall in Ghana.
Drank a potion made of snakes.
Consulted a Bokor of the Ifa.
Saw a Longboat Burn at Up Helly Aa in Shetland.
Ate the fermented shark (and Ram's testicles) in Reykyavik.
Walked across the Dartmoor, and part-way across the Exmoor.
Visited several ancient and sacred trees: the Major Oak in Sherwood, The Yew at fortingall, A Cork tree in Sardegna, and the Stump of the Golden Spruce in Haida Gwaii.
Crawled through the Men-An-Tol.
Danced in stonehenge on the Summer Solstice.
Discussed Philosophy and Literature with a Russian soldier on the train from Irkutsk.
Climbed up a mountain to a Castle in Sardinia
Played Church-bells over a rose-garden that I had planted in a churchyard on a sacred Island in Siberia during a Venus transit (an astronomical event that will not be seen for another hundred years).
Went from Land's end (Cornwall) to Land's End (Muckle Flugga), in a summer.
Climbed Schiehelion on a bright and lovely day.
Completed my first circle around the world (with minimal planes), on Sept 1st, 2012.
Flew the Fairy Flag.
Met a great big bug on my 40th, atop Sunset peak, Lantau, Hong Kong.
Built a Brick Pizza Over.
Juggled in Philo T Pharnsworth's driveway.
Danced Morris on May Day in Hong Kong (on my 40th)
Saw things one way, did a PhD, saw them another way.

Teach, Learn, Share

I know some of the history of philosophy and magic. I can juggle, ride a unicycle, and do magic tricks with cards and other things. I am not a specialist, but a player of many different plays . I designed several of my own calendars. I practice some Kung Fu also. I am interested in learning anything from martial arts to magic tricks to math and physics, and laguages. Also organic farming, gardening, mushroom-cultivation, and fermentation of different sorts: kombucha, wine, beer, mead. I am a learner, but can share some of what I've learned. I used to raise ducks.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can show you magic tricks, tell you stories, and have deep conversations. I am not so good at "small talk", and am not a party animal. I value friendships, and hope for lasting ones, to span the world.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russian Federation, Scotland, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Hong Kong

Old School Badges

  • 5 Vouches

Join Couchsurfing to see Peter’s full profile.