CURRENT MISSION

Impossible

ABOUT ME
* Note: profile is maintained and written by Al *

Whenever there is a party where formal seatings are arranged, my friends purposefully put me with people who don't know other people at the party. Why? Because they know I will be keeping them entertained and engaged in conversations the entire time. In all honesty, I really can and do talk to strangers for hours. I'm very eager to learn and eager to share so I enjoy a good conversation on just about any topic.

I've lived in or visited over 60 countries, the majority together with Kasia. I was "couch surfing" before couch surfing was cool and well before the CS website started :). That's how I met Kasia in Poland in 2001, at an AIESEC meeting. We have been married since October 2002. I'm in my early 40s and Kasia is in her late 30s, but we feel and do as if we are a lot younger than our age. We enjoy good local food places, dancing, music, and anything that can give us more of a feel of local living rather than touristy stuff.

On November 2012, we welcomed our first boy, Ryu Lucian to the world. On October 2014, we welcomed our 2nd, Neo Ronin. Both are beautiful and amazing kids. Ryu has been to 21 countries, including the Galapagos and Japan. 10 of those were before he turned 3! Neo has been to 17, including Vietnam and Colombia.

We love to meet new people and make new friends around the world. If you are planning on coming to Philadelphia, please get in touch. We may not be able to host, depending on our schedule and situation at any given time, but will do our best to come out and show you our city. Having been here for almost our entire adult lives, we know the city and what it has to offer very well. We love Philadelphia and we love to share it with you.

About Ryu & Neo: We will be traveling with both kids, Philly's youngest CS members. While we understand that potential hosts can be a little put off by young kids, we want to stress that both kids are absolutely wonderful little boys. They are usually very happy all the time and don't cry unless something is really wrong. They both sleep through the night from 8PM to 7AM and can sleep pretty much anywhere. When we travel, they in the same bed with us if the bed is big enough or one of us so he does not require any special arrangement.

PHILOSOPHY

"In a controversy, the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth and have begun striving for ourselves." - misattributed to Siddhartha Gautama, but is a fantastic quote

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We didn't join CS to look for cheap places to stay as we can afford to travel and stay in hotels. We joined because we want to meet people and experience culture through local people. We are perfectly fine with simply providing a couch for our guests, but we too would like to share what Philadelphia has to offer through us. Likewise for when we are guests - we are highly independent, but would love to learn about your city from you.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I started traveling since 1995, but really got into it beginning 2000's. Back then, I used Yahoo! Profiles and contacted random people in the destination where I was planning on visiting. I met many people that way...and that was how I met Kasia. You can read about that story on luckycouple.com.

We have hosted visitors from the US, Sweden, Italy, Poland, and France. We also surfed in Greece, FYROM/Macedonia, Germany, and Switzerland.

Interests

BEER!!! I love beer. I tried different beers in every country I go to and usually is the first thing I get when I arrive. I'm a bit picky about them so I'm somewhat savvy about places in my city, Philadelphia, where they serve the best beers. I also enjoy wine, fine port (especially from Graham's), good gin (Tanqueray 10), good rum...all straight up.

Photography and firearms are our two major hobbies. We are both semi-professional photographers, mostly hobby, but do small paid gigs from time to time. Kasia and I are both NRA-certified home safety and pistol instructors and we teach people, especially women, how to be safe and operate firearms. We have taken many foreign visitors, including our couch surfing guests, out to the range and every single one came back with a HUGE smile on their face. This is one of the things that we would offer for visitors to experience if they are interested.

I'm aligned with Zen Buddhism and own the website zenguide.com. I'm also a big fan of John Waterhouse artworks. I've traveled to many places to his paintings in person. Kasia is a non-practicing Catholic, enjoys yoga whenever she's not occupied with the kids' activities and work, and a great cook (mostly Asian food).

Aside from those, we love watching sports. We watch almost every sport there is...yes, including bowling, curling, and NASCAR. We HUGE fans of the New Zealand All Blacks, Argentina soccer team, the Dallas Cowboys (yes, the Cowboys), Philadelphia Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers.

• culture
• photography
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• yoga
• partying
• traveling
• auto racing
• watching sports
• socializing
• music
• hunting
• sports
• soccer

Music, Movies, and Books

Way too many to list, but we have an extensive collection of DVDs/BRs from every genre, yes, including XXX :). A few "top off the head":
Oldboy
Imprint
Event Horizon
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade
Snatch
Matrix
LoTR
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We enjoy world fusion/eclectic music, especially with a Middle Eastern flavor but also some traditional good solid rock, like...
Idan Raichel Project
Tarkan
Cheb Khaled
Pink Martini
Metallica/STP/Clutch/Alice in Chains
Pretty much all classic rock and any good music from any genre, including country
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Kasia reads a lot and a variety of books. I'm a big fan of Kahlil Gibran, other than that, I don't really read unless something interests me at random. I prefer history over story, but my favorite book of all time is The Alchemist.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Saw sunrise from a hot air balloon over Valley of the Kings in Egypt
- Visited to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (West Bank, Palestine) on Christmas Eve
- Spent a night in a Bedouin tent and visited a Bedouin home on the same night in Jordan
- Spent 10 days in the Galapagos while Kasia was pregnant with Neo and Ryu was 18 months old.

Teach, Learn, Share

We invite all couch surfers, whether they stay with us or not, to the shooting range with us. It's a piece of Americana that you will unlikely to experience elsewhere. We will give you thorough safety & techniques lessons and you will get to try at least 4 different types of firearms. We guarantee a fun and educational experience. Don't believe us? Message our past guests and ask them.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Philippines, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

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