Written by DIWYY guest writer, Madelyn Fitzpatrick, an avid fan of couch-surfing.
Point blank, traveling anywhere long distance is intimidating. Even with all the specific reading we do, we still get nervous before our destinations, and those who claim they don’t are either lying, or just plain inhuman! There’s nothing wrong with fearing the unknown, but there is something wrong if you never go after it.
Where am I going with this? Before 2007, I often complained about not having anyone as outgoing as I was about traveling. So I hit the web to start searching for travel partners and came across the concept of couch surfing. Turns out, I wouldn’t need a partner. With couch surfing, I could meet a local in any city, get a tour, and a roof over my head for one small fee; make your host coffee in the morning, maybe a meal in the evening, that is, if you know how. With couch surfing, there is no monetary fee.
CouchSurfing.com’s mission statement says it best: “CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it’s about making connections worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome that knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!” Today, there are over 237 unique countries represented (even in Antarctica) and more countries in the European region than anywhere else. Usually after a host has three guests, users can vouch for them. This secures the entire process and makes the website itself more credible. Users can then leave references and comments on the host, which are made public.
Granted, I have ended up on a random couch or two along my travels. I know that at times my feet take me, or don’t take me, to places because I’m exhausted from walking so many miles, but I never imagined something like this could be so legitimate. It made me ask, why didn’t you ever think of a forum like this? You never know where you’ll end up but, with couch surfing you do. I’m planning a trip to Greece in June. I’ve already shot a couple of e-mails to fellow surfers in Athens, where my first stop will be.
Age and gender varies. Just yesterday, I was looking over a 50 year old woman’s profile in the Netherlands who sounded just like me. ‘Curious.’ ‘Free.’ ‘Humorous’. There are over 38,000 people over the age of 50! You hold the reigns in who you choose. The site is also translated into various languages.
While living in Texas, this past summer, I decided to host two Canadians who wanted to check out the live music scene in and around Houston. I met them in a communal spot, we went for dinner, spoke of Montreal, and I ended the night with a few new French words under my belt. I was taken. Even better, when I head up their way, I have a place to stay with people I enjoy. The following month, I received an e-mail from a French girl from Cote d’Azur, France, who said she’d love if I could host her. After doing so, I was taken even more.
A few weeks before departing to London, I went for coffee with a man from Delhi, India, who had been working for the government for thirty years and “retired” to sail boats for a living, and couldn’t be happier. There’s a joie de vivre feeling you share with each person you meet. There’s something about delving into the lives of people from different cultures and ethnicities that’s an odd motivator of mine. I will blame it on my astrological sign. I am into everything; I like to know a little about everything. These people, and this organization, award me that.
The people I’ve met are so gregarious. They’re letting you sleep on the couch they’ll be sitting on long after you’ve left. We are different, but we are all the same; that’s what this project promotes. We all look for a little adventure, for ways of fighting the lethargic tendencies of everyday life, and we all enjoy telling stories. Not because we love to talk, but rather because we are excited about this opportunity. An opportunity that, in a world that’s creeping on 6.10 billion beings, only 1,771,262 people know about.
It’s changing the world, we are making it minuscule compared to what it was a century ago…even a decade ago. Summing it up, it’s like those days in which you run into someone, fortuitously, and in that person’s big smile or their chivalrous hand holding the door open for you, there is something that suddenly perks your day tenfold.
Couch surfing is like that, although it’s guaranteed to happen, and I encourage everyone to join in the waves.
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