CouchSurfing - ways to get involved
 

Hey guys, just thought I'd put up my experiences with CouchSurfing so far. I never got it to work out when I was in Europe, and I just moved into my apartment, so I haven't been able to host yet. The easiest way to get involved with and motivated to contribute to this wonderful community is by going to CouchSurfing events in your city.

Last month, I saw that they were having a Nashville potluck where you brought something to eat and met some fellow CouchSurfers. This was an awesome time for me, especially since I did not know a lot of people around the city yet. I ended up talking music with one guy, and we have gone to a couple shows around town. Today, I went to my second potluck and met even more great people. There are so many great people that participate in CouchSurfing whether it's hosting, surfing, or just meeting up for drinks, and I am excited that I will be able to start hosting in another week.

So if you're thinking about getting involved with CouchSurfing, but you don't quite know how to get started, I highly recommend getting together with other CouchSurfers in the area. Not only will it motivate you to start hosting as soon as possible, but you also get to meet some awesome people in your city that you may never have met.

Anyways, I'm off to try to do some work before meeting back up with some CSers to knock back a few pints! :cheers: Anyone else have great CouchSurfing experiences? Stories?

Great to hear you're having some awesome experiences! If your city has no activity you can always try to start up some activity. Wilmington CS has no activity and I should prob follow my own advice, but between work and school I'm just too busy.

I've had some great experiences overseas, with meetings and being hosted. The Moscow group is insanely active. They have two meetings a week or more. There and other places you can meet people who are best friends and they met thru CS.

One of my fav CS experiences was in Athens. I stayed with this girl Sarah. She lived in this student complex that had housed the 2004 Olympic athletes. So the first night I was there she had a party and all the Greeks were so happy and jubilant. They just danced in this carefree silly way. So unlike the serious slavs (just had spent a month in Ukraine). It really left a big impression of Greece on me.

That's great! I was actually hanging out with a couch-surfing couple today, who are staying at a friend's house. They were super nice and I'm planning on getting into it! Currently we have 4 people in a two bedroom house, and one bathroom, :unsure: but once a few roommate changes are made we will can definitely host. I think it's a fabulous idea and hope more people get into it as a normal and efficient way to travel and hang with the locals.

how do you find out if theres an event going on? i live in london so theres 100p[ercent something happening, i only joined last week and havent quite figured out the website as of yet...

^^It depends on the city, but I joined the "Nashville" group on couch surfing, and noticed them posting about a pot luck that they have every 3rd Sunday. I think we're trying to get more regular things set up as well.

I've been to a Nashville potluck. It was great times. I won't be able to be fully active in the Nashville group in the next few months because I have a job that will have me out of town quite often, but after that, I look forward to it. Perhaps our paths will cross, offhegoes!

I was just at a couchsurfing picnic on Saturday. The turnout by the locals was as disappointing as always, it usually tends to be foreigners who arange and attend all the meetings.

Yeah, it was a fun time.

xanthuos, that's awesome, maybe we know some of the same people. Like I said, I've only been to two so far, but I'm going to try to make every potluck that I can. We're trying to do more frequent meetups too, so PM me if you're ever interested.

MeTurk, yeah, apparently just recently have Nashville potlucks gotten bigger. There's this guy from California who went all over the States setting up potlucks in different cities. I guess sometimes people get too busy with life to set aside time for these types of meetups. The thought process behind having a potluck every 3rd Sunday was having a set day when everybody could come together. I actually was looking forward to this meetup for the last week because I knew the 3rd Sunday in September was coming.

I really need to start hosting though. I've been busy this month, but I don't always want to have excuses, so I'm planning on updating my page that my couch is available after next week (I'm going out of town for my HS reunion this coming up weekend, otherwise I'd do it sooner).

I think Galway people are just lazy.

cant seem to find a london one...then agasin the london group seems to be full of single messages and no one big one telling of a regular meetup...

I've surfed through Germany, the Netherlands and in Delhi and have only had ridiculously good times with the people I met. I also participated in several meetups in Florence (look under the "events" page for the group to see what's going on in the area!) and had good times there...will be swinging by a Portland meetup if possible two weekends from now...need to get off campus and explore!

I've definitely also had a couple of CS-related extra-fun times, if you know what I mean...heh heh heh.... ;)

I have hosted and surfed both. CSing in Austria made my trip. I can't say that I had a lot of luck finding a place in Europe though. I have hosted several times in Lubbock and have had a few "misses" in Austin. I think that it is an awesome way to travel and meet people.

Hwei- Extra fun times huh! You are welcome to surf on my couch anytime:cheers: ;)

GET INVOLVED

Haha...in light of all this, I think we should post our CS profile names so we can add each other to our friends lists, woop woop.

I am...freespiritz on CS, surprise surprise. :p

and cheers to extra-fun times, both past and to come! :cheers:

yeah, I'm on CS under the same name as here. I hope to have some awesome CS stories someday soon!

i think thats what i fear the most - someone coming on to me :unsure: im dead weird when people like me and direct their sexual energy towards me, and fi i was in someones house and they did it...:o

also people say im very 'freindly' and tactile, and im so damn relaxed that half the time i dont notice someones coming on to me until the only way out is to be very fucking blunt :lol:

My profile name is Justin Barnhouse.

I'm belfastflyer on there, still haven't done much with my profile though.. I'm real lazy when it comes to these things :D

We're getting our first couchsurfer this weekend! Exciting! I got our house's profile up, and we've gotten so many requests just for this week! Our profile name is Julia and Company (Ashland, Oregon USA) if ya'll want a friend :)

I just checked my profile on CS and realised that I lied. My profile name is Diglet. oops :o

I am Jay Farrar on CS I just signed up and have a fw promising leads for places to stay with people that seem reallyreally cool. I hope it works out well in the end... UNITE I SAY!!!


:cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers: