I made it back! It was a relatively smooth trip back, and as always, it feels great to be at home with the family. I spent the night last night in Amsterdam with a fellow couchsurfer who treated me to a relaxed and comfortable stay. I just hope I remembered to turn her toaster off...can't remember...
after sleeping in and seeing the sun for the first time in two months, i flew over the Atlantic and made a tight connection to arrive in Sioux Falls to see my mom, brother John, and sister Andrea all waiting. We had a great time eating Mexican food and catching up. Should be a lot of eating and catching up in the coming weeks. So fun!
So now, I've almost made it to midnight. Time to go to bed and try to find this so-called Central Time Zone. I'll believe it when I see it...or feel it.
God Jul from South Dakota.
Labels: couchsurfing, south dakota, travel
The past three days a 37 year old Australian has been sleeping on my couch. Noel, better known as "the couch guy" in our house, has been traveling for seven months, from Singapore to Tromsø. He found me thanks to the greatest tool for travel since AAA: couchsurfing! It is an amazingly simple concept that makes me think of the rules of Greek hospitality I learned in Paideia. Basically, you create a profile on couchsurfing.com. Then, if you travel somewhere you look online to see what couchsurfers live there, and they let you stay for free on their couch, and often take you out, show you a local view of the city, and introduce you to fascinating people...like Noel, who worked in the mines of Australia for two years to get money to travel. Now he is traveling Norway for almost nothing. Plus, thanks to my housemate Jostein, Noel is looking into getting work unloading fishing boats. What a world. So pack up your bags and open up your couch. You never know who you will meet, but if the experience of thousands of people on couchsurfing is any indicator, it will be an adventure!
Labels: couchsurfing, noel
