couchsurfing.com

the cozy accommodations we offer

Lately I have been really energized, really excited about life.  And I don’t owe that feeling to eating healthy, getting exercise, or anything like that… I owe it to couchsurfing.com, possibly the greatest networking website ever created.

Back in 2007 my boyfriend up and quit his job to go backpacking through Europe with a friend of his, and it has been the greatest experience of his life.  Not for the places he went, but for the people he met.  Those people, in many different countries, offered them a place to sleep in their homes or offered to show them around their hometowns.  Those people weren’t being monetarily compensated, there is no cost to join the site, everything is free.  People join and help others simply because they want to meet all walks of life.  When you’re not out travelling the world, there’s no reason you can’t bring the world to you.

Fast forward to now.  Since the day my boyfriend and I moved in together we have talked here and there about getting involved in the community again, offering up our place as a way to repay the generosity he received while travelling.  But we live in a studio apartment that is a little cramped with just the two of us so we decided to wait until we moved into a bigger place.  Until last week when he said, “You know, maybe we should just do it now.  Who cares if our place is small?  Couchsurfers won’t.” I readily agreed and we got to work changing “his” profile to “our” profile.  (I added a link to our profile under the “About Me” section in the sidebar.)

It didn’t take long for us to start getting hits and tonight we are hosting our first surfers!  Two guys from North Carolina here to watch a bike race.  We have also had a request from a guy and girl in Norway for this April.  Oh, and the community also has an “Events” section and there are always happenings all over the world.  On Sunday we are signed up to go on a hike where everyone brings wine and cheese to share with the group! 

I feel like I have a new zest for life.  I wake up each monring excited about what country may have contacted us and about the great people we are going to meet.  Because honestly, you’ve never known a better group of strangers than the CS.com community.  If you’re a traveler at heart, I encourage you to check it out.  You don’t have to have a couch availble to be involved, just offering to meet for coffee is an option too.  They are expecting their ONE MILLIONTH member this March.  It could be you!