Once upon a time the idea of letting a
complete stranger into your home was uncanny. Let alone letting a complete
stranger into your home, sleep on your couch, have a beer with you and sit down
at the dinner table with you exchanging stories of foreign places and teaching
each other different languages.
Couchsurfing began in 1999 when a traveler
named Casey Fenton was traveling to Iceland and needed a place to stay. He
emailed 1,500 students in Reykjavik asking for a place to crash--even on
someone's couch. The result of this was a network of friends who offered to
show Casey what it was like to ‘live like the locals’ and immerse him in the
Reykjavik culture. Couchsurfing has now grown into a worldwide network of over
five million like-minded adventurous travelers and continues to grow.
The Couchsurfing website, as with any other
social networks, allows members to create events and meet-ups and connect with
people from around the world. It allows surfers and hosts to create profiles,
friend others, join groups and list references in order to leave an online
trail of integrity. Every month the hosts and surfers create a local social
event to meet and greet the people that could potentially be hosting their
homes to these adventurous, worldly strangers. I was lucky enough to recently attend
one of these events in my hometown of Sydney.
I walked up the stairs of one of Sydney’s
famous local pubs and headed to the rooftop terrace. I bypassed a sign
‘Reserved for Couch Surfers’ thinking “Now there’s something you don’t see
every day”. As I got closer to the roof I could hear the profusion of voices and
the affluence of different accents from all over the world. In my first 5
minutes I meet a Graphic Designer from California, a builder from Edinburgh and
an Accountant from Columbia.
We share tales of life abroad, strange and
exotic destinations, dreams and aspirations and the challenges and perks of
becoming an expat. In one night my imagination is captivated by wanderlust, my
network of friends expands from national to international and we are already
busy planning the next gathering which entails visiting parts of my own city
that I cease to acknowledge due to the fact they have become too familiar to
me.
The idea of Couchsurfing is not only to
help people find a place to stay but rather to create a community of friends
and networks which can come in handy for when you are visiting a foreign
country. Those who have traveled know the uncertainty of visiting a new and
foreign place, especially when you’re going alone. It certainly has its
challenges and it is communities like these that allow us to use the resources
available to us to connect with one another. The Internet is a tool for social change and
connection and I think that the Couchsurfing community is a prime example of
this.
Whether you are looking to get outside the
walls of commonality and travel abroad, learn another language, immerse
yourself in new culture or just looking to expend your network of friends then
take advantage of some of the many tools available in order to do so.
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