CURRENT MISSION

Life is too short to wait for tomorrow! Find your bliss - follow it! Live with passion and purpose!

ABOUT ME

How can one put oneself in a little box? If Ogres are like onions, I am like a Rubik’s cube.

Life fascinates me and so do people. I am a little bit of a loner, analytical, observant, intuitive, sure of who I am and what I stand for. Ethics and integrity is extremely important to me. Being a counsellor (MBTI) I believe that humans are capable of greatness. My future (and yours) is a combination of destiny and choice and maybe my contribution to my world can help someone reach that greatness.

I love Suzanne White's combination of my eastern and western Zodiac and I can associate with her assessment of the Gemini/Rat. I am curious beyond description and, legend has it, will interrupt myself if someone else's story is more interesting. I'm the third of 6 children so know how to fend for myself, share, never take anything for granted, not be fussy and always thankful. I also know how to find that place inside where peace exists.

I love being a woman and am no feminist – flirting is much more fun than fighting – besides – I need all the support I can get! I'm gracious, courteous and above all considerate. I am a loyal and trustworthy friend. I invest in relationships and life in general.

I was born blonde but wear my hair red out of choice as I reckon it suits the personality best (no - not what you're thinking). I was born an old soul, am a bit melancholy and often hear that I am wise… Although I am very accommodating I can be assertive but never, ever bitchy.

I read voraciously and know something about everything, my interests are varied and I always have an idea I'm working on. I have a very structured, responsible and stressful job and therefore am very creative in other areas. I am no adrenalin junkie or sport fan but need to engage my mind.

I hate any kind of waste… even time, words and sentiment, therefore I am sometimes seen as rude and abrupt especially as my sense of humour is wry/witty/sarcastic. Generally I believe things should ad value, otherwise - why bother? If I didn’t have a personal philosophy yet it would have been “live deliberately”

I am a million things more but the fun is in the knowing me.

PHILOSOPHY

Best said by John Hibben (President of Princeton University) in his Graduation Address to the Class of 1913

You, enligtened, self-sufficient, self-governed, endowed with gifts above your fellows, the world expects you to produce as well as to consume, to add to and not to subtract from its store of good, to build up and not to tear down, to ennoble and not degrade.... The time is short, the opportunity is great; therefore, crowd the hours with the best that is in you.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

CS has changed my life and I have been astounded by the kindness and generosity of people. I have received blessing after blessing and I will never, ever be able to pay it forward sufficiently.

I have an open and welcoming home and host much more than I surf. I love my country and try to make this a memorable experience for everyone who live or work or travel in or through her. Whether they surf my couch or not, I will try and make the time they spend in our local community special and interesting.

I care deeply about the well-being and safety of people, whether they host or surf or travel and to help make this project as safe as possible I serve on the Member Dispute & Safety Team. I hope every day that people will use references as the amazing tool it is.

I was a CouchSurfing Ambassador for 3 years. During this time I have worked with some amazing people and will always keep on doing the best I can by everyone in this community - if you have experienced the difference CS makes, how can you not?

I will add people to my friends list if we have met in real life and we have had a conversation beyond a simple introduction. I surf, host and spend time with new members as much as possible. I always try and involve them in the community amd help to get them "on the map". Thus I would also try to get to a point where I am comfortable writing a reference.

For me the purpose of a reference is for the community to get some idea of how they may interact with you and it is definitely not a sentence that says "he or she is nice". If I cannot say anything of value, I will not write a reference. I do contantly update my friend links as I get to know people better and have more (or less) interaction with them.

I will most probably not change the world, but I know for sure that I can impact positively on my world!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am an active host in the local community and, even when you don't surf my couch, would still try to make your time in our community memorable and have hosted numerable people who never even made it to my couch :P

The first time I officialy CouchSurfed was in India Oct/Nov 2007. My hosts has been amazing and I decided that I never, ever want to travel any other way again.

In Sep/Oct 2009 I travelled to Chile and Peru and, as with the India trip, was again overwhelmed by my hosts and their families. It was the second time that I came home calling my CS hosts' families my family and their friends my friends.

During November 2009 I was in the US and it was the first trip where I slept on someone's couch every single night.

The more I am involved in this project the more I love it and I hope you do too :)

Interests

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. - Albert Einstein

Some things I can't live without:
I have a deep seated faith in God
Music makes my world go round and I always have some handy (even if it means I need to sing)
I cannot live without the written word and always have a book on hand - I sometimes read several simultaneously
I have 4 cameras and rightly call them my babies. I become a different person with a camera in hand

A couple of things facinate me:
How we can kill our own planet without blinking
Philosophy and pondering our reasons for existance
What makes us tick? Sociology is a pet interest
I love history and anything with a story attached

I love:
My friends mean the world to me
Entertaining - there is nothing like good laughter, a good red and good conversation
Trains & Trams
Waterfalls are restless and tranquil at the same time
The peacefulness of forests
The absolute silence of snow

• pets
• writing
• books
• singing
• ethics
• traveling
• investing
• music
• hiking
• camping
• sports
• boxing
• history
• sociology
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Top movies:
Babel (Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu)
Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott)
Casualties of War (Brian De Palma)
Como Agua para Chocolate (Alfonso Arau)
Crash (Paul Haggis)
Elizabeth (Shekhar Kapur)
Fair Game (Doug Liman)
Freedom Writers (Richard LaGravenese)
Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney)
Hard Candy (David Slade)
Kama Sutra (Mira Nair)
Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott)
Liam (Stephen Frears)
Life as a House (Irwin Winkler)
Los Amantes del Circulo Polar (Julio Medem)
Love and Human Remains (Denys Archand)
Memento (Christopher Nolan)
Swades (Ashutosh Gowariker)
The Other Boleyn Girl (Justin Chadwick)
Tsotsi (Gavin Hood)

Best books:
Out of God's Oven (Dom Moraes & Sarayu Srivatsa)
7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (Sean Covey)
Red Earth and Pouring Rain (Vikram Chandra)
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (Tad Williams)
Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton)
Think on These Things (John Maxwell)
The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
Passions of the Mind (Irving Stone)
Purpose Driven Life (Rick Warren)
The River Midnight (Lilian Natel)
Fugitive Pieces (Anne Michaels)
Lords of the Sky (Angus Wells)
Die Rentmeesters (F A Venter)
East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
Sarum (Edward Rutherford)
Dis ek Anna (Elbie Lotter)

I love music and listens to all kinds from opera to progressive house and even have some industrial although my favourite genre is definitely esoteric/world music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Drumming in Africa - about 200 of us drumming together... the heartbeat of Africa taking us where it wills...

We were on a hike in the Drankensberg when a hut at a adjacent camp cought fire and set the whole mountain alight in a matter of minutes. It humbles you to see us humans, sometimes, only standing by, watching nature taking its course.

Teach, Learn, Share

Unknown Traveller

I thought of you today
Travelling across the oceans blue
Imagining the sights you see
Breathing in the scent of secrets

Fingers gliding over unknown textures

I see your footprints in the city streets
Lost among a million more
I see your footprints on the mountains
Blown away by winds
I see your footprints in the sand
Victims of the time and tide

Who whispers in your ear?
Seducing you to far off places

I thought of you today
And I stepped lightly
Caressing the earth with my toes

For somewhere – unbeknownst to us
Where you have stepped
I too will tread

I thought of you today…

RianaH 2007

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, South Africa

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