- What is Couchsurfing?
- What are the pros and cons of Couchsurfing?
- The reason why no one should couchsurf.
- The dangers of traveling alone.
Pre
Top Down
I spent about a week in Norway recently. On my first night, I stayed in a small cabin in the town of Neiden. I don’t actually know if you could call it a town. It probably only had eleven people living there.
We arrived in the late afternoon, stashed some beers in the fridge, ate some crab with the neighbor, and then headed over to the sauna for the night. After sweating out twelve gallons of sins and demons, I stumbled back to the cabin and passed out on one of the couches.
In the summer months, the cabin was rented out to tourists who come to catch fish and king crab from the nearby fiords. About a thousand bucks a night. But in the winter it was mostly empty. That’s how I ended up there. The owner needed a chef for his nearby hotel, so he hired a Finnish guy for the job, and put him up in the empty cabin for the winter.
That Finnish guy just happened to be my Couchsurfing host.
People often ask me how I always manage to have such “authentic” experiences while I’m traveling. I think what they mean by this is, how do I manage to get connected to locals so quickly and easily? While there are many ways, Couchsurfing is up there with the best of them. When you get involved in Couchsurfing, experiences like the one I’ve described above are not rare. You’ll find yourself staying in all sorts of interesting places, with interesting people, and having experiences you would never hope to find in a hostel or hotel. But to get the most out of the community, you need to understand how it works.
What is Couchsurfing?
Couchsurfing is a travel community. The concept goes like this:
When travelers go overseas they need places to stay. And there are many locals who have spare beds, floors and couches. Couchsurfing matches these two together.
“Hosts” will list their available spaces on the site. Travelers will then search through them and request to “surf” with hosts they think they’ll get along with. Alternatively, travelers can publish their travel plans, and hosts can offer to accommodate them.
No money ever changes hands. The exchange is done in the spirit of travelers helping other travelers. Some of you might find it odd that anyone would do this. Why would you offer a bed for free? Why go to so much trouble to accommodate someone and get nothing in return? Why not list it on Airbnb and make some money instead?
It’s pretty simple. Travelers know travelers. And we know how important it is to help each other out. Plus you get to meet some pretty cool people along the way.
Modified from source
Bottom Up
Example: The is about traveling. True
Post
Used to
The expression used to is used to talk about past habits or states. It refers to things that happened many times, but don’t happen any longer.
The expression used to can be used in the present tense to refer to current habits. Then it is preceded by the verb to be and followed by a gerund.
Passive Structures
The passive voice is used when the grammatical subject of a clause receives the action of the verb.
In some passive structures the verb expect can be used to express that people think someone should do something. Then we use be + past participle + to + infinitive.
It is also possible to use the verb suppose to refer to people who (don’t) have to do something according to laws, rules or common sense.
Furthermore, the verb force is used to indicate that someone does something because they have no choice.
Example: The best hotel I’ve stayed in located in…
Example: Mean it > Mean it as
Example: When I said I loved him I meant it as platonic love.
Example: very / Dave / to / criticism / doesn’t be / open / seem / to > Dave doesn’t seem to be very open to criticism.
Why you always take what he says for heart?
I mean what I say last night.
Euclides mean that he said as a serious statement, not a joke.
If things get loud, just walks away from the debate.
It’s hard to admit this, but I think you have valid point.
Why do you always take what he says to heart?
I meant what I said last night.
Euclides meant what he said as a serious statement, not a joke.
If things get loud, just walk away from the debate.
It’s hard to admit this, but I think you have a valid point.