Got couch?

So City News Toronto did a short segment on Couch Surfing which went to air yesterday. By “couch surfing” I’m not referring to the sit on your couch and surf the TV channels variety, I’m actually speaking of an online project with the following mission statement… Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time.

Furthermore,

CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding.

View the City News segment video here.

Now whilst this was good exposure for the CouchSurfing project, I did feel the focus was misguided. So I sent CityNews some feedback:

Hi There, I just wanted to give some feedback on the couch surfing piece. I think the exposure was good, and hopefully it will introduce some more people to the website and concept (and maybe a few more members will result out of it) however I felt that the focus was too much on cost saving and there was very little mentioned about the spirit, objective and mission for the project.

What viewers may not realise from the segment is that the entire project is based on volunteer work, and people sharing their couches and hearts not for financial gain or publicity, but for cross cultural understanding, breaking down pre-conceived notions/barriers, and building a better world.

More info on this can be found here: www.couchsurfing.com/mission.html

Hopefully there will be a future piece that focuses on the entire project and not just the “saving hundreds on your next vacation” side of it.

Cheers.

CouchSurfing really is a fantastic project and I have made some amazing friends (my “crazy CS crew”) here in Toronto as a result of my involvement in the project, both as a host (I’ve had someone from Germany, and others from various parts of Ontario come and surf my couch) as well as a participant in the various meetups and events organised by members of the TO CS community (myself included). The only thing I have yet to do is to actually surf someone’s couch, and if all goes to plan that will be happening this weekend in Ottawa :)

To those who have natural concerns about meeting and staying with (or hosting) strangers I will admit that I had reservations initially too. However once I met some surfers at a meetup one night a few months ago at The Madison Pub here in Toronto, my perspective changed and the fears disappeared. Then I hosted a lovely couple - Martin from Cologne, Germany and his girlfriend Nicole who is currently doing an internship in Newmarket, Ontario - and I found the experience to be wonderful. Nicole has since become a great friend, frequently visiting Toronto when she can (which has been the past three weekends!) and often sharing her love of British television and German pop culture with me. Yes, we even watched David Hasselhoff videos on youtube together!

In an interesting turn of events I’ve learnt more about this city (and about myself) because I’ve had to open up to people, give directions to visiting surfers, as well as join them on their visits to festivals, eateries, events, meetups and more!

So anyways, if you are someone with an open mind who’s either travelling, intending to travel, likes to meet new people, enjoys learning about different cultures or all of the aforementioned well then I highly recommend joining Couchsurfing.com and getting involved.

As with anything if you are sensible with who you meet and what you do, and put safety first (use and trust your intuition!), then you can really have a great time and learn a great deal.

Couch surfing truly has opened my eyes to another way of traveling and learning about the world.

Related Reading