Features | Opinion | Videos | Calendar | Advertise Thursday, February 9, 2012
Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Mysteries of Couch Surfing

Words
Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Not all couch surfers are as corny as this woman. (But they do, oddly enough, all have horrible taste in pants.)

Not all couch surfers are as corny as this woman. (But they do, oddly enough, all have horrible taste in pants.)

In old-timey broadcaster voice:

First, the news:

There was a meeting of Norfolk Couch Surfers last at 6:30 at 37th and Zen (1083 W 37th St/Norfolk, 23508).

My personal Plymouth Rock of the 757 was a couch surfer’s couch in Colonial Place in Norfolk. I had written her an email while working a goat farm in Ireland. We never met in person before she let me stay in her apartment. We never talked on the phone, and she didn’t check any references.

She just let me stay. No strings attached.

She happened to be a very interesting girl whose many claims included being able to read into the future and having once been a mistress. We got along so well she offered me her spare room to rent for the rest of the year that first night.

My point is, couch surfers tend to be trusting, trustworthy, well-traveled and got some sort of light behind their eyes. In general, they are among the shrinking group of people–hitch hikers, organic farmers, post card writers, teachers, international adopters, and Shakira, among them–who are doing their part to keep this f’ed up world together.

If you’ve got extra love in your heart for sharing, or want to make some new friends, sign up for couch surfing and stop by the next meeting. We’ll keep you posted.

COMMENTS

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Facebook comments:

  • Snow White | August 7, 09 @ 8:30 am

    Sweet write up Jesse. It was great to catch up last night. Couchsurfers = good, good times!

  • Rosa | November 10, 09 @ 9:14 pm

    hello

    I’m Rosa

    sorry or my english

    I’m studi english in dublin

    i’m very interesting for know your farm

    I don’t need bedroom, onli know an tolk and know your farm and project

    i live in Dublin, please send me a messageat mrosapm@yahoo.esthanks

    i come back to spain at 30 of november.

    thanks

Post a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such. I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
Other posts by .