Diary of a Couchsurfer #2

So it's the first morning of my couchsurfing experience, and i have to say it has been pretty interesting so far. Late on tuesday night i sent an email to the guy who i was supposed to be staying with, he replied the next morning - only hours before i was due to leave - "oh shit, i completely forgot". Yep. That happened.

He said that he wasn't really going to be home much the next few days, so i should just go to his mates' place instead. Right. So, nervously, i took his advice and headed out to Brunswick to stay with these people that i knew nothing about.

I arrived at the house - no one home. Great start. Luckily, i had bought a case of beer so at least i had something to do while i waited; I parked myself down on what appeared to be the back seat of a car and cracked my first beer.

I don't know how long i sat there for (it was only around three beers) before Liam, the organiser of couchsurfing at this house rocked up home. This was how our conversation went.

Me: Hi, I'm alex, did jeff tell you i was coming?
Liam: Oh yeah, i think he mentioned something about that
Me: I brought beer
Liam: Awesome, stay as long as you like

Stepping inside the house is like entering a CouchSurfing Mecca. Since opening their doors in December, the three housemates have not had a single night without a couchsurfer. The longest someone stayed here was three and a half months! The place has the feel of a mini hostel, with a communal computer area as well as a whiteboard detailing who is arriving and where they are from. Sitting on the front bench is a 'comments' book where people write their thanks etc. There is even a fridge with a coin tin selling carlton colds for $1.50!

Also staying here at the moment are Julien (from France), Xavier (Taiwan) and Britany (Canada). The latter two are relatively new to the house but Julien has been here for a couple of weeks now, and is currently trying to find work. This isn't an uncommon occurrence apparently, as Liam tells me that they now have many friends across Melbourne who they originally hosted when they first got to the city.

The three housemates have never tried out couchsurfing themselves, but absolutely love hosting - as Liam says "otherwise we'd just be sitting at home bored". The house has now hosted in excess of 100 travellers and, as they boast, they are now quite well connected for when they head off to europe at the end of the year. Germany, France, Sweden, New Zealand, England and even Madagascar - they have welcomed tourists from all across the world with an attitude of 'if there's room we'll take them'.

It really is like nothing else i have ever seen.

Anyway, I'm off to go do a bit more exploring of Melbourne - i think a couple of English guys are arriving here today as well so that should make things a bit more interesting.

until tomorrow x

Diary of a Couchsurfer #1

Okay! So tomorrow morning i set off on my couchsurfing odyssey, and to be honest i'm pretty excited. It's been a wild ride getting to this point, but i'm fairly sure i will have somewhere to sleep tomorrow night ... hopefully. maybe.

ahhh i'm sure i'll be fine? that's all part of it isn't it? I'm hopefully splitting my time between two different houses - the first one, an american student living and studying in melbourne for two nights, and then i think i'm moving across to his mates' place: a crazy couchsurfing party house. should be interesting.

I'm excited to see melbourne, as well as to maybe see a side of it that people don't usually see, maybe meet a few cool people along the way.

I'm going to try and document the whole thing on my trusty laptop, and turn it into some kind of amazing video diary.

anyway, i have to go pack!
until next time!

alex

International CouchSurfing Day!

It has just come to my attention that there is an International CouchSurfing Day! While perusing my favourite travel blog/website, Gadling (something I often do when I don't want to do my readings) I thought I might as well do a search for CouchSurfing and I stumbled across this article.

Sadly we've already missed it for the year, but what does this say about the extent to which the online couchsurfing world has infiltrated the physical world around us?

Australia Day, International Pirate Day, Christmas Day and now, CouchSurfing Day!?

the constant struggle of finding a host.

So I have now begun my search to find who will house me. its harder than i thought. First realisation: despite the external mantra of 'everyone's a family' i can't help but feel that isn't the case. Requesting a bed is kind of ... awkward - i feel as though the person on the other end is judging every syllable i've written. Also: i think people just 'ignore' the people that they don't want to be involved with, much in the same way that you might awkwardly 'remove from events' an invite on facebook.

Second realisation: beggars can't be choosers! A free bed is a free bed and needs to be viewed as such!

the search continues!

Site Map!

site map is done and ready to go! it's good to actually have a proper template that we can reference and build upon to work through all our ideas! check it out!

Investigating online behaviour and interaction

In this post:

* Presenting yourself online
* Interactive features for our site
* Fun links!

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One aspect of our upcoming site will investigate how online communities - such as CouchSurfing - have responded to and facilitated a change in social interaction.

It is often said that our modern world is less conducive to building relationships with strangers. But online media has fundamentally altered the way we relate to people we don't know. The very premise of CouchSurfing is that you can entrust a stranger from the other side of the world to come and stay in your home - and all arranged via an online relationship.

We'll be examining how to best present yourself in this online community - what your profile says about you, how to construct it to attract a certain Couchsurfer, and what to look for in others' profiles. We'll present this via an interactive visual profile.

We'll also be looking at a fun and interactive way of demonstrating some of the difficulties of this new type of relationship. The website http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ has garnered a large following, publishing thousands of notes - mostly between aggrieved flatmates - about the trivialities of living with other people.

Our plan is to combine this concept with another online phenomenon - http://www.bureauofcommunication.com/ - which allows you to create your own apologies, invitations, and other forms based on pre-formed templates. We would apply this concept to allow users to create their own passive-aggressive notes, and we would publish the best ones to the website.

It's a simple and entertaining way of illustrating some of the frustrations that can arise when CouchSurfing, or traveling with others.

More to come, stay tuned.

Koziol