I just wanted to thank Montano for being such an awesome guest. He’s a doctoral student in Piano at the university of Montreal, and played a recital last night. Heidi and I caught up with him at the show, and he was frickin’ fantastic. It was about an hour and a half long, with intermission.

He’s young, but he sure knew how to captivate in a discussion about music history, Lebanese food and US politics. I look forward to catching up with him again one day.

Garrett Reynolds and Dylan White are biking from Victoria BC to St John’s, Nfld., filming a documentary on Canadian watersheds along their route (see their website).

Garrett just completed his masters in systems and control engineering, and Dylan just finished his undergraduate studies in environmental science. We had a grand time, and great chats over beer last night at St James’ Gate. These guys are really smart, have insightful life experience and were an all around pleasure to have around. Good luck for the last leg of your trip, gents.

So far, I’ve learned loads from almost every hosting experience I’ve had. I’ve hosted about 20 surfers so far(?). I’ve been getting a huge number of couch surfing requests lately—I’ve refused 5 surfers this weekend alone. It’s a busy time of the year to be traveling, I guess.

I have a lot of friends who find I trust these strangers too much. I understand what they mean, but the type of people who are willing to just crash at people’s houses during a trip, instead of booking hotels, are usually the more friendly, trustworthy, and interesting strangers. I would argue that Couchsurfing is a great way to filter out the weirdos, especially with a referral-based system.

I’m telling you, try this shit out. You’ll have a h00t.

It was another beach day yesterday. I finally have more of a tan than my father, which is unheard of. The feel of salt water then sun on my skin is therapeutic. Throw in a good book, some company and a bit of grub (and the sweet smell of seaweed!) and I’m in heaven. It was even at a point when coworkers ask me if I’m at the beach when they phone to switch shifts (I usually am). This is one of the major reasons why I feel that once I graduate, I need to leave my great Canada for a few years. I want to move somewhere where it doesn’t snow. Nay, I need to.

I decided that I’m going to train for a half-marathon (Legs For Literacy). I can see a lot of progress in my training. A few weeks ago, I was completely dead after running 5 km. But in in the past five days I’ve run 10 km three times. I’m going to keep training all sorts of distances, short and long. I ordered a sexy pair of running shoes and now I’m hearing about the weird things about running. I was told to put band-aids on my nipples to keep them from bleeding from the shirt friction (holy shit), that my toenails may go black and fall off, and that I’ll destroy my knees. Awesome, eh? Maybe I’ll just call it a day after I pull off a full marathon in a few years…

My new day job is going very well so far. I’m learning lots every day, and I have lots of flexibility. I’m working on a particular kind of heat recovery ventilator my employer would like to sell. It’s great, because I can ask for something as utterly daft as yesterday off to go to the beach. These guys pay me well though, so I still want to make them happy.

I had a great pair of Couchsurfers over last night. Originally from Switzerland, they are both PhD students in Montreal taking a trip around the East Coast. We had fish for supper last night and took a lovely drive around the area. I’m pretty sure they left with a good impression. Bonus: They left me some Swiss chocolate! I would really hope to meet them again, in their innocent and utter geekyness.

Yeah, summer rocks. Pura Vida, mae.

Gabrielle, a couchsurfer from Montreal, introduced me to this really funky group:

Cuba was nothing short of fantastic. Jon and I did the typical resort thing in Varadero for a bit, before heading to Havana for a couple of days. (You can see photos by clicking here)

Havana was the highlight of the trip. Instead of paying for the rediculously-priced hotel “expeditions”, we just hopped on a local charter bus. We had no maps, reservations or plans. Just a few phone numbers I got through Couchsurfing.org. People were friendly, save for the few who were just befrending us for money. Police were incredibly helpful. I even spoke to an army guy which turned out to be not so much of a good idea, haha. In central Havana, we walked down a street to hear very loud percussion music. We peeked through the open door to see what it was—and that’s whenthe “mom” of the house, came out and invited us in with much enthusiasm. “Venga! Venga!”.

Four hours later we’re still in this house, it’s a Santeria ritual. Booze is flowing, 50 people are crammed in the room. People in trances were dancing wildly. It’s getting dark and we stil have no idea where we were staying the night. Jon was getting hungry. Our kind hosts found us a restaurant and a legal casa particulare in which we could both stay the night for only 25 CUC. We chatted it up with them till late before going to bed. I had never has so much appreciation for being able to speak Spanish. I realized how much I missed it and how many doors it opened, even though it’s only intermediate.

We wandered the city more the next day. There are so many stories I could tell, but I’ll save it for when we go out for a beer.

The remainder of the week at the all-inclusive resort was nothing short of blissful. Jon was an amazing travel partner, and I look forward to our next adventure.

Oh, and by the way, I did it!

I’ll be offline for another week, in a blissful beach paradise. I contacted a few Cubans via Couchsurfing.com and I may be linking up with a few Havana locals. Jon and  also wanted to hitchhike from Varadero to Santa Clara, just so I can take a picture of myself next to the Che Guevara Monument…wearing my “Che Wearing A Che T-Shirt” t-shirt. That should be one of the coolest photos ever. Bah, I’ll probably just stay on the resort and soak in some rays…

Until next week!

PS: Go (Backhawks, Ducks, Capitals, Bruins)! My pool depends on you!

For those who are not familiar, Couchsurfing is a network for travelers. As is implied by it’s name, the idea is that you can just crash on an available couch in the area you are visiting, for free. You build a profile, indicate the availability of your own couch for travelers, and search for couches in cities you are visiting. It is an absolutely great way to meet interesting people of all walks of life, and travellers of all types are usually quite trustworthy. Hosts leave references for their surfers and vice versa, building trust within the network.

In the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of hosting three different couchsurfers. Sunday, I had a French guy stay a couple of nights. He lived and worked in Banff and was hitchhiking to Newfoundland to see the area. The day he left, I hosted a young Czech man who had pretty much the exact same story. Currently I have a guy from Utah/Hawaii crashing here. He’s in the area doing work to help people recover from all sorts of ailments, as he recovered from a personal brain injury himself, making his way up to an honors degree in psychology.

Being able to learn from all these peoples backgrounds, points of view and travels, and being able to share the idea of  “chiac”, among others, has been nothing short of a great exchange. I hope to someday be a surfer myself, and hop around anywhere in the world for next t nothing in accomodation costs, and being able to really learn from locals wherever I go.

I want to suggest that you join Couchsurfing, but I see that most of the traffic hitting this website is frm Moncton, and I don’t want you guys to hog all the potential surfers!

Cheers!