hen Krisia Haag, an Athens resident, traveled to
Chicago, she didn't spend any money on hotels.
Instead, she logged onto CouchSurfing.org and
found some folks willing to let her crash, or “surf," on their
couch. She also arranged to meet up with other CouchSurfing
members for lunch. She had never met any of these people
before. She ended up having a terrific time, and has stayed in
touch with many of those new friends.
Through the CouchSurfing site, Haag has
also hosted a college student from Germany
here at home. They connected so splendidly
that when Haag traveled to Germany, she met
up with the student again, visited her town on
the Baltic Sea and even met her relatives.
Here's how CouchSurfing (CSing) works:
You join the site and fill out a profile about
yourself. Before you travel, you look up your
destination, find people there who seem inter
esting, then contact them through the site
about surfing their couch or meeting up with
them. When you're not traveling, consider
hosting other travelers, showing them around
or directing them to interesting places in your
own community.
CSing's history goes back to the '90s, when
Casey Fenton, then a college student, bought a
cheap plane ticket to Iceland and sent a mass
email to everyone at the University of Iceland
asking if he could sleep on somebody's couch.
Many responded who were eager to help. His
new acquaintances promised to show him
"the real" Iceland, and he relished the local
experience.
After Fenton's icy adventure, he realized
he was onto something big and founded the
CSing website. CSing is a non-profit run mostly
by volunteers, and it has grown to over 2.5-million members
willing to provide free hospitality or a local perspective in over
200 countries, according to the website.
You musicians must be thinking, "We could use this on
tour!" Rocky Sanguedolce, a media rep for CSing, agrees:
"Couchsurfing is great for touring bands," he says during a
phone interview. "There are groups on the site dedicated just
to hosting them."
Jesse Houle, an Athens musician who often uses CSing while
touring, says surfing on tour makes things easier. "Before it
was like, we've got to, awkwardly, at the end of our set, ask if
anyone's got a place for us to crash. Those people might end
up being drug dealers, or their house may totally smell of or
be wet with cat pee... [CSing] kind of takes that out of it and
makes touring a little more human."
Houle also echoes a sentiment known as the "CouchSurfing
spirit" that most CSers seem to share: "It's not just about the
free places—it's about the people, the fact that you can go to
a random city... and you've got a friend, instantly." Members of
the site tend to agree that surfing is more about making con
nections with people rather than scoring a free place to crash.
If you're like most people, though, you're wondering, "What
if the person I'm trying to connect with is an ax murderer?"
Well—it's unlikely. Only one out of every 5,000 exchanges
between CSers isn't listed as "positive" through the CSing
referencing-system, a useful feature where CSers record details
of their interactions with other members on each other's pro
files. Typically, the non-positive surfing experiences are just
cases where surfers accidentally offend their hosts, or 'rice
versa, often because they were insensitive to each other's dif
ferent lifestyles or customs. "Ninety-nine out of a hundred bad
experiences on CouchSurfing are really just awkward," explains
Houle.
Another benefit of CSing is that many events for local
surfers, or travelers passing through surfers' hometowns, are
organized through the forum on the site. Houle says that the
local CSing events were how he made his first
friends in town: "They did monthly potlucks,
and we met a bunch of people who became our
best friends in Athens."
Other events are organized on a larger
scale, such as city-wide CouchCrashes where
many CSers, from all over the country, surf
with folks from the city hosting the Crash, usu
ally for a weekend.
"It's like going to a music festival... there
are lots of events like urban spelunking, urban
golf, breakfast and dinner; they put together
a matrix of activities for the whole weekend,"
says Cristal Lindell, a former Athens CSer who
attended a CouchCrash in Detroit.
Through CSing, people of different ages and
backgrounds come together. The site is situ
ated so that you can participate to whatever
degree you feel comfortable; you don't have to
let strangers into your home. Many people on
the site are glad just to grab a coffee with a
traveler and swap stories, or to participate only
in local CSing events. It can make anyone's
travels more exciting. Even if you're staying in
a hotel, you can meet up with some local CSers
for lunch. It's "more interesting than being a
[lone] traveler," says Marc Tissenbaum, Haag's
husband and fellow Athens CSer who has used
the site while on vacation.
For some, CSing rekindles ar. enthusiasm for their commu
nity. By sharing unique aspects of one's town with outsiders,
Tissenbaum says, "It helps me see and appreciate it with new
eyes." CSing is a great way to make traveling more affordable,
to hear about cool places you won't find in a guide book, and
to make connections with people of diverse cultures from all
over the world. It's a tool that will help to enrich your life and
open the doors to experiences that are exciting, enlightening
and deeply fulfilling.
Mark LaMountain
Kids Make Things Work!
An afternoon of crafts, art appreciation...and insects!
Saturday, May 14 * 3:00 * 4:00 pm
(with gallery viewing before & after)
* For kids 12 & under
* Make mobiles & bug sculptures
* Visit with the UGA Insect Zoo from
UGA's Entomology Department
* Talk about the amazing big and
little art on display
* View videos of a performance artist
who acts out bugs!
* Cookies and milk after!
Led by ATHICA Education Coordinator 5age Rogers,
with assistance from Christina Westpheling and Ashley Na.
Suggested Donation S3.00 S6.00
(but no one turned away for lack of funds)
This event is affiliated with the The Way Things Work exhibit
which runs through Sunday, May 29, 2011
sponsored by:
flagpole TREEHOU: il
kid 4
cuft I
le Check Us Out at
West Broad Street!
^ Mondays 8|
at our Baldwin St b
looted by Kris Harris from
II1 \ ; I>1 • 11 I
2440 WEST BROAD ST. • (706) 208-7979
485 BALDWIN ST. • (7Q6) 548-3442
MAY 11, 2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 17
