new life

so, let me just go ahead and save everyone the trouble of interpreting the title of this entry like we had to interpret the symbolism in a a separate peace back in 6th grade.

a new life....for this journal. a reason to update on a much, much more regular basis. it has to do with the third reason for this entry.

a new life...in my daily life. i quit smoking and have been without a cigarette for the past 3 days. yeah, it's only 3 days....but i think if i can make it 3 months (which i plan to) i can make it as long as i need to...which the plan calls for that period of time being the rest of my life.

a new life...style. in september i joined couchsurfing.com. it has turned out to be one of the best decisions i've ever made. it basically consists of people who offer to let travlers stay in their homes at no charge, instead of staying in a hotel or hostel. it's a way to bring the world together, to live cheaper and to make friends from around the world.

since september i've had about 10 groups of people come through, some traveling alone, some consisting of 2-4 people. and it's been amazing. i've had people from all over the states (from vegas to philly) and from around the world (two brothers from iran and a couple of folks from germany.)

my brother sam thought it'd be a good idea to blog about people who have stayed here, and i agreed. (he's a smart guy, good thing i taught him well.) so with that...here's a photo recap of one of the most recent groups to come through. four students (three from poland and one from chile) came through for a night and we had a pretty good time together.

here's the five of us walking along the river on our way to london bridge...one of the best real pubs in town.


at london bridge with jaga, ewa, piotrek and rodrigo.


then it was back to the apartment where the girls cooked some pasta.


they left the next morning and headed down to the florida keys. and that's pretty much the life of a couch surfer. a good time together, good conversation, a lot of laughs...and the next day that's it. though i have had some folks stay for up to three days.

and with that...here are some photos of other couch surfers that have come through and enjoyed life at casa de awesome. (unfortunately i don't have photos of all of them. but with regular updates, hopefully that will change. lucky you.)

honnes and johannes from dusseldorf germany who stayed for three days...


bjorn from zurich, switzerland who stayed for a night...


my friend ashley from new york, and petra (a couchsurfer and professional tennis player) enjoying ourselves...


diachi and sana, a brother and sister from seattle who rode their bikes cross country w/ jacksonville as their very last stop...


amir and ardalan, brothers from iran who are driving to california right now...


and finally...anna and hendrik from cologne germany roasting mini-marshmellows over my scented glade candle...


so yeah. that's couch surfing. it's amazing and has radically changed my life in a number of ways. i won't even pretend to be able to describe how...but it has. truly. and so now when someone stays, the plan is to write about it on here and share it with all of you. does this blog just keep getting more awesome or what?