Hosting

As some of you may know, I am a part of a community called "Couchsurfing" (www.couchsurfing.org).  This is a website where people from all over the world sign up to host or travel, or maybe both. This is how it works:

I'll be traveling to Austin, Texas, in November. I want a place to stay. I log onto couchsurfing.org and browse the hosts in the Austin area. If I find someone whom I may want to stay with, I contact him/her and send a request.  He/She reviews my profile and decides if he/she wants to host me. If so, we contact each other more and work out the details.

A lot of surfers bring food, recipes, a bottle of wine, or something else to thank you for hosting. I've been a part of this community since 2009, but I never had anyone surf, and I never surfed while I was in college. Now that I have my own place, I've had 3 couchsurfers in Charlotte. One, Daniel, was from San Diego and was doing a cross country trip. He was a great surfer and LOVED Stoli.

I currently have two surfers, Julia and Becky, from Germany and Malaysia respectively.  They are great girls and I'm having a blast. It just so happens that my work schedule this week was easy so I've been able to hang out with them.  Yesterday, we went to Reed Gold Mine and mined for gold. Julia and I did not find any gold, but Becky had a little flake.

Julia and I in front of the underground portion of the mine

Julia and Becky panning for gold!

Yay for meeting awesome people from around the world! I now have a free place to stay in Germany, Malaysia, and Canada. (Becky is from Malaysia, but is studying in Canada).