My First Couch Surfer

Kumar and I had our first Couch Surfer a couple weeks ago. Simone was in his early 20s from Milan, Italy and he ended up staying for three days. I should probably explain couch surfing to those of you who have never heard of it. It is a website that you sign up on, it is free, but they request donations if you can afford to give. You make a profile and you friend people (much the same as with Facebook). You write references for your friends and those who surf your couch. You then can search for people who might live in the city you want to go to and see if they are willing to put you up for a night at their house. I always check the person’s references before accepting them into my apartment. It works really well here in Albania, because most of the couches are of Peace Corps volunteers and I can really trust what they have to say. And so this is how I came to accept Simone to come and stay in Fushe-Arrez. He ended up staying at Kumar’s house, as I did not want to harm my reputation here in town by having a boy stay with me. It was a fun few days. Simone cooked diner for us one night and we showed him what life is like in a small Albanian town. We went to a soccer game in town at our new soccer field and watched Kumar play. It was a great experience where we learned a lot about different cultures. Hopefully, someone else will want to make the trek out to Fushe-Arrez sometime soon.