Couchsurfing in the city you live in | Social skydiving | Forum

Not sure if this counts as social skydiving exactly, but it's definitely been an interesting experience.

I study in Leeds and live in London, which is about 250 miles away. The contract on our student house in Leeds ended on June 30th, but I still have a job up here. Instead of sacrificing hours / money I decided to stay in Leeds to work, and to Couchsurf as a way of a) not spending £40 per night at a hotel and b) meeting new people. After reading various blogs this year I'm trying to break the usual 'fear' associated with meeting new people, and to get practice wherever possible in doing so, so this struck me as quite a good way of doing that!  

Part of the Couchsurfing experience is the cultural exchange; the hosts show/tell surfers about the city, the surfers bring aspects of their home culture / cultures they've visited along the way to the host. Obviously surfing in the city I've lived in for a year diminished this part of the experience, but it's still been fun. I've stayed with 3 people so far and we've all shared stories and advice on various aspects of travelling (the great thing about Couchsurfing: there's already some common ground implied because of the underlying interest in travel (most) members have), and generally had a good time.

So yeah, has anyone else surfed in the city (or country) they live in? Did you find it beneficial? 

Yeah it was only supposed to be for one night before I moved in with a friend for Summer but his plans changed at the last minute. 

The community aspect of CS is something I've only discovered recently but it's amazing. Joined the Leeds group and there's events coming through all the time – having the change to talk to people from around the world is great and beneficial like you said. Hadn't thought of the language exchange possibility there though, definitely something to consider!