Surf's Up

Has anyone ever couch surfed?

The New York Times just published a large piece about the couch-sharing website Couchsurfing.com that describes the growing fad of traveling the world for free, and not paying to stay anywhere--because you're staying on someone's dusty, perhaps grimy couch, sofa, day bed, guest bed, cot, futon, or beanbag rug.

Last night I had a couchsurfer. It came together pretty last minute, as some surfing experiences often do. She was on some fandangled trip to Washington DC, and had to camp out in Albany for about 8 hours, so she camped in my living room. She was 18, alone, and female, so I thought she was kinda brave/maybe naive, since she was traveling alone and planning to walk by herself at 11 pm to my apartment, from the bus station, in a city she'd never been in before.

I don't really have much of a problem letting strangers crash in places I've lived; most of the people I have had stay have been either friends of friends, maybe bands, or some other random hooligans who somehow have had their background checks pass through my mental scanners before they fall unconscious on my couch.

This summer I couch surfed often with this group Local Emissaries United, who were traveling throughout the US to promote the Capital District and learn about other American cities. There are usually common lines of class, and the corresponding behaviors of American middle class, amongst those who end up on CS: people who have a little extra time and money to make a CS profile, have room for travelers, and people who value meeting a new stranger in their city. The experience of couchsurfing in many different cities, with different types of people was most interesting in the fact that these people were a diverse crowd, yet they all shared some common values congruent to the CS values. They lived in Austin, Madison, Omaha, and Cleveland, and had different jobs, interests, and senses of humor--but they all wanted to have dinner with you.