The couchsurfing, is a community of people who share their homes with foreigners around the world in exchange for cultural interaction. Sometimes it’s a sofa in the living room, or a mattress on the floor in a shared room or even a private bedroom. The important thing is to have a space to be offered and the interest of the host in wanting to open their home to a stranger.
Sounds strange right? But there are ways that the community has to reduce risks and give more reliability to both parties. It is important to have a complete profile, with your description and your interests. After you actually start using couchsurfing, there are also recommendations that will show if you are a good guest or host.
In the beginning I wasn’t trusting it could work but after entering and meeting so many interesting people with similar thoughts I started to love the community.
In Rome they offered me a place, in a central location and with great access, so I thought this was my first opportunity to experience couchsurfing and I accepted it. We added each other on facebook, exchanged some messages, arranged the arrival time and I got the address.
Upon arrival at the place, I was very well received, she introduced me to the apartment and gave me the keys. But it is not always like that, in some cases in the description of the profile of the person, the host defines some rules, one of them being a certain time of arrival and departure, because as long as the owner of the house is not at home, the guest does not stay either.
It was a room just for me because her roommate, also a student, had just left Rome and returned to her home country. It was a very pleasant experience, as well as the girl being very nice, she invited me to a surprise party of a friend and I was able to join a local celebration and to know a little more about Italian culture, its food and its culture.
At the party there were also two Chinese and one Spanish, who were doing exchange in Rome and we exchanged many ideas about cultural differences. In the end, I still saved money to travel more and more!
