Surfing Couches

We've mentioned Courch Surfers before in a previous post and this past Tuesday we finally hosted our first surfers!!!  Since we created an account, we'd been declining requests to stay in our apartment because we were a little weary about random people staying with us.  I'm sure my parents love the idea of us being in a foreign country hosting other foreigners we don't even know in an apartment that has no barrier between us and our guests while we sleep  (except for creaky stairs that could alert us if someone were to walk up them!!)

Of course the website and "community" of travelers is a lot safer than that.  With background checks, references, and profiles, the whole idea is a lot safer than you would think at first glance.

This particular time was a little different than a normal request to stay at our apartment.  We ran into Max and Leila on the street after we were walking back from the grocery store.  They approached us randomly and asked if we spoke English.  They said they were a part of couch surfers and their host never responded to their request.  Thus, they had no place to stay and were seeing if they could crash at our place!  Emma and I were a little skeptical and we told them we had some friends we would ask, so we got their phone number and went home.  After scanning the couch surfer website frantically for the couple, we finally found them and they seemed legit!  A nice couple of French students who had been traveling around Europe for several months!  Emma and I decided to take the plunge and invite them to stay with us! We called back and they were excited to have a place to stay!

Hanging with our new Couch Surfer friends from France.  We knew we'd be safe. 

Max and Leila (and Jack Nicholson) stayed with us for one fun, interesting, and slightly awkward night (only due to a language barrier).  Max was the funny, outgoing type who knew little to no English, while Leila, who was a bit more quiet, could speak almost perfect English.  
We cooked them warm leftover lentil and potato stew.  We talked about Sevilla and the sights, their travels through Portugal, and French culture and music! Later we skimmed youtube to find lots of French music that they loved.

We went to bed a little early that night because we had work and they were perfectly fine with that because they had been traveling all day with 25 lb bags on their backs.  They left the next morning and Emma and I were assured that we should definitely try and host more people in the future!!

We made it through a night and we're still alive!   Don't worry mom!