day seven: community

Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

it is somewhat scary to be in a foreign country and staying there for some time all by yourself, especially when i do not speak the national language. still, i want to embrace its uniqueness and enjoy the atmosphere as much as i can, with as many people as possible. while locals can be a very useful source of information, it would also be lovely to meet people from across the globe coming to the country. that was how i introduced myself to couchsurfing.

long story short, i went to a couchsurfing meeting in bangkok on a sunday night, when it was also a halloween party. i met people, both locals and travellers. the host, hayko from germany, was nice. i talked to some people, had dinner with some others, hang out with random people. but then there was a somewhat-old man, probably over fifty, started to initiate conversation and ended up hit on me. i did not like the fact that the party ended up that way, while the community itself claimed as anything but a dating site.

so i never come to the couchsurfing meeting any more. later i heard, couchsurfing sunday meetings are now cancelled per next sunday (12/12). they lose the meeting place, which is at sawasdee house in khao san road, because some people kept on bringing outside food and drinks and it pissed the owner off.

i feel sorry for the whole outcome, despite of hayko's reminder, on both food and drink issue as well as banning people with more than two negative references in their couchsurfing profile, in his last invitation for the meeting.

but lesson learnt from the couchsurfing meeting that night anyway: i am not a party girl. call me boring.