Couchsurfing.org

Couchsurfing started as a way to travel cheaply, by staying somewhere for free. It has grown into a way to meet people when travelling for cultural exchange. There are a few ways to participate in Couchsurfing, and the good thing about is that you can participate in an exact way that it suits you. I think it is well managed. It has a well- thought out strategy, and has guidelines on important issues such as security, and performance measures in place. I'd like to document my experiences so far. I joined up to meet some new people. I had been overseas in Laos for a year. When in Laos and when travelling in general, I was able to meet some people with interesting stories. I joined so I could continue to challenge my perspectives, meet new people, and go to place in Sydney I'd liked to visit. Some people I have met:

* A Swiss girl who quit her stable job to study English in Australia
* An American guy who was working as an engineer contracted to the US Army in Abu Dhabi who was travelling as much as he could while he was away.
* A French-Canadian who worked for one of main agencies that tests the quality of airline food made around the world.
* A Singaporean guy who was a water engineer who was working in Australia for a few months in a large multi-national in Sydney's west
* A guy from Melbourne on a short trip to Sydney who coordinates quality for universities.
* A Singaporean girl who was here with her boyfriend who was looking for a job, who cooked dinner for me twice and helped me cook for a dinner party.
* A Lao-French guy who had a good job in France's music industry who quit his job to travel the world whom I took to Royal National Park.
* An Indian guy who ran a catering/ event business including organising huge Indian weddings

Pretty much all the people I have met have been professionals - not what I expected at all! I definitely gained some perspective from meeting all these people, and managed to choose places in Sydney to take them that I usually wouldn't go to. If I had more time, I'd join in more of their events. There are pages for different cities, and I'm a member of the Sydney group and can join in things people are organising.