Day 90: My first couchsurfer

Yesterday I had my first couchsurfing guest. She had written a public message that she's coming to Uppsala and wanted somewhere to stay. And since one of my guest rooms would be available I offered her to stay there. To which she answered something like "I want to get to know you and Uppsala :) I am going to arrive around noon!".

Good thing I have a flexible "job", so I was at home by noon! Already there's a difference. None of my Airbnb guests have expressed so clearly that they want to get to know me, and most of them have been busy with other plans. Which is completely fine by me, even if I like it when they have time to hang out. I guess since Couchsurfers don't pay, part of the whole experience is getting to know other people. I think I might like Couchsurfing, and would like to try it more, even though I really need to rent out the rooms to get some money now that I don't have a lot of other incomes.

Anyway, she arrived, a German student who had been traveling around Sweden. We walked around Uppsala and talked about lots of stuff. Then she offered to make some vegan food for me and the French guy. I don't know anything about vegan food, but pasta with tomato sauce seemed familiar...

We talked a bit about politics. A lot of people, like this guest, seem to take for granted that since I'm into this thing with sharing I will have leftist political ideals. Which is not the case at all. I'm pro-growth - which often means that resources are used more efficiently - and pro-capitalism - since I like freedom and believe that everyone should have the right to do whatever exchanges he or she wishes to. In my opinion this goes very well with the whole sharing economy thing which in many ways is capitalism, but even more about the freedom to use your own resources as you wish. But I didn't really feel like discussing this. Sometimes I just wish that people who like sharing things for free didn't always associate this with a specific set of political ideals. I've always borrowed things to and from people I know and like to help people out, without it being some part of a political agenda. 

Anyway, it was a nice experience on the whole and I'll definitely try it again soon. Even though I can't do it too often, since if I let people stay here for free and spend the whole afternoon talking to them, then I'd end up being an extremely poor capitalist.