Couchsurfing and Hope

I was suppose to write my paper right now which is due on monday. But I have something that I have to say. Like a need of expression.

I'm a member of the Couchsurfing Project, a social network which allows travelers to crash on local people's couch for a few nights when they come into town. You just have to list your information online and whether or not you want to host other travelers asides from you being a traveler. I believe it is a revolution, provided travelers a cheaper way to travel, and in the same time travelers can get to know the local much better than staying in the hotel. At the beginning I thought wow it sounds a bit like utopia! The safety issue, which a lot people (including me) might deeply concerned, is partially solved by this rating and commenting system. Every time when I got a couchsurfing request i would check the surfer's page to see how many comments other people gave them and what kinds of comments they are. Traveler and host will most likely leave comments to each other after their couchsurfing experience, using several sentence to describe the first impression to this person. So far, I only leave "Extremely Positive" comments, because everyone I met through couchsurfing so far are extremely cool people!

I found out about couchsurfing very randomly through a friend and online, then amazed by the concept, I signed up without hoping to use. Back then I was in Binghamton, NY, an out of location town in southern tier New York state without many traffic. One day I received an email from someone named Josh from Kingston, Ontario, said he would crash on my dorm couch for a night en route to D.C. I was both curious and a little bit afraid, for I have no idea how this new person is gonna turn out. Unfortunately I had to leave college before his scheduled crash date so I couldn't meet him, but leaving my dorm building door open for them to sneak in. Josh told me afterwards it went well; they had sound sleep and no school guard detected their beings. So this was my first couchsurfing experience. not really a full experience, just a buffer.

Then last year i was going to Chicago for Model U.N. The school decided not to finance us at all (no complians for public school). I had to take greyhound to Chicago and couchsurf to save my budget. The host was Anarb Banerjee, a physics Ph.D student in UChicago and his roommate. Other people in my team, knowing that i was gonna couchsurf, yelled at me and advised me about the possibility of the host to be a bad guy. I was a bit afraid too honestly. Until the moment I was welcomed and Arnab and I started our nerdy talks about physics. It turned out to be great! I was supposed to go drink with them but I had my model UN party to go.

Then I start to travel around, couchsurfed in Canada, met very very interesting people who dares to live and appreciate life. Since i came to Saint Louis, I start to host people myself. I got a big apartment with comfy couch. I've hosted Chris and Alexis from vegas and Daniel and Lasse from Denmark. All the time, I get to have great conversation with hosts/surfers. My roommate showed me an New York Times article about couchsurfing experiences and how it forms friendships and even romance! Romance sounds too fancy but friendship is definite. Travelers always bring different angles in a conversation. Moreover, travelers being traveler they have the desire to explore the world! This is what i'm long for!

So today I got a couchsurfing message that 3 girls would come to stay. Well I was totally excited after being working on my papers for the whole day. It's great to meet new people and be inspired by new ideas. Especiall this would be the first time I host girls. I called them the second time to give them my direction. It is connectted,

girl A:"hey what up?"
me:"what's up, are you guys approaching the town?"
girl A:" Yea! but oh, I was just about to tell you we are gonna stay at somewhere else tonight."
me:"oh.....(silence)...oh....uhm, have a good stay"

I know I have paper to do but I still want to meet some new people and I was expecting them...until they call it off. I then had to inform my roommate and he's even sadder than me because he was eager to meet 3 girls... For me I just really like to talk to new people (not that i don't want to meet 3 girls). So I guess you can illustrate the saddest thing as, first you are given a hope bubble, big one, then your bubble was poked, later it bursts. You stand staring at the point where the bubble supposed to be and just stare at it...

So this has been an introduction of couchsurfing from Pickupatitle blog. thanks audience! if I have any...

FreeWriting on Foucault

Michel Foucault, one of the most famous sociology of the second half of 20th century, wrote in french. He published very influential books such as Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality. People have complained about him being a difficult reader. Partly it was because of the language difference, which caused the difference in sentence structure. Other than that, it was largely because of his own writing skills being very, very abstract. Then the question comes: Is it necessary?

One theory is that when we don't understand something straightforward, we give credit for it. That's why there's all these academic writers who write in the fashion they don't even understand. give me some credit for it, I'm not bullshitting. When I just start to pick up english, I would subconsciously say something I don't even understand myself, because I subconsciously programmed to think english as "something I don't understand". So if I say something I don't understand, I'm speaking in English! Of course I understand it totally it this doesn't work. It's only in a subconscious level.

In another theory, Foucault uses these complex style of writing to reveal a social structure full of complexity. If I digest down the sentences in a programming way, they start to become clearer. You can see there are fractals: cluases under a clause which is under some other clause.

So which theory wins out? Does the writing style has to do with the purpose of the very article? What if he writes in the same style for all the papers?