I'm originally from New York. People in New York are stressed. There are many different reasons. Life is fast paced and people are living in a place they can't really afford. That might translate into a stressful couch surfing experience. The possibilities that you will be couchsurfing in Manhattan are slim to none. These hosts get too many requests, but you can stay in Brooklyn or other surrounding areas, I would just avoid Staten Island. I couch surfed in New York City for 6 weeks, I also stayed at hostels and hotels in Manhattan. Out of all the hosts I stayed with in New York City,there was only one good one. It was a lady in Brooklyn who had her own apartment complex and she let me stay in one of the vacant apartments and we would spend time every evening. That is how a host should be. They should really have resources to host,and not just any loser with a couch.She was also very polite and gave me my personal space. Instead of just putting me on a couch and walking by everytime she had to walk to the kitchen, like a lot of other hosts, who think that you don't need privacy unless you are in the bathroom. I had a great time staying there.
The next four hosts were far from perfect. I stayed with one girl in her 20's who did not have any money and she would mention it often. I bought some food from the neighborhood market and I asked if I could put it in the fridge. Since she was a vegan, I thought i would not make her feel uncomfortable so I did not buy meat and I bought some of the stuff she already had, so that she could have some if she wanted. Well she started getting my food confused with hers and everytime I would open the fridge,she thought I was eating her food! She started saying "that shit has to last me for two weeks, because I don't make a lot of money at the grocery store where I work" very, very pathetic and it was stressful for me. She was also a slut who slept with a different guys. So the second night I stayed she slept with a different guy than she did on the first one. She'd walk around in her underwear a lot of the time...and the last day I stayed she woke me up at 5 in the morning so I could leave with her.
I stayed with another woman in her late 40s in Harlem, and she would not let me stay another night at her place because she got a roommate while I was there and it was just inconvenient.
New York is a no bullshit tolerated kind of place. If you rub someone the wrong way, if they don't like something about your personality, they will not hesitate to throw you out in the street. New York is tough. People are miserable and they will not hesitate to make you miserable as well.
New York City is awesome. It's the place where I was born, but I would not recommend couchsurfing there. You want to see New York and have a good time, you want to enjoy yourself without some bitter New Yorker ruining it for you because they could hardly make their rent this month. The only ones who are not miserable are the wealthy ones who live in Manhattan, which is where you won't be able to get a couch. There are good hostels in Manhattan though, where I would recommend staying.Some are like $35 a night. You should always be prepared to stay in a hostel anyway,and in the case that you find your self kicked out of your host's place, New York may be a tough place, but it has the best homeless shelters in the country. It is open 24 hours and they will take you and feed you, without telling you that you have to replace the peanut butter sandwhich or orange juice. No guilt. No hassle. And it is as good as a hostel with clean sheets and they even give you a locker where you can put your belongings. The shelter is located in Manhattan.
Do not stay in Staten Island, I had the worst experience there. Take out all the fun and excitement of New York city and leave the bitterness,and you got Staten Island. There is nothing to do there. It might be close to Manhattan but it's not worth it to even spend nights there. There was a guy trying to pick a fight with me because I did not give him directions to get somewhere, he finally backed off when I told him I was not from there,because apparently the suitcases and bags did not give the moron any clues.
Yes, maybe not what you want to hear, but I would couch surf somewhere else. Any other city is better to couchsurf than New York. In New York, have enough money to at least pay for a hostel. Have fun.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Couch Surfing in Pittsburgh,PA...I wouldn't do it again...really
After having an incredibly pleasant couch surfing experience in Ohio, Pittsburgh showed me that I still had some things to learn about mistreatment and degradation when staying at someone else's place.
First person I stayed with was a girl in her early 20's living alone. She called herself an anarchist. For a young woman she seemed very confident and sure of everything she talked about. She showed me where the anarchists gathered in Pittsburgh and I even went to one of their meetings to plant trees. Anyway, when I first got there, her apartment was modest but pleasant, and she told me I could eat anything out of whatever she had, which she didn't have much, mostly rice,she also had some cheap wine and whiskey. There was a porn movie with the cover facing up laying on the floor (not something you want a guest to see,male or female).
That was it, over the next couple of days during a four night stay, she was not home at all during the day, and when she came home, she just asked me what I did that day, as if I had been doing homework and I had to report to her.She seemed disappointed at my day's activities.
We went to a nightclub the second night, her idea, paid for her cover and her first beer, then she took off to find some friends. I was left by myself to drink, bored, I must have had about five or eight beers and then I went out to the dance floor to find her. She was dancing with two other women. I placed my hand on her shoulder and said I'd like to stay but I'd probably needed to go since she did not have transportation and neither did I but she was going to go somewhere else after the club closed.
Last day,she gave me a hug after giving me a lecture about how you NEVER put your hand around your host's shoulder,ever. I apologized and said I understood.She gave me a good review on the couch surfing website, but everything would change in two days.
I was still in Pittsburgh staying with another hostess, when she texted and said she found out some of the rice and whiskey were gone. She said I had been very disrespectful and I pointed out that she had told me to help myself to anything, then she said that she had said it but she didn't think I was going to eat so much rice and drink half of the $5 dollar whiskey bottle, she said she was sorry but she was going to change the reference on the website because she said she had to do it for the couch surfing community.
So she changed the reference she gave me from positive to neutral. Then I just changed hers to negative because she just kept texting me that I took advantage and ate all her rice and this and that,so guess what she did? she changed it to Negative too ha ha what a surprise.All for the sake of fairness for the couch surfing community, right?
Then she messaged me to say that if I ever gave her a hard time, she would go to the authorities. Can I tell you the last thing I wanted to do was give her a hard time? I was DONE with her.I did not want any type of contact with her in any way. What was really funny though, is that when I came back to Denver I heard her fucking bullshit stories about me from another couch surfer. This Pittsburgh girl was immature. Like I said, she gave me a positive review right after I left,and according to her, when she found out her rice was gone, she changed the reference,and then for some reason, the arm I put around her started to bother her for the following weeks and she even said to others I touched her leg.I got tons of rice and food in my fridge,and can I tell you the last thing that I would give anybody shit about is eating all the rice? How ridiculous!
I looked at her profile recently and she says if you want to stay with her then you will be staying on the floor in the living room and warns you to not take showers that are too long . She also has a roommate now because apparently she cannot pay her rent buy herself anymore.Immature broke ass loser. If you stay in Pittsburgh. I recommend you stay with someone who is not that uptight and who has resources to host you, not someone who says you have to replace all the food they offer you. Better yet, save your money and go to New York if you are going to go to the Northeast, instead of visiting lame cities like Pittsburgh or any other shit cities in the Northeast. After you go to New York, Pittsburgh will seem like a farm in Kentucky in comparison.
First person I stayed with was a girl in her early 20's living alone. She called herself an anarchist. For a young woman she seemed very confident and sure of everything she talked about. She showed me where the anarchists gathered in Pittsburgh and I even went to one of their meetings to plant trees. Anyway, when I first got there, her apartment was modest but pleasant, and she told me I could eat anything out of whatever she had, which she didn't have much, mostly rice,she also had some cheap wine and whiskey. There was a porn movie with the cover facing up laying on the floor (not something you want a guest to see,male or female).
That was it, over the next couple of days during a four night stay, she was not home at all during the day, and when she came home, she just asked me what I did that day, as if I had been doing homework and I had to report to her.She seemed disappointed at my day's activities.
We went to a nightclub the second night, her idea, paid for her cover and her first beer, then she took off to find some friends. I was left by myself to drink, bored, I must have had about five or eight beers and then I went out to the dance floor to find her. She was dancing with two other women. I placed my hand on her shoulder and said I'd like to stay but I'd probably needed to go since she did not have transportation and neither did I but she was going to go somewhere else after the club closed.
Last day,she gave me a hug after giving me a lecture about how you NEVER put your hand around your host's shoulder,ever. I apologized and said I understood.She gave me a good review on the couch surfing website, but everything would change in two days.
I was still in Pittsburgh staying with another hostess, when she texted and said she found out some of the rice and whiskey were gone. She said I had been very disrespectful and I pointed out that she had told me to help myself to anything, then she said that she had said it but she didn't think I was going to eat so much rice and drink half of the $5 dollar whiskey bottle, she said she was sorry but she was going to change the reference on the website because she said she had to do it for the couch surfing community.
So she changed the reference she gave me from positive to neutral. Then I just changed hers to negative because she just kept texting me that I took advantage and ate all her rice and this and that,so guess what she did? she changed it to Negative too ha ha what a surprise.All for the sake of fairness for the couch surfing community, right?
Then she messaged me to say that if I ever gave her a hard time, she would go to the authorities. Can I tell you the last thing I wanted to do was give her a hard time? I was DONE with her.I did not want any type of contact with her in any way. What was really funny though, is that when I came back to Denver I heard her fucking bullshit stories about me from another couch surfer. This Pittsburgh girl was immature. Like I said, she gave me a positive review right after I left,and according to her, when she found out her rice was gone, she changed the reference,and then for some reason, the arm I put around her started to bother her for the following weeks and she even said to others I touched her leg.I got tons of rice and food in my fridge,and can I tell you the last thing that I would give anybody shit about is eating all the rice? How ridiculous!
I looked at her profile recently and she says if you want to stay with her then you will be staying on the floor in the living room and warns you to not take showers that are too long . She also has a roommate now because apparently she cannot pay her rent buy herself anymore.Immature broke ass loser. If you stay in Pittsburgh. I recommend you stay with someone who is not that uptight and who has resources to host you, not someone who says you have to replace all the food they offer you. Better yet, save your money and go to New York if you are going to go to the Northeast, instead of visiting lame cities like Pittsburgh or any other shit cities in the Northeast. After you go to New York, Pittsburgh will seem like a farm in Kentucky in comparison.
Back in Denver...and Couch Surfing...
I really wanted to know what's it like to couch surf in the city where I live most of the time. Besides, I needed time to find a place after traveling and couch surfing for months. Denver...and I just came here at the right time...during a blizzard on November 2009. My first host...he wasn't too bad but I was not too happy with him either.. but it all went a lot better after that. Do you want to know the problem with my first host? here it is...
After I got back I wanted to relax a bit and rest. One thing that gets on my nerves is when a host will ask you what you are going to do...give me some time to sit down!! and during a blizzard that was not considerate. Now he had two roommates...and wow the girl..I don't know how she was even on couchsurfing.com! She never smiled and she was a bitch. My host had already accepted that I stay at his place and she decided that I was not going to stay while I was on my way there! I was probably in Nevada when I received a text from her. I told the host who had accepted my request,who is her roommate, that I was already on my way. So he talked to her and she changed her mind. Then when I got there, we just started a conversation that did not really go anywhere.I told her I admired the guy that the movie "Into The Wild" was based on. She said he was just a spoiled brat. The guy died in the wild, what has this bitch ever done that gives her a right to say harsh things about him? and not to mention not having any respect for people who have passed away.
The male host started acting like a dick the second day I got there. He took me to a couchsurfing meeting, got real drunk and he had the bright idea that since there was so much snow around, it would be fun to speed, so he started speeding! with me in the fucking car! what is worse, after about 10 minutes of stupid speeding his piece of shit car broke down and we had to walk for an hour to get home.It was around 10 or 11 PM and it was very cold, like 10 degrees or even colder than that. All because the bright guy decided to speed. Oh we would have been home sooner, but the guy decided it would be fun to play in the snow on the way home. All I could thing during the walk home was "fuck!", but anyway, as much as this guy goes to couch surfing meetings,maybe he will learn something someday about treating PEOPLE, not just couch surfers, with some respect, and get this" I wore tennis shoes to Denver, and during the walk home, my feet were freezing from walking in the snow, I mentioned this to the guy and he said "yeah wearing tennis shoes in this weather is not very smart" well neither is speeding a piece of shit car when the snow is up to your knees!!
Anyway the host decided on the second day, and I suspect it was her influence,that I was not going to stay home during the day because they were all going to be gone, and to top it all off, she took me to a restaurant where shrimp and expensive meals were served, expecting me to get myself something from there. I really wondered the entire time...which was two nights...how did this fat, unpleasant bitch ever decided to get an account on couchsurfing? so she can torture people? Anyway, fuck her...
After that, my other three hosts I had in Denver were wonderful...I stayed with a single girl who let me borrow keys to her apartment...I stayed in a nice house for two weeks without my host even being there because he was in Argentina. That was great...it was more like house sitting but it was still great and it felt amazing that someone could treat me with respect and so much trust even without knowing much about me. I watered this guy's plants, got his mail for him and even replaced anything I had taken as far as food (which he offered).
My couchsurfing experience in Denver started out as a bad experience, but I've had worse, and anyway, it ended in a very nice way, with a great host.
After I got back I wanted to relax a bit and rest. One thing that gets on my nerves is when a host will ask you what you are going to do...give me some time to sit down!! and during a blizzard that was not considerate. Now he had two roommates...and wow the girl..I don't know how she was even on couchsurfing.com! She never smiled and she was a bitch. My host had already accepted that I stay at his place and she decided that I was not going to stay while I was on my way there! I was probably in Nevada when I received a text from her. I told the host who had accepted my request,who is her roommate, that I was already on my way. So he talked to her and she changed her mind. Then when I got there, we just started a conversation that did not really go anywhere.I told her I admired the guy that the movie "Into The Wild" was based on. She said he was just a spoiled brat. The guy died in the wild, what has this bitch ever done that gives her a right to say harsh things about him? and not to mention not having any respect for people who have passed away.
The male host started acting like a dick the second day I got there. He took me to a couchsurfing meeting, got real drunk and he had the bright idea that since there was so much snow around, it would be fun to speed, so he started speeding! with me in the fucking car! what is worse, after about 10 minutes of stupid speeding his piece of shit car broke down and we had to walk for an hour to get home.It was around 10 or 11 PM and it was very cold, like 10 degrees or even colder than that. All because the bright guy decided to speed. Oh we would have been home sooner, but the guy decided it would be fun to play in the snow on the way home. All I could thing during the walk home was "fuck!", but anyway, as much as this guy goes to couch surfing meetings,maybe he will learn something someday about treating PEOPLE, not just couch surfers, with some respect, and get this" I wore tennis shoes to Denver, and during the walk home, my feet were freezing from walking in the snow, I mentioned this to the guy and he said "yeah wearing tennis shoes in this weather is not very smart" well neither is speeding a piece of shit car when the snow is up to your knees!!
Anyway the host decided on the second day, and I suspect it was her influence,that I was not going to stay home during the day because they were all going to be gone, and to top it all off, she took me to a restaurant where shrimp and expensive meals were served, expecting me to get myself something from there. I really wondered the entire time...which was two nights...how did this fat, unpleasant bitch ever decided to get an account on couchsurfing? so she can torture people? Anyway, fuck her...
After that, my other three hosts I had in Denver were wonderful...I stayed with a single girl who let me borrow keys to her apartment...I stayed in a nice house for two weeks without my host even being there because he was in Argentina. That was great...it was more like house sitting but it was still great and it felt amazing that someone could treat me with respect and so much trust even without knowing much about me. I watered this guy's plants, got his mail for him and even replaced anything I had taken as far as food (which he offered).
My couchsurfing experience in Denver started out as a bad experience, but I've had worse, and anyway, it ended in a very nice way, with a great host.
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