am i a "travel writer" now? and couchsurfing is BACK.

heeeello my darlings -

ok so i'm reeeeally excited.

i didn't post info about this last week because i was pretty upset about it - but things are better, so now i will.

last week, the couchsurfing website (the site i used to travel around last summer) died. 100% completely dead. people in montreal were calling me crying, casey (the guy who started it) didn't know what to do - it seemed that people had completely given up, because of the mass amount of data that was lost. 60,000 people logged onto that website every 2 days, and everything they had entered into the program was GONE. that night when i went to get sushi (a block from my house), i overheard (and introduced myself to) people on the streets on the phone about how couchsurfing died. word spread like wildfire. and people were freaking out.

but heather (the woman who i stayed with when i moved here) and casey called me the next day, and asked me to join them in rebuilding the website... so i agreed to write all of the information on safety and "how to couchsurf."

and i did. for three days, i woke up at 6 am to have online MSN conferences with people in Greece, Germany and Canada who i have never met - sending them documents, editing what they sent me, etc etc

and yeeeees! this morning, the couchsurfing website came back online!!! its back and i couldnt be more excited...

until i saw that everything that i wrote is up there, and in some cases, word for freaking word. WORD FOR FREAKING WORD, dudes. i cant even believe it.

check it out: http://couchsurfing.com/tips.html

i wrote (with editing of course) under "Tips":
1) "Safety for Surfers"
2) "The Solo Woman's Guide to CouchSurfing" (soooprise soooprise)
3) "General Tips"

i contributed to the rest of the links, but those three are all mine. and i'm telling you, each of those recommendations i learned last summer as i went along, or saved my life at least 16 times. seriously.

(and you can find my profile at the bottom of each entry, along with all the kids i met last summer and who stayed with me here in SF. and Will: Leonard's couchsurfing name is "Dreamaline," if you want to see his profile)

so um, my writing is somewhere for the public to see. its not the fictional stuff i work on sometimes, but it's a autobiographical (in a sense). and the rumors are true: it's really wierd to read your words in print, online, etc etc.

i always hoped way deep down that my trip last summer would lead to something i could actually put on a resume, and sho enough... who knew. man.

loooooong one. BUT IM SO EXCITED.

AND I MISS YOU.