Meeting the perfect stranger in Madrid
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/07/18/inenglish/1374171098_560130.html
It's a special day just like any other. In Cervecería la
Sureña just off the Puerta del Sol, a dozen twentysomethings crowd around a
tiny table, singing, clapping and clinking beer bottles just as the iPhone
strikes midnight. The birthday girl blushes and giggles, delighted to be
celebrating with the good friends she met 30 minutes ago.
Sarah Murray met this group via Couchsurfing.org, a website
that makes it easier than ever to organize hangout sessions with total strangers.
The so-called social travel network is revolutionizing how Madrileños from all
over the world socialize.
"I literally just moved here and didn't have anyone to
spend my birthday with," says Murray, a Manchester native. "So I posted on
Couchsurfing asking if anyone wanted to go out." Within minutes, she'd
received several responses from complete strangers inviting her to come party.
But Couchsurfing.org wasn't originally created to facilitate
spontaneous birthday bashes. The San Francisco-based site was launched in 2004
to help users find people to shack up with; in the literal sense of the phrase.
Travelers all over the world can look for free lodging with
other members, living like locals while saving cash. It works a lot like a
dating site: users create profiles detailing their interests, allowing guests
and their hosts to find the perfect fit.
But these days, Couchsurfing is a popular social networking
tool for travelers and locals alike. "I already had a place to stay,"
explains 20-year-old Murray, who is spending the summer working as an au pair
for a Spanish family. "But I wanted to find people to go out with here in Madrid."
Couchsurfing users can join groups that correspond to a city
or geographic region. Madrid's
page currently boasts nearly 39,000 members and is always abuzz with activity.
In the end, Murray responded
to a invitation from Mayra del Pilar Quiñoz, a 22-year-old Colombian spending
the summer studying biochemistry in Madrid.
Quiñoz joined the website in March in anticipation of her trip to Europe. "A lot of the friends I've made here, I met
through Couchsurfing," she says.
Like Murray,
Quiñoz already had a place to stay, but she wanted to make new friends and
found it difficult to connect with Spaniards her age.
"People here are kind of closed," she says, with a
puzzled shrug. "They have their tight-knit group of friends who they've
known forever. They're not really interested in meeting new people... at least
not during the day."
Couchsurfers looking for something to do at any time, day or
night, will be overwhelmed by a dizzying array of options. To get an idea of
the kinds of events and activities members organize, try imagining... just
about anything. From swing dancing workshops and cooking classes, to movie
marathons and road trips. One man even proposed a ukulele jam session.
Some people just want to kill time. One user recently posted
that she had a layover in Madrid
and wanted some company for eight hours. People responded with offers to show
her the city, grab a drink or just chat.
But while the Madrid
page certainly gets a lot of traffic, even from non-travelers, the majority of
its users aren't Spanish. "I've noticed that it's mostly used by
foreigners," says Beatriz Hernández, a 19-year-old communications student
from Extremadura. "Not many of my friends know about the page. But without
a doubt, that will change."
The website is primarily used by foreigners, either
travelers passing through town or expats who've made the city their home.
Nonetheless, there are a handful of Madrileños who use the site to tap into an
international community.
"I use it to practice English," says Pedro Ortíz,
who attends weekly Couchsurfing language exchanges. Every Monday evening, Ortíz
goes to Atomic Café in Malasaña to grab a beer, chat with folks from all over
the world, and "find international girls to hook up with," he says,
only half-jokingly.
The site currently has some six million users spread across
100,000 cities in every country in the world. "If you don't have money to
travel, it's a good way to meet people from all over without leaving your
city," says Ortiz
That's precisely what differentiates Couchsurfing.org from
other social networking organizations. While sites such as Facebook and Twitter
aim to connect friends and acquaintances, Couchsurfing exists to unite total
strangers who have one thing in common: they're in the same place at the same
time.
Users don't have to be "friends" in order to
communicate and view each other's profiles. Anyone can post on public groups
and invite other members to hang out.
The drawbacks to such easy access are obvious. "It can
definitely raise questions. Like, who is this other person?" says
Hernández. She believes the majority of users are "benevolent" and
"philanthropic" free spirits. But she recognizes that a few might
have ulterior motives.
Before getting together with a new group of people, Quiñoz
always checks the comments that couchsurfers can leave on each other's
profiles. "If someone has lots of bad references, that's a bad sign,"
says Quiñoz.
For better or for worse, Couchsurfing makes meeting
strangers easier than ever. As Hernández sums up: "It's a simple way to
bring together people from different cultures, as well as the same one."
It can go wrong. But it can also go very right. Like Murray's impromptu birthday party.
"I got lucky," she says with a smile, surveying
the group that came out to celebrate. They are an eclelctic bunch: Italians,
Peruvians, Brits, Americans and an Argentinean, all gearing up to paint the
town red with a bunch of total strangers.