Seeing the world one couch at a time is gaining popularity. When I joined couchsurfing a year ago, there were 30,000 members. Now there are 150,000. The appeal is hard for some to grasp. “Why would people want to do that?” my mother asked when I told her of my inaugural couchsurfing run through Utah last March. My answer is a simple one: to know people, to experience one day of their lives. I think despite our concern for safety, couchsurfers have an even deeper penchant for community. There is beauty in enjoying a meal with someone in their home, hearing their stories, and discussing the ins and outs of their everyday lives. 

My hosts have included people whose lives and values are not my own. One evening in Rome, I dined with two sets of “partners,” male/female and male/male. One of the men was the dad of my couchsurfing hostess. They treated me to such welcome, and to the best Italian meal of my life. I’ve learned so much about the gap between “not altogether savory,” and “that absolutely will not work for me.” In that space is me sharing my story with someone else whose own story is equally important, even when we don’t find much common ground. 

I visited four different hosts in the States before taking the show abroad. One host couple was a pair of retired park rangers who had built a meditation labyrinth on the hill outside their home. She uses it for a monthly women’s moon group exploring her fascination with the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Also in the States, my sister and I made a Chicago stop with a couple who lived with their new baby and her brother. She was obviously cautious about hosting strangers with a baby girl in the house, but we won her over. They were great conversationalists. Many of their thoughts and values closely mirrored my sister’s and my own, though we are Christians and they were not prepared to call themselves that. The ensuing conversation we had about Christianity is just one of the many engaging interactions I never would have experienced without these brief moments in my hosts’ lives. 

Safety is my most significant concern. There is risk involved, particularly traveling alone as a woman. I don’t have a personal policy, per se, but rather go with my gut. I hope always to stay sensitive so that if I ever arrived and felt wrong about a host, I would be ready to take a cab to a hotel and pass the night there. I have stayed with men, women, and couples.  Besides shared interests, or very dissimilar interests that sound interesting, I take Couchsurfing.com’s feedback system seriously. I would rarely request to visit someone who had not previously hosted other people. 

Even apart from the safety concerns, I acknowledge the whole project may sound miserably uncomfortable or foolish to many people. For me, it fits my personality and I find the risk worth the benefit. When I look back over the past six months and think about the people I’ve met, the places I’ve seen and the experiences I’ve relished, I can’t wait to see what the rest of my trip has in store before I return to the States in August.

With the exception of one person, I doubt the staying power of my couchsurfing relationships. I blame this partly on my tendency to make friends slowly. And since I usually only stay one or two nights with any given host, there’s just not a lot of time to build lasting friendships. Not that I haven’t wished to be best friends with the theater costume designer from Lyon, France, who shared her friends over Saturday night cinema and Sunday morning café; there is simply no continuity in our lives. But even if I’m not destined to be lifelong kindred spirits with my couchsurfing friends, I believe there’s still value in these moments as our lives cross paths. I glimpse into their lives and they glimpse into mine, and all of these little glimpses have added up to a profound experience in my life: experiencing the world not through a travel guide or tourist attractions, but through the eyes and lives of fascinatingly real people.

Hannah Kirkbride is having the adventure of a lifetime currently couchsurfing with friends in Sudan. A Wyoming ranch girl at heart, she began her travels after graduation from John Brown University with a Masters of Business Administration.