Surfing the Couch

First post, woo!!

This is for those of us going to pretty unfamiliar places without "personal/friendly" contacts outside of ppl to contact for interviews etc. I was having trouble making accommodation reservations from outside of Niger, so I checked out this website http://www.couchsurfing.org/ that has people listed who are willing to let you stay at their place (in most cases not on a couch at all but in a spare room) sight unseen. I found three expat girls in Niamey on there and contacted them and have already heard back from one, who's offered to pick me up at the airport, show me around the first couple of days etc. I'm not sure I'll end up staying with her because I was able to get through to a hostel and am a little weirded out by staying at someone's house who I don't know to begin with, but if anyone else is a little nervous about rocking up someplace with zero "friendly tour guide" type contacts, you might check out the site.

Tis all!
Hugs!

Out Here in the Fields.

Based on Zoe's excellent suggestion, I've set up this group blog as a place we can all post thoughts/photos/etc. during our summer fieldwork. Sound good? You should all have posting permissions either now or very soon. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions...