Free for all

Brooklyn Jews, Prospect Park
Services in Prospect Park sound delightful. This Judaism-is-cool group have other worship events like “Indie Minyans” (think of it as a Pop-Up Shul) and holiday block parties. Although they’ve reached capacity for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah (Day 1) this year, you can still reserve a spot for evening services or Rosh Hashanah (Day 2) at Beth Elohim‘s temple.

Kolot Chayeinu, 1012 Eighth Ave. at 10th St., 718-390-7493
Kolot’s motto is “building a progressive Jewish community,” and they’re serious about the progressive part. The congregation is led by a lesbian rabbi, and the members are “individuals of varying sexual orientations, gender identities, races, family arrangements, and Jewish identities and backgrounds.” High holiday services are free and open to all, but get there early, because there are no reserved seats; doors open 45 minutes before services.

Ohel Ayalah, at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 Fourth Ave. at President St.
Ohel Ayalah is a self-proclaimed place for young people (or any people, really) who don’t have a place to go for the high holidays. Their services are free and open to walk-ins (although you can still reserve a Yom Kippur spot). According to the web site, the services will be egalitarian (both men and women will lead), and they’ll be mostly in Hebrew, but with some interspersed English “explanations, comments, and readings.”

Chabad-Lubavitch centers (various locations)
Chabad is a Hasidic movement, so services are right out of the schtetl. They’ll be chanted in Hebrew, with separate sections for men and women. Since Chabad as a whole is about getting Jews to be more religious, go into this with your eyes open. If you’re a spiritual seeker, you could wind up on the road to black hatsville. The good news is, these wine-loving, mystic Lubovitchers usually hate to see someone go hungry on a feast day, and consider it a mitzvah to feed a strange Brokelynite. According to one rabbi we spoke to, some Chabad synagogues require reservations and some don’t. So, check out the list at the above link, and see what’s what in your neighborhood (BTW – we know Fort Greene’s shul is bilingual and has grub if you RSVP; Prospect Park‘s feeds you if you don’t mind ignoring a donation suggestion)

Bay Ridge Jewish Center, 405 81st St. at Fourth Ave., 718-836-3103
BRJC is a Conservative egalitarian congregation that seems, from its web site anyway, like a big, family-friendly place. There’ll be Rosh Hashanah apples, honey and challah, and a break-fast meal after Yom Kippur. And the picture on the web site makes the sanctuary look bright and airy. Services are free, but tickets are required, so print and mail the reservation form here or call the number above. New this year, there’s a free kids’ service so you can get some peace when seeking for inner peace.

The Greenpoint Shul, 108 Noble Street, (347) 788-1280
We got word of a shul in Greenpoint where the events are free, where they want you to know they’re young and groovy and don’t care if you wear jeans. Get an eticket for free services, and on the site you can sign up for a $26 post-service dinner. Babysitting provided.

Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, 131 Remsen St. at Clinton St., 718-522-2070

This Reform congregation is another biggie, with over 300 members including some even from Manhattan. High holiday services are held at a couple of locations—the synagogue itself and at the larger, nearby Plymouth church. Services on Remsen Street are free and clear – Plymouth Church offers “modest fee” childcare with reservations.

Congregation Beth Elohim, 274 Garfield Pl. at Eighth Ave., 718-768-3814
CBE claims to be the largest Reform synagogue in Brooklyn, with over 1000 members led by Andy Bachman—a hipstery sort, at least as far as rabbis go, with a cult following among Slopers. The way to get in here for free is through the Brooklyn Jews service, CBE’s “20s and 30s Initiative” designed to get young people and families involved in Judaism. Go to the Brooklyn Jews web site, join for free, and you can get tickets to their services. Although geared toward the younger crowd, it looks like anyone can join.

B’nai Israel of Midwood, 4815 Avenue I, (718) 377-1146
This Orthodox congregation is a real, old-Brooklyn Jewish experience. With borough-accented bubbes, lots of traditional service, and ample street parking, chances are this temple sees Williamsburg as a Hasidic neighborhood. Their seats are free, without RSVP – and if you go, you could be the first person to check into their foursquare. It’s the place to go and get a good pray, followed by a snack and quite probably a little Shadchen action.

Free for some

Union Temple, 17 Eastern Parkway, between Underhill Ave. & Plaza St. E., 718-638-7600
Founded in 1848, this Reform congregation is the oldest Jewish organization in Brooklyn. The great deal here is for young people. If you’re under 30, you can can get your free high holiday tickets just by joining the temple for one year (also for free).

Free off the books
Temple Beth Emeth v’Ohr Progressive Shaari Zedek, 83 Marlborough Rd. at Church Ave., 718-282-1596
This long-named congregation is the last Reform synagogue in Flatbush. Not the largest in the list, Beth Emeth, as it’s more commonly known, has a mixture of young local families and older long-time members. English is prevalent  at services here, and there’s always something for the kids. First-time visitors can buy an all-inclusive high holiday ticket for $18. But if you show up and can’t afford the $18, you won’t be turned away.

The East Midwood Jewish Center, 1625 Ocean Ave. between Ave. K and Ave. L, 718-338-3800
Officially, tickets to this Conservative egalitarian synagogue are a prohibitive $150. Officially unofficially, show up and a seat in the spacious balcony will be all yours. East Midwood’s cantor Sam Levine leads an especially musical service.

RAJE at the Jewish Center of Brighton Beach, 2915 Ocean Pkwy. between Neptune and Ocean View, 800-407-6020
The Russian American Jewish Experience is an organization devoted to “sparking Jewish life in Russian American society.” RAJE runs a variety of services and programs at the Jewish Center of Brighton Beach. The organization’s supported by requested donations, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Or try the hotline…
The UJA (“J-1-1″) shows us up in the customer service area, by referring Brooklyn Jews to local synagogues open to non-members. You can call them at 877-852-6951 or email at J11@ujafedny.org. Get to them before 3:30 if you want a same-day response and they are, of course, closed on the holidays (open ’til 1 p.m. on the “day before”)

There are also…
options in Manhattan and Long Island. As if we cared. Seems only slightly preferable to streaming from Connecticut.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Brokelyn is a supporter of the NYC free condoms initiative. Use this listing to find a place near you where they’re available. Take a bunch, and use them so you won’t have to read this post too often.

NYC Dept. of Health AIDS Hotline
Operates multiple HIV C&T sites. Call for locations
Phone: (800) 825-5448
Services: blood, rapid blood, oral fluid testing
Walk-in, appointment, evening hours

FORT GREENE

NYC Department of Health and Mental Health – Fort Greene
295 Flatbush Ave., 5th floor
Phone: (718) 643-4133
Services: STD and HIV counseling and testing – blood and rapid blood
Walk-in, appointment, and weekend hours: M-F 8:30-4:30, Sat 8:30-1:30

Housing Works, Inc.
57 Willoughby St., 2nd floor
Phone: (718) 473-7407
Services: Operates multiple HIV C&T sites. Call for additional locations. Blood, oral fluids, rapid blood, rapid oral testing
Walk-in, appointment, evening hours, and weekend hours

PROSPECT HEIGHTS

Brooklyn AIDS Task Force – Bergen
502 Bergen Street 11217
Phone: (718) 622-2910
Services: HIV testing- blood and rapid blood
Walk-in and appointment

People of Color in Crisis
468 Bergen St.
Phone: (718) 230-0770
Services: Oral fluids testing
Walk-in

PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS

Community Healthcare Network – Caribbean House Health Center
1167 Nostrand Ave.
Phone: (718) 778-0198
Services: Blood, oral fluids, rapid blood and rapid oral fluids testing
Walk-in, appointment and evening hours

HEAT Program
451 Clarkson Ave., Building U, 4/F
Phone: (718) 467-4446
Services: For individuals 13-21 years old, STD and HIV testing and services, primary care, treatment adherence, and support groups
Walk-in, appointment, evening hours and weekend hours

WILLIAMSBURG

Community Healthcare Network – C.A.B.S. Health Center
94-98 Manhattan Ave.
Phone: (718) 388-0390
Services: Blood, oral fluid, rapid blood, rapid oral fluid testing
Walk-in, appointment, evening hours and weekend hours

BED-STUY

NYC Department of Health and Mental Health – Bedford-Stuyvesant
485 Throop Avenue, 1^st floor 11221
Phone: (718) 574-2482
Services: HIV counseling and testing – blood and rapid blood testing
Walk-in and appointment. M-F 8:30-4

Bed Stuy FHC Mobile Medical Team
St. John’s Soup Kitchen, 75 Lewis Avenue 11206
Services: HIV blood testing
Walk-in

Planned Parenthood of New York City – Project Street Beat
1368 Fulton St.
Phone: (718) 783-7100
Services: Mobile units available. HIV and Hepatitis C testing and referral – blood, oral fluids, rapid blood, and rapid oral fluids
Walk-in, appointment and evening hours

CROWN HEIGHTS

NYC Department of Health and Mental Health – Crown Heights
1218 Prospect Place, 2^nd floor 11213
Phone: (718) 735-0580
Services: STD, HIV, and hepatitis testing and counseling
Walk-in and appointment, M-F 8:30-4:30

BROWNSVILLE

Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center
1 Brookdale Plaza
Phone: (718) 240-6255
Services: Designated AIDS center, blood and rapid blood testing
Walk-in, appointment, evening hours, and weekend hours

Brownsville Multiservices Family Health Center
592 Rockaway Ave.
Phone: (718) 345-5000
Services: blood testing
Walk-in, appointment, evening hours on Thursdays (until 6:30)

EAST NEW YORK

Community Healthcare Network – Dr. Betty Shabazz Health Center
999 Blake Ave.
Phone: (718) 277-8303
Services: blood, oral fluids, rapid blood, rapid oral fluids testing
Walk-in, appointment, weekend hours

And something just for the ladies…

Planned Parenthood
44 Court St., 6th Floor
Phone: (212) 965-7000
Services: Walk-in or appointment pregnancy tests (every day but Wednesday and Saturday), medical abortions, contraception
M-S 8:30-11:30, 1:30-3:30
Emergency contraception for sale  6 days a week for everyone over 17 (by appointment if you’re a young-un)
Call for other medical services – STD testing, prescriptions for the Pill, and Urinary Tract Infection help

NOTE: It is surely not an accident that pro-life EMC set up in the same building as Planned Parenthood. Please be aware which clinic you are going to – pro-lifers may be scary, but they do provide free prenatal care.

EMC PREGNANCY CENTER
44 Court St., Suite 1205
Phone: (718) 596-4300
Services: Free pregnancy testing and ultrasound, Medicaid arranged, adoption assistance.

EMC PREGNANCY CENTER
370 Bay Ridge Pkwy 11209
Phone: (718) 596-8900
Services: Free Pregnancy testing and ultrasound, Medicaid arranged
Call for an appointment

SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn – STAR Health Center
450 Clarkson Ave.
Phone: (718) 270-3745
Services: HIV testing and counseling for prenatal women and partners, family planning clinic

MIC-Women’s Health Services
Phone: (718) 522-1144 [Fort Greene]
(718) 443-9300 [Bushwick]
(718) 498-1001 [Eastern Parkway]
Services: Free walk-in pregnancy tests, low-cost/sliding scale prenatal care, abortions, morning after pills, STD and HIV testing

For listings of other clinics, which provide low-cost or free services to those that qualify, visit the rather thorough listing (PDF) put out by the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

Jack McBrayer (right)

Normally, we’d balk at a $25 buy-in for bingo night. But once we started reading about 826NYC’s “Dueling Bingos” night, we found ourselves reaching for our wallets. You may find yourself across the table from—and trash-talked-to by—actors and comedians like 30 Rock‘s Jack McBrayer, The Daily Show‘s John Oliver, This American Life‘s Sarah Vowell or Eric Gilliland, a TV writer whose credits include That 70′s Show and Roseanne (he probably has a good insult or two). And, did we mention? All the money from the evening goes toward 826NYC’s free literacy programs.

So far, fewer than 40 people have signed up for this head-to-head, cut-throat bingo throw-down. So that gives you pretty good odds of rubbing bingo cards with the cool kids. Especially if you follow 826NYC’s advice and buy extra cards and balls (the non-profit has no qualms about selling you the advantage for their good cause).

For six years, 826NYC has been encouraging students aged 6-18 to write and strengthen their literary ability, through after-school and drop-in programs, tutoring and assisting student publications. It’s a cause we can get behind—because Brokelyn’s always looking to stock-up the future intern pool.

Join in the Bingo fun this Saturday, August 7, at 7 p,m. 826NYC is at 572 Fifth Ave. in Park Slope. $25. If you can’t make it (or suck at Bingo), and really want Kenneth from 30 Rock to win, you can buy him (or any player) an extra card online for $10.

Photo by Jo Ann Santangelo

From clothing to skill-sets, our broke minds have always seen swapping as a way to get something we really need for… our less-than-marketable possessions. If homemade food’s involved, though, a swap can include some pretty sweet stuff all around. Brooklyn urban farmer Meg Paska and baking/canning enthusiast Kate Payne started trading their homemade edibles, and so was born BK Swappers and its bi-monthly gatherings of cooks, bakers and jam-canners, all stoked to snack-up and stock the pantries. And the next swap’s this Sunday, Aug. 1.

The premise of food-swapping is simple. Everyone brings a homemade (or homegrown) item to exchange, everyone leaves thrilled with their windfall. Maybe a swap’s success is due to preservers’ tendency to have 30 jars of jam left from that raspberry bounty last summer, or maybe it’s just the inherent good vibes of people getting together to barter granola.

Photo by Jo Ann Santangelo

The rules for this Sunday’s swap are simple too: Show up with either a homemade larder good (pickles, preserves, butter, chutney), a wrapped kitchen success (cookies, bread, dried foods, whatever) or a snack for 20-30 people. Of course, there’ll be snacking. Bring your famous elderberry-peach chutney and walk out with millet-oatmeal bread, or trade eggs from your backyard chicken for something pickled. RSVP ASAP to ensure you get a place at the table.

And if you’re busy Sunday, no worries—you can always put together your own swap. Kate shares some handy swapping tips with us through her blog, A Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking (making Kate the first person in 10 years brave enough to call herself hip). She recommends:

1) Organize the swap with a friend or two. Communicate with the group through email, Facebook or Twitter (with a good hashtag, like #BKSwappers). That way, everyone will be abreast of a need for a punch bowl or your latest concoction for the swap (#hipgirls is bringing blackberry-peach sorbet).

2) Set your rules ahead of time. BKSwappers insists everything brought is homemade. Also determine when the swap itself occurs—in their case, the beginning of the event’s last hour.

3) Label everything. Not only does this save time re-explaining your every ingredient, but it facilitates BK Swappers’ silent-auction style swap system. On every item’s card, attendees write what they would trade for it. At the designated time, everyone chooses their favorite.

4) Invite your foodie friends and plan your table based on their RSVP (they should tell you what they’re bringing).

5) Arrange for potluck-style snacking. Tension would run high, hungrily staring at a bunch of beautiful food. Make the swap a party instead. BK Swappers will be serving up sorbet fizzes and cordials.

The BK Swappers food swap is happening this Sunday, Aug. 1, from 2 to 5 p.m. Address given to RSVPers.

Dead Horse Bay, photo courtesy of Brit in Brooklyn. (Click photo for more.)

Whenever we Brokelynites want an out-of-the-way vacation destination, we just pop over to our little secret Mediterranean island for cabana boys and mai-tais.

Seriously? We’re lucky if we can afford a trip across the GWB, but we’ve been tipped off to a site that could transform even a Jersey-cation from a mall tour to a chance to see the antenna that sparked the Big Bang Theory or the fabled Gates of Hell.

The site is atlasobscura.com, a user-generated site devoted to oddball locales around the world. Be forewarned—you will spend the next several hours contemplating a trip to Australia to visit Magnetic Hill, Germany’s Museum of Floating Debris, or the Harmonic Bridge in North Adams, Mass.

There are some Brooklyn gems as well—including the trash picker’s dream, Dead Horse Bay (bring your Flickr login) and the abandoned Atlantic Avenue subway tunnels. The most exciting part? This Saturday (March 20) is Obscura Day, and the site has organized group tours for these BK treasures as well as all the other weird places they cover.

Finally, a chance to show up that know-it-all New Yorker who claims to know every bar and bodega in the city. Or, the most bizarre mental vacation you’ll take this year (and the chance to become versed in webspew).

Dead Horse Bay: FREE, tour by Underground New York
2pm, 2 train to Flatbush Ave, Q35 to “last stop before the bridge”

Atlantic Avenue Tunnel: $20, sold out- overflow tour March 28
1:15pm, Atlantic and Court under the clock

Bagel Hole, photos by Jill Harrison

Will you PLEASE do a bagel review? a reader named JT requested a while back, following a post on the mediocrity of Tim Horton’s donuts. I don’t know what kind of review you’ve got in mind, JT, but I do have a tip for you: The Bagel Hole in the South Slope has the best bagels in Brooklyn, and probably the whole city.

It took me a while to realize it this, though. When I moved nearby a few years ago and started going there they seemed kinda small and kinda hard. This is a common reaction, I was later told by Phil Romanzi, who’s owned the narrow, no-frills shop for close to 25 years. If your notion of a bagel is a dough bomb as big and round as a softball and as soft as a Twinkie, then they take getting used to. And it almost certainly is, unless you’re of a certain age and grew up in or around the five boroughs.

Romanzi’s bagels reflect an old-school bagel aesthetic — small, crusty and chewy. As any Brooklyn old-timer can tell you, this is what bagels were before they got Wonder Breaded, and morphed into something softer, sweeter and as big as a bulkie roll. I didn’t know any of this when I started eating them, and like I said, I didn’t immediately recognize that they’re not just different, but better.

That hit home to me after I toasted one that had sat hardening in the bag all day and was struck by how it came to life — by the satisfying crunch, the superior texture and flavor. Now this was a bagel, and it’s since ruined me for all others. (Including those from nearby Terrace Bagels in Windsor Terrace, which are much-touted for reasons that escape me.)

Eventually I learned a little bit about how the bagel had changed and what the Bagel Hole’s product represents, in part from asking Romanzi, who learned his craft years ago from an old-timer in Sheepshead Bay. He slaves long, hot hours by the oven, and takes stubborn pride in carrying the torch, refusing to make his wares bigger to satisfy those who deride them as “mini-bagels,” or use the dough conditioner (nicknamed “Reddi Sponge”) most bagel makers now rely on for a soft texture and longer shelf  life.
The result of that dedication is bagel greatness, which can be enjoyed for under a buck — $1.15 with butter.

The ultra-thrifty can pick up a whole bag of day-olds by the front door for couple dollars, and while even the Brokavore prefers to dig deep for one hot from the oven, as I noted before, stale ones revive nicely with a little toasting.

The Bagel Hole, 400 Seventh Ave., between 12^th and 13^th Sts. 718-788-4014.

Some of what you can expect at the Re/Dress trunk show tomorrow.

Re/Dress is a Brooklyn plus-size vintage and contemporary second-hand store we’ve been meaning to write about for a while, and here it is in a nice little NYC fashion roundup in the Times’ excellent frugal travel blog this week, so thanks, Matt Gross.

If you’re one of those people who thinks vintage dressing is strictly a skinny girls’ game, you probably haven’t seen this Boerum Hill shop, where the Times found “clothes by everyone from Target to Marina Rinaldi, with prices generally hovering between $20 and $80.” Some is vintage, some is Lane Bryant resale and the like, but none of it is smaller than a size 14 (but beware that’s about a size 10 by 1950s standards.)

This weekend, the store has two Fashion Week events. Tonight is a “glutton for fatshion” zine release party (there are still zines?) where you should bring booze, clothes to transform at a DIY station along with your dancing shoes. Tomorrow at 3 is a trunk show by Size Queen Clothing, Cupcake & Cuddlebunny and Diesel Femme Wear, three lines you will assuredly not see at the Bryant Park tents. You also won’t see “size 3x-5x models both butch + femme,” which Re/Dress is still trying to line up as of this Friday afternoon writing, so if that’s you, email deb@redressnyc.com. Fun!

Re/Dress, 109 Boerum Pl. between Pacific and Dean streets, 718-522-7962.

Like many fans of Stacy and Clinton [you are not not the only one, sistah!], I lust after a well-tailored wardrobe, but don’t have a lot of cash, and don’t know my way around getting alteration services in NYC. Growing up, my mom hemmed all my skirts (d’oh!!) Can you help?

Glad you ask, Rachel, because we could use a great tailor too. We could also use one of those seamstresses that all of our fashion-y friends seem to know, the kind who can duplicate a favorite shirt in seven different fabrics in an afternoon. Readers, let ‘er rip, so to speak.

I meet Squirrel during a five-day experiment in couch surfing through Brooklyn, which takes me from a shag rug in Bed-Stuy (not all couch surfing is done on couches) to a plush white sofa with a view of McCarren Park.

The practice of couch surfing—crashing at a stranger’s home for free rather than at a hotel or hostel—is growing among thrifty travelers both here and abroad, many of whom find each other through the five-year-old web site of the CouchSurfing 2.0 Project (CSP). Here some 1.3 million road trippers and prospective hosts (many of them one-time couch-surfers themselves) post detailed profiles listing their occupations, travel experience, personal philosophy and interests, along with action shots from the road.  As on eBay, members review one another, a practice that usually—but not always—encourages good behavior.

While couch surfing is on the rise, it isn’t entirely new. One of the earliest known attempts dates to 1949. While living in Italy, American Bob Luitweilera created Servas, a (still functioning) foreign-exchange home-stay service for adults. Snce 2004, CSP has given anyone with an Internet connection and a good back the opportunity to find a sleeping surface in a willing stranger’s home, and according to Wiki lore it’s now the most oft-visited travel site on the Internet.

As it happens, Brooklyn is something of a couch-surfing hub, with more than 1,000 registered overnight hosts. I joined the CouchSurfing Project and set off on a surfing trip across Brooklyn to find out who they were.

Couch A, Greenpoint
Modern gray ultra suede, chrome frame futon

Jeff and Jen are a hip couple who came to Brooklyn from Cincinnati roughly a year ago.  Their apartment’s bipolar decor, part West Elm mod and part DIY/flea market, hints at their transition from travel bums to successful creative professionals—he a graphic designer, she a freelance writer. Dog-eared travel guides filled a homemade wood-beam-and-cinder-block bookshelf. They’ve been around. And like most hosts, they surfed while traveling and now offer their couch as a way to keep the practice alive.

They’re not married, but—guessing by the DVD sleeve on the counter—have reached the NetFlix stage of their relationship. We spend a mellow Friday night with beer and a “pro-logically good things” conversation. In some cases, hosts will want you to chip in on expenses, but things like frothy beverages are often offered for free. I repay the favor the next day, which turns out to be Jen’s birthday, by making my breakfast specialty, chilaquiles, a recipe from my time volunteering in Mexico.

Couch B, Bed-Stuy
White shag area rug

James has a wide grin and a bold red-orange goatee. He’s approaching 50, but seems much younger owing to his cheerful disposition and the wiry frame of an admirable metabolism.  He spends his days educating newly arrived foreign high schoolers, a job with ties to his ESL days in South America.

His apartment, listed on CSP as a gay-friendly place to stay, is a clean, cozy dwelling; with the home office, living room, and bedroom combined into one space.  Instead of a couch, he offers me a spot on a shag rug next to his bed, but it isn’t as strange as it might sound. He goes through his morning work ritual and yoga warm-up, and I sleep right through.

Couch C, West Williamsburg
Classic wooden frame with dense tan cushions

My third couch is at an alcove studio sublet tucked among the corpses of half-completed waterfront condos in (West) Williamsburg.  My host Jill, who is finishing up a fine arts masters at NYU, is working late, but another couch surfer will be there for a key with me.

Jill rescued Squirrel from the SOS board, a forum for short-notice hosting to help surfers in a bind.  He said he’d come north to the city, got robbed of everything while sleeping on the docks of the Hudson (to save on a hotel), and turned to the kindness of strangers until his family could send money. She let him stay for a week and a half (2-3 days being the surfing norm) in exchange for an offer to build an online portfolio for her paintings and mosaics. To accomplish this task, he asks to borrow my laptop for a few hours, fidgeting and murmuring as he works.

When Jill returns from her art studio, he unveils an amateurish site that in no way resembles her instructions, and Jill and I wind up spending most of the night discussing the incident. But she’s had worse. Prior to Squirrel’s arrival, Jill hosted a Turkish man who behaved courteously when he stayed with her in a different city. This time he smoked in the apartment against her wishes, dirtied the kitchen, and left the shavings of his thick beard in the bathroom sink. “I’ve had some negative experiences,” she explains, “but very few compared to the over 100 incredibly cool people I have met through couch surfing.

I leave mid-morning, and Squirrel throws his few belongings in a duffel bag and leaves with me. When we part ways, I give him $20 for a MetroCard. Later that afternoon, I open iTunes while returning some emails and receive an alert from a defeated virus scan, remembering that only after I loaned him my computer did Squirrel boast about his virus-building prowess. When I try eradicating the virus, it triples.

Couch D, East Williamsburg/Bushwick
Twin air mattress

Ginny is deep into preparations for going abroad for a few months and wants to acquire hosting references. (Some hosts won’t even consider surfers unless they have opened their own homes to travelers.) The encounter is dutiful rather than social, but the accommodations are comfortable.

Couch E, McCarren Park
Plush white three-cushion sofa

When Kimberly opens the door, I’m taken by her unexpected good looks.  She has dark, Mediterranean features and a worked-out physique whose virtues are evident in her exercise clothes. The apartment is also attractive, in a stylishly modern way, and the whole package feels like a carefully crafted presentation, all aspects casually at their best.

Kimberly is a professional publicist who invites me to join her at dinner with two of her friends. She’s a one-time surfer who’s just starting to host. It speaks to the Couch Surfing Project’s strong sense of community that a beautiful young woman—seemingly the least likely to participate out of safety concerns alone—is willing to open her home to a stranger. On the way to dinner, she describes one of the creepier surfer requests she’d received (and declined) since joining the site two weeks ago.

“There was this guy, he was talking about some really strange stuff,” she said. “His name was Squirrel.”

She brings me to a barbecue at a friend of a friend’s house, and we laugh watching wealthy white kids blast gangster rap music, bastardize Ebonics, and shoot dice against a graffitied living room wall. Someone even uses the word shizzle.

There are never any romantic efforts on either end, but when she goes to bed I hear the clicking of a lock. At first, I can’t help but wonder if I seemed “rapey” or something. But I understand the impulse, since I’m her first surfer, and still a stranger.

The duality of sharing an intimate experience with a random person requires some social dexterity.  It’s part of the appeal of surfing, but for others it’s the biggest challenge. That and the occasional computer virus.