CURRENT MISSION

Boldly go where no man has gone before!...No, really!

ABOUT ME

*Please check out some of my travel photography in the link below :-)

http://www.AlexanderStephan.com

or "Like" my facebook page for constant updates of fresh travel photography!

http://www.facebook.com/AlexanderStephanPhotography

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"A tourist see what he has come to see, a traveler sees what he sees" -G.K. Chesterton.

I'm a traveler. Through and through. I love the feel of the sun on my back and the freedom of an open road. Some people travel for great sunsets, some people travel for great food, I travel to travel. There's just something about it. I enjoy all of the little things...the good and the bad. The heckling over prices, as well as those moments when you're standing on top of the world watching an impossible sunset blaze across a crimson sky.

I love the fact that, when you're traveling, life is raw and undiluted. Everything is exactly as you perceive it. You quickly learn that all of the preconceptions and ideas that you had about a place go right out the window where they belong. Cultures and ideas vastly different from your own become familiar. "Others" become "brothers," and the space between otherwise distant minds grows shorter.

That's the great thing about traveling. The more of the world you see, the more you realize that we're all in this together...the smaller the world becomes. You become in tune with the brotherhood of man and the uniformity of the basic human condition. You learn to accept your role as a member of the planet, not as an actor among nations. It's an addictive feeling, and I've got the bug.

PHILOSOPHY

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust Mission

I'm as addicted to traveling as anyone on this site is, I'm sure. However, I think it's important to keep the sentiments of the above quote in perspective at all times. No matter where you travel around the world, sooner or later you'll develop familiarity with that place if you stay there long enough. While familiarity is certainly not a bad thing, more often than not, familiarity comes at the cost of excitement. This doesn't have to be the case, though. I think that one of the keys to happiness in life is to always be able to approach each day with a fresh perspective. Traveling certainly helps this process, but you shouldn't need to travel to be able to experience or see new and exciting things every day. I think this philosophy translates into a lot of different facets of life.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I proselytize CouchSurfing to anybody with ears because I'm convinced that it opens up the world to people in ways that were simply not possible before. I remember when I first heard about CS I thought, like everybody I'm sure, that it sounded sketchy. As I began to look into it more, though, I realized that it was a lot more than just a means of saving money. It can be that, too, don't get me wrong, but far and away the greatest benefit of CouchSurfing is being able to get to know people who are native, or at least well established, in the areas you are traveling. CouchSurfing is a means of cultural interaction and is a way to get to know an area with an intimacy, that would normally take weeks or months, in a period of days.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've only had amazing CouchSurfing experiences thus far. I'm convinced that CS'ers are a different breed of people. Open to the world, accepting of different ways of doing things, and eager to show someone their way of life.

Interests

I have no shortage of interests. Of things that I could most assuredly talk your ear off about (in a good way...I hope, lol), here are a few:

Travel, Biology, Animals, Science in general, Religion, Philosophy, Cars, Technology, Fishing, Photography, Art, Cooking

• animals
• arts
• photography
• acting
• dining
• cooking
• walking
• technology
• traveling
• cars
• music
• piano
• fishing
• hiking
• canoeing
• camping
• swimming
• biology
• religion
• science
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

I enjoy, or am at least receptive to, all types of music. I enjoy a good movie as much as the next guy, but I VERY rarely have time that I feel is expendable enough to do it. In terms of books, I've always been kind of a non-fiction type of guy. I enjoy reading the occasional novel/short story, though.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-5 day solo hike through wilderness areas of southern Costa Rica in Corcovado National Park (no bridges, and not really a "trail," per se).

-Pilgrimage trek up Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka.

-Having a "hike" to an indigenous community in the Amazon with no guide turn into a kilometer or two swim through piranha infested flooded jungle....and finding our way only because an indigenous person happened to row by us in his dugout canoe.

-Walking along the Ganges River in Varanasi, India, at sunrise.

-Morning "call to prayer" in Chefchaouen, Morocco.

-Observing a truly wild orangutan in his natural habitat after 3 days of tracking in the pristine (and trail-less) jungles of west Borneo.

-Braving the leech-infested jungles of central Sri Lanka with the hopes of seeing a wild tiger but only hearing one at night while camping.

Teach, Learn, Share

Any one of the "interests" listed above would be excellent grounds for a "teaching experience." I'm pretty passionate about the things that I'm interested in and am delighted to share my interests with people.

In terms of learning, I'm open to just about anything. I really pride myself in being well versed in a lot of different types of things. One area that I really could improve on, though, is music. I guess it's just one of those things where there's only ever so much time in the day, but I've never gotten around to learning how to play a musical instrument. I know a few riffs here and there, but that's no more "playing" an instrument than a parrot "speaks." I'd love to find the time to change that some day. In particular, I'd love to learn how to play piano.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas, Bahrain, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, United States

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