I'm Joep, eighteen years old and I live in Goes now (which is all not in the overview of course :p)
I was born in Nijmegen and moved to Goes when I was 7, where I have lived for the rest of my life.
I have two brothers with whom I used to travel, together with our parents. We used to go with our VW camper van all over Europe and even went as far as Morocco. Then at the age of 11 our father took us on a backpack journey Through Morocco; an unforgettable experience. The year after that we went backpacking in Surinam. We had a great cab driver, we could speak Dutch with, which was very convenient at that age. These holidays left a really good impression, enhanced by later trips to South-Africa, Turkey, Tanzania and Israel.
I have now just finished bliningual education, and will be taking a gap year next year.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm planning to take a gap year with my girlfriend, in which I will become an intern in England, after which we will travel with the transsiberia express to Beijing for another internship.

During this, I believe it is very important to learn about the places we're visiting, and the culture of the people who live there. I believe meeting up with other people makes you less afraid of the world, and thus a happier person, who will more.eagerly take challenges.

Interests

The one thing I love the most is creating and understanding things. I have made some projects, including a plasma speaker, which can play music with an electrical arc, and a boom-box which can be worn as a backpack.

I joined water scouting when I was about 8 years old, and in the first year, we built a canoe from wood and old newspapers. Since then, I've had a lot of adventurous camps, learned sailing, rowing and caring about boats, as well as made some of the best friend I know :).
I'm now a scouts leader for young children (7-11), and I regularly go sailing with friends.

• culture
• education
• drinking
• traveling
• music
• backpacking
• canoeing
• camping
• sailing
• boxing
• rowing
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

The greatest book I have ever read, is definitely Moesasji, which is about the greatest samurai in history, and covers his epic story with extraordinary wiseness and pathos and epicness :o
Shakespeare and dan brown are cool as well of course, just as Max Havelaar and some other Dutch books :)
Faust is awesome :o (especially since my favourite band, Kamelot has made an album about the play, which rocks ass) and I like bands like nightwish as well, and happy bands such as imagine dragons and Bastille :D, but that's way mainstream :/

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've hitchiked through Morocco with my dad when I was twelve,
We got picked up by some old ladies in a very full car once, and when they went the other way in a crossroads, we insisted on leaving the car and continuing on foot, which the old ladies found very difficult to accept of course, because me and my brothers were so young, and after some more hitches, when we were drinking orange juice above a valley, the old ladies' car came spiralling up the U turns, which was very funny of course :D

What I Can Share with Hosts

I like talking, and are always happy, so I can give some positivity when you need it ;)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Curaçao, Ethiopia, France, French Guiana, Germany, Kenya, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Suriname, Tanzania

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, United Kingdom