Stèphan Potgieter's Photo

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Overview

  • 24 references 17 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in Afrikaans, Dutch, English; learning French, German
  • 37, Male
  • Member since 2009
  • Student
  • mostly by studying
  • No hometown listed
  • Profile 95% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

graduate while searching for Adrenaline

ABOUT ME

I'm quiet but not introvert. I like learning and experiencing new things.

I don't like being bored.

PHILOSOPHY

I live because to stop breathing sucks. And I'm curious about the world.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Have been a guest, now I host. Easy peasy.

Interests

Stories; mostly books or films. Sports; any kind but definitely tennis, basketball, windsurfing and hiking. Woodwork; furniture, boats, art... Mechanical Engineering (what I studied until recently in Eindhoven). Playing the piano. The Great Outdoors. Working with mind and hands. Relaxing. Chilling with friends. Surfing of the couches. Making lists of my interests.

  • arts
  • books
  • movies
  • traveling
  • eating out
  • woodworking
  • piano
  • outdoor activities
  • hiking
  • windsurfing
  • surfing
  • sports
  • basketball
  • tennis
  • engineering

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: fantasy mostly, Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, Raymond Feist, Tolkien of course, Terry Goodkind, but I've read quite a lot of classics in the past and anything that rolls can captivate me. Classics that have struck a cord were definitely Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, Treasure Island.
Movies: all kinds. Horror less than the rest.
Music: I play classical music and bit of blues and boogie woogie. Listen to whatever's on the radio.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

It's not amazing, but what sparks interest in a lot of people seems to be the fact that I spent the first eight years of my life in South Africa (ninth generation proud South African), the next six in Belgium en the last couple in the Netherlands.

I helped save a guy from a relatively remote river in New Zealand once... he spent a couple of days in the hospital but probably wasn't ever in live-or-die danger, though the four of us who helped felt responsible for his life there for a while. That was quite the adrenaline rush, damn. And an all-time high when he got out safely :D.

Teach, Learn, Share

That's deep dude.

I've heard that Brazil is the only country that's been named after a fruit...

That's about all that comes to mind at the moment. I'm sure I'll be able to 'teach and share' more if we met in person.

I like this bit of wisdom from Pico Iyer in his essay 'Why We Travel':
"We travel, then, in search of both self and anonymity—and, of course, in finding the one we apprehend the other. Abroad, we are wonderfully free of caste and job and standing; we are, as Hazlitt puts it, just the “gentlemen in the parlour,” and people cannot put a name or tag to us. And precisely because we are clarified in this way, and freed of inessential labels, we have the opportunity to come into contact with more essential parts of ourselves (which may begin to explain why we may feel most alive when far from home)."

And then there's this one:
"not all those who wander are lost. some had the curry and are looking for the loo."

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Cambodia, China, Kenya, Laos, Lesotho, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Rwanda, South Korea, Spain, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Netherlands, South Africa

Old School Badges

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