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Jareb Steines
NATIONALITY: AmericanJareb
AGE: 30
INTERESTS: Engaging conversations, life, traveling, objectivism, social conformity, morality, experiential learning, evolving, health, fitness, optimism, and education
COUNTRIES VISITED: Angola, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Congo, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Ghana, Gibraltar, Guinea, Haiti, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, The Netherlands, Nigeria, North Korea, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Uganda, UK, USA, Vatican City, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Travel Blog Posts
March 12th 2013
Many doses of camino therapy made leaving Spain for Italy an ease. I was fearless of the road ahead. I reached a point where finding a ladder to bring me off of cloud nine was a tall order and because of that I can pen no words to do justice to my feelings since. Suffice it to say, I'm doing well and will stick to the basics here. Italy - I'm not ordinarily a shopping fanatic, but spending a year in the same sets of clothes encouraged me to use Milan, the world's fashion capital, as a pre-Balkans pit-stop. I was able to upgrade my wardrobe (aka backpack) and spoil myself with delicious foods. Wheat pastas, tofu gnocchi, Swiss almond vegan cheese and bio options just weren't always options in the small villages in Spain. While ... read more
February 18th 2013
As college students in Spain, my friends and I found ourselves eager to do the camino de Santiago, Spain’s 1,000 year old pilgimage that traverses the countrysides to the ancient city of Santiago de Compostela. We studied in Santiago and St. James was allegedly burried there. In 2004, I was younger and the minimum 100km of walking to get the certificate from the Cathedral wasn’t an issue. I’m no longer in college and am certainly not a kid but, at 30, somehow found myself in the nostolgic position of retracing my footsteps to Santiago on my own after having spent the previous 10 months in a group traveling throughout Africa. Exactly one year from the day I set off on my little tour del mundo, January 17th also marked the day I began walking from Sevilla ... read more
January 10th 2013
Ethiopia - Omo Valley, home to a handful of tribes, was unique from other places in Africa we'd been. We were lucky to attend a ceremony in both the Banu and Hamer tribes and were afforded some really amazing experiences watching their coming of age bull jumping ceremonies where adolecent males run and jump across the backs of bulls to proove manhood and to bring cultural acceptance/the ability to marry. Arriving early allowed us time to watch the ceremonies evolve into massive celebrations by nightfall, celebrations that would continue into the night, past our bedtimes. With a month in Ethiopia we had loads of time to see what we wanted, from monastaries, to churches carved from lone rocks from the ground up but my highlights were running the beautiful countryside roads and hiking in the peaceful ... read more
October 3rd 2012
Crossing back up through Namibia, our group met up with the truck (Rosie) and had a couple days to rest and tip canoes before heading over to Botswana. Botswana – This place showed us how Africa once was. There were animals along the roads that were not fenced in. (Elephants, ostriches, giraffes, warthogs, impala gazelle etc.) We took mokoros (wooden canoes) into the Okavango Delta for a couple of days and camped in the bush singing songs around the fire at night. In the day, we walked around and found out just how many animals were sharing our territory in the delta with us. One night, an elephant came up near our tents while we were trying to sleep, exciting some yet scaring others. Hippos, a monitor lizard, snakes and elephants were our close neighbors for ... read more
August 24th 2012
Togo – Here we spent time at a local fetish market learning a bit about animistic beliefs and voodoo. I did not buy the baby python for sale as tempting as it was. A few of us were able to play tennis with some locals for a friendly match of fun and also squeeze in a short run at dusk as well. In Balanka, we visited a German run NGO which had built a library and was helping with the construction of a school. Seeing the school come alive was exciting for me and gave me inspiration for my own ideas. We also visited a Togolese fortress that was built to protect the locals from the Benin slave traders and experienced a tast of their unique mud homes. A couple of us climbed up the inside ... read more
May 11th 2012
Gibraltar - Half of our trans overlanding group grew formerly aquainted with one another in London while the others were waiting to be greeted in the semi-autonomous British rock of land between Spain and Morocco, Gibraltar. We are 16 in all and come from the US, Canada, England, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and last but not least Austrailia. For the next 43 weeks of Big Brother-like life, we'll be aboard our 15 tonne overlanding truck on the African continent doing everything possible. In terms of what we did in Gibraltar, we had lunch in an outdoor cafe at the bottom of monkey covered rock of Gibraltar and got to know one another. Morocco - What amazing month it was! Getting my camel to sit, catching my camel after he ran away, sleeping next to camels in the ... read more
February 3rd 2012
The "gap year" concept, unheard of by many and unfathomable by others, was started by British university students in the 1960's as a way to gain hands-on experiential learning. It's a chance to LIVE, DO and SEE what's typically learned in books and formal education. For the next couple of years, I'll travel the globe on my own gap year(s) and will blog on highlights when possible. My attempts to quit facebook failed and I ended up getting hooked in again. However, I've simplified facebook distractions, put an away message on my e-mail and will blog here and there. In months ahead, like all in my life, I intend to add to a savings account of experiences in time which are stored in the pride of having been lived fully. So here begin my gap year ... read more
November 28th 2011
2011 could not have gone any better. It was my fifth and final year in Korea and had so many highlights that I cannot possibly do proper justice in one entry. I’ll still try. To start, I must say the greatest reason I enjoyed life in Korea so much was because of the work I did in the classroom. I have seen thousands of tired, excited, eager, scared, optimistic, spiteful, indifferent, appreciative and unique faces in the past five years and they have taught me far more than I taught them. They served as a great self-assessment tool calling me out on things when needed, demanding patience, sharing opinions without reservation and giving all they could to grow and learn. Without my job at Chung Dahm, I'd not have Korea and without Korea, I'd not be ... read more
July 9th 2010
I've not written a sentence in this blog in so long. Arguably, that's been all the more reason to put off another entry, as I've nobody expecting an update. But there comes a time in every blog's life where the writer must ask himself, "Do I stop this self-bloggery or do I press on and write yet another entry from Korea despite no drama in the expat life I lead?" By writing this, one can tell that the former wasn't my choice; I should then decide what's worth the typing time to post for my two or three subscribers. Since 2008, (has it really been that long?) there have been a few changes. My family has changed both in Korea and back in the US, my mode of transportation has changed, my living accommodations have changed, ... read more
December 22nd 2008
Many days and other numbers... To my friends both at home and abroad, I'll say that it has been too many days since my last post and so I thought I'd get this off to you all before it's many more. I will keep the theme as arithmetically consistent as I can to avoid mimicking past letters. Year 2 in Korea ... I'm approaching the end of a second year in Korea . It's strange to note how contrasting the two years have been. In year 1, I learned about Korea in a general way, made new friends and it seemed that everything I tried was new. I've spent year 2 doing more docile and stress free things in my spare time. In year 1, I had a small social network but now I am to ... read more
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