Date: 2005-12-25
To: Man or mouse?
Miles today: 0.0

What's the colour of fear? Yellow! Every day I look in the mirror and expect to look like a canary bird. If I think about stumping three months through the woods in a foreign country (foreign at least for me) speaking only broken english, I'm getting really queasy. All those normal little things of everydays live are completely unknown to me. Buying stuff in a supermarket, using a public phone, make reservations for a motel room, order a meal in an eating place, doing my laundry ... yadda-yadda-yadda. Not that I have lived in the woods for the last 40 years. But my home country is more than 6000 miles away from the trail and as you know: When in Rome do as the Romans do. But how should I act like a Roman if I never have been there? Okay, Germany is not Bangladesh or Somalia. In fact we do most things like in the US if I can trust the movies. We have cars, cellphones (although we call them "handy"), TV's, fridges and even computers. We wash our hands after we were on the toilet, we don't belch and fart - at least not when we are in public. All in all we are quite normal people like you find almost everywhere in the western hemisphere. But there ARE differences. I well remember an incident when I was a schoolboy at the age of 14. The teacher of my english class expected us to speak only in english while in class. I wanted to correct my notes but could not find something to erase. So I shouted into class "Can someone give me a rubber?". My teacher instantly blushed and it wasn't because I forgott to say "please". She later told us, that "rubber" is a word the Americans use as a synonym for "condom", whereas the Brits use it as the proper word for "eraser". This is just one example for putting my foot in my mouth. Apart from this we are not very much used to the convention called "political correctness". Narrowly-minded we say "idiot" if we should say "mentally challenged", call female "flight attendents" insolently "stewardess" and don't hesitate to say "peace of shit" when we refer to a "non liquid quantity of human waist". We don't have very much "American Natives" or "African American" people in our country, but when we talk about them, we call them "Indians" or "Blacks". But we mean no harm to do so. We simply don't know better. What do you expect a nation who still allows smoking in public buildings? You think I'm sounding overly sarcastic? Maybe this is my way to cope with my real existing fears. Just imagine if you should walk in the woods over here. Wouldn't you feel a bit lost either? Ok, your english is definitely better than mine, but unfortunately they don't speak it over here. And even if you took a German class, do you really think you would understand only one word if one of my fellow Bavarian citizens talks in his redneck slang (yes, we also have some southeners over here)? But at least I can leave my dictionary at home. It will be useless on most parts of the trail because I can't imagine people there will speak Oxford English. Fortunately my preparations make some progress. I managed to stay under 20 lbs with my pack (water and food excluded). Good outdoor gear is expensive over here, at least if you want some lightweight foreign brands. If I order in the US which would be a lot cheaper due to the favourable foreign exchange rates, I have to add 16 % taxes and a customs fee, not to speak from the heavy shipping costs. Most online retailers charge 40 $ or more for shipping to Germany. That eats all the advantages of close out sales. Recently I discovered Montane, a UK manufacturer of leightweight gear. They sell lightweight water- and windproof gear at reasonable prices. Shipping from the UK to Germany is affordable and there are no customs fees because it's within the European Union. I have ordered a 3 oz windshirt, a 7 oz waterproof jacket and a 14 oz Polarguard insulated jacket for under 300 $. If those items arrive my gear is almost complete. The last problem to solve was to stay connected on the trail. I opted to go with one of those pocketmail devices but as they only are available in the US I would have to order it online. This would be unaffordable (remember the 40 $ shipment rates and the customs fee). So I decided to let it ship to the place I will stay the first night and the folks there agreed to hold it till I arrive. I'm really glad to have found this wonderfull opportunity. The place is called "Hiker Hostel" run by a couple of former ThruHikers, Josh and Leigh Saint. It's located in Dalonghea, just a few miles from Springer. They pick you up in Atlanta, give you a ride to town to pick up food or other items you need, and after accomodation and breakfeast they drive you to Springer. And all this at 55 $! I read a lot about this place in other journals and really looking forwards to meet them in February. One last pain I'll have to overcome is the 10 hours flight to Atlanta. I'm really no fan of being squeezed into an aluminium can together with hundreds of other poor victims. The only thing which is different to a can of tuna is the missing oil. I well remember my last flight. It was 8 hours from Germany to the Maledives and I wasn't able to close my eyes longer than 10 minutes (Experts call this Aviophobia). Besides not getting some rest I caught a cold. Because of the air condition my nasal mucosa dried out and this made me the perfect target for all the little microorganisms and viruses my fellow travellers coughed and sneezed out. Bah ... there's nothing worse than a cold if it's 100° outside and the sun burns the brain out of your head. This time the weather will not be that way, but to walk in the woods with a red nose and sneezing every 200 yards is no fun either. Ok, enough lamented for today. And for the title of this ... at the moment it's clearly the little rodent I feel like. But there are 50 days left to change this feeling. Only 50 days??? ...... aaargh..... where`s the panic button????      Bruno