Date: 2006-01-13
To: lost in translation
Miles today: 0.0

It's hard to imagine that at the moment, 5000 miles away from my home, dozends of other people prepare to spend the next months in the woods, equipped only with a few essential things, willing to sleep in the cold, to hike in bad weather and to wear the same stinking clothes again and again, cooking their food on primitive stoves made of cans and beeing not shy to squat behind some bushes when they get the urge to relieve themselves. But it's reality. I only have to read through all those journals to see that I'm not doomed to spend the rest of my life in a psychiatric clinic dressed with a strait jacket for having the itch to hike this trail. Hey, I can't be that abnormal! Other people also want to do it! (On the other hand my mother used to say:"If the others would want to jump from a bridge would you also?")Reading through different journals really has given me a lot. Not only in terms of practical advice, though there's plenty of it. More in a motivational sense. To see how different people take a different approach to come to the same end is utterly fascinating. To name just a few: Jaws, whose entries are a spring of useful and practical information based on the expierience of his former hikes. Or Honu, whose humorous remarks flavoured with a hint of poignant sarcasm often hit the bulls eye and at the same time shows what may lay behind the curtain. Then there's Cool Change, who has yet to sell her practice, but always acts cheerfull and serene. Or Conductor, whose calm, stalwart self-assuredness commands my admiration. And there are so many others, everyone unique in dealing with what lays ahead. Diversity of beliefs, opinion, gender, age, expectation, expierience. That's what makes life so interesting. And it's all on the trail! You just have to go out to enjoy it.Ok, time to stop before I get corny :-) One thing that confuses me again and again is the comparision of weights and measures. Miles, yards, feet, inch, cubic inches, gallons, quarts, pounds, ounces (fluid or not), and at the end even the temperature. It's really hard to get a feeling for all those new terms, and if you're poor in mental arithmetic, like I am, you really have no other chance than to get one. But please don't start to email me the comparision figures. I already have them, though a programmable calculator was the last thing I intended to carry. And the hardest part has yet to come. Shopping! Sometimes I envision me standing in front of a rack full of 350 different kind of instant noodles whose brand names I never heard in my live, desperately trying to figure out how many calories are contained in 100 g, when 8 oz contain 357 calories and how much they are in Euro. I hate shopping even at home. It's sayed, that women tend to shop emotionally with their eyes, whereas men take a more brain-controlled approach. I'm totally different. I like to do shopping with my feet. Good old Ninja style: Quick in, quick out and take no prisoners. (L.A. gang members would call it "pass-by-grabbing"). This is a perfect method for shopping if you know the store and where the stuff is located. Though I haven't tried yet I'm sure you could send me shopping blindfolded as long it's one of the shops I usually whirl trough. But abandoned in a foreign country , poor command of language and a complete lack of knowledge regarding names of grocery stores and supermarkets (exept Wal-Mart, we have'm too over here) I will feel lost like a first-grader on his first schoolday. If I read through the journals I always come across brand names like "pop-tart", "mac'n-Cheese", "rahmen noddles" which I never heard from my whole life. Looks like I will have to take the 101 GST (grocery shopping for thruhikers) immediately after my plane has touched ground in Atlanta. Hopefully I will meet some fellow hikers who take me under their wings until I have learned the basics. If one of my dear readers has some adivce regarding this topic I will gladly accept it. Every piece of help isappreciated. So if one day you see a hungry-looking, grubby dude, tearing his hair in front of a store, don't worry, it's probably me wrestling with a post-shopping-trauma.Nuts