neonleonb

It's a curious fact that here in Berkeley, I feel an aura of failure that was missing while I was home in Tennessee. There, I was skilled and clever and strong. Here, I'm merely mediocre. Whatever it is I do, there's someone better at it than me--so much so that I can never hope to match them. I'm not a fan of being a small fish in a big pond, but I'd better get used to it, because unless I retreat to Smalltown, TN, that's my fate. Not that I face it alone--almost everyone ends up being outshone. That still doesn't mean I have to like it.

Last night, when I called Finland to see about camping, I first got the phone number wrong. Guess which part I dialed wrong? That's, right, the country code. So, instead of the park service in Finland, I got a very confused woman in Singapore. Fortunately, she spoke enough English to make it clear I had the wrong country.

I have reserved a canoe in Teijo, Finland. I suppose that means I've committed to going camping in Teijo park, and now I just need to make my other reservations, which can be done online. Score!

Oh, and  I may need to acquire a decent sleeping bag. That may be expensive, but it may be necessary. Though, I did get by with a crappy sleeping bag, warm clothes, and 2 blankets on the hang gliding trip this weekend. It was actually quite comfortable. So we'll see whether or not I shell out the big bucks for a fancy sleeping bag.

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There, that covers almost a week. It's a start.

Rock hyrax look cute when sitting around, but they jump over the rocks quite nimbly. I took some videos. I apologize that they're kind of grainy and the light is bad, and the cameraman sucks, but I did what I could.

First, see a young rock hyrax jumping around. Those little buggers can really get around.


Second, and I can't believe I caught this on tape, the hyrax proves not to be as sure-footed as he seems. I didn't even notice this happen when I was filming--only looking back through the video did I see it, and then I laughed out loud.

[EDIT]: I recently realized I can summarize this whole post with the following sentence: If you enjoy planning trips, you're not planning thoroughly enough, since putting in more effort now will pay off when you're actually traveling.

My mother and sister seem to view trip planning as an enjoyable sort of thing. I find it rather stressful, and it gives me that sinking feeling I get when, say, I do my taxes. Perhaps they're not thinking about all the stuff you need to worry about when planning a group vacation.

Consider:

• You must optimize what the other 3 people will find interesting.
• You must optimize travel distances.
• You must optimize cost. This is especially important because you're committing other people to spend their money too.
  
• You must have not only enough plans to fill a day (which is about 4 activities by my calculation, since the afternoon has room for 2 several-hour activities), but also alternate plans.
• You should also plan for food; it's not that those plans won't likely change, it's just that being stuck somewhere without food will suck.
• You probably ought to get directions in advance, since you'll be traveling around a foreign country where they speak a language you don't understand.
• You can't just do fun things, since, to be honest, most fun things you can do at home. No, the only way traveling abroad is worthwhile is if you're doing things you can only do abroad, such as visiting ruins and local museums.
• But at the same time, you don't want to do more ruins, since you know that the trip will be filled with ruins and castles and the like.
• If you fail at any of these things, the result will be one of the following disasters:
• You get lost and waste a huge amount of time, getting everyone frustrated and cranky.
• You run out of plans, or your plans were badly-formed and so can't be completed, so instead you're forced to come up with something to do on the spot. This will surely be expensive (tourist prices) and chancy.
• People will be bored and disappointed, which really spoils the point of a vacation.

Furthermore, the things I enjoy doing can mostly be done at home, and aren't worth doing abroad. Playing any sort of game? It would be damn silly to pay O($1000) to go to a foreign country to play a game you could play at home.

Plus, you simply know that every plan you make will be bad for someone.

I find the whole thing entirely frustrating, and I have my usual reaction to such things: it makes me want to curl up and go to sleep. But having other people tell me that I ought to be enjoying this? It makes me want to write long diatribe posts like this one.

I have obtained some pictures lately during my adventures, and it's time to share.

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And that's my life in pictures.