Kategorie: Love to learn

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ein wenig Geschichte

Die ersten Men­schen, die Wis­con­sin betrat­en, kamen vor etwa 12.000 Jahren. Sie kamen nicht so spät nach Ameri­ka, son­dern das Eis ver­schwand erst so spät. Die let­zte Eiszeit bekam in Ameri­ka auch den Namen Wis­con­sin Glacia­tion. Diese ersten Jäger und Samm­ler wur­den vor ca. 2500 Jahren von ein­er Kul­tur abgelöst, die seßhaft war, Acker­bau betrieb, in Kun­st und Kun­sthandw­erk merk­bare Verän­derun­gen vorantrieb. Sie waren jene, die die ersten Mounds errichteten.  Andere Kul­turen fol­gten. Die ersten Kul­turpflanzen wur­den gezo­gen, auch wenn es noch viele Jahrhun­derte brauchte, bis manch­es so aus­sa­hen, wie wir es heute kennen.mg_9525

Die “3 Schwest­ern” wur­den einge­führt: Mais, Bohnen und Kürbis.

Der erste Mais, der eine Süß­grasart ist, wurde gezo­gen. Ich weiß nicht, ob dir bewußt ist, dass der heuti­gen Kul­tur­mais­es sich ohne men­schliche Hil­fe nicht fortpflanzen kann. Es gilt als eine der größten Domes­tizierungsleis­tun­gen des Men­schen. Es gibt viel mehr Arten, als wir hier in Europa ken­nen. So wie beim Kür­bis, von dem ich als Kind auch nicht wußte, wieviele Arten es gibt. Und jed­er in meinem Alter weiß, dass früher lange nicht so viel ver­schiedene Arten in Geschäften ange­boten wur­den. Bohnen bzw. Hülsen­früchte gab und gibt es an vie­len Stellen der Welt. Ich liebe es neue Sorten ken­nen­zuler­nen. Auf mein­er Reise war ich in die schwarzen, die black beans, ver­liebt, die ich mit Stan­gensel­lerie und Apfel zu einem her­rlichen Salat ver­ar­beit­ete, aber im Grunde immer wieder zu allem möglichen aß. Es ist die Arbeit dieser Men­schen, die uns heute diese Nahrungsmit­tel erschlossen hat.
mg_9508Wil­dreis, der in den vie­len Seen weit ver­bre­it­et ist, wurde gesam­melt, wie vieles anderes, aber der Wil­dreis ver­di­ent es, genan­nt zu werden.

Der Mis­sis­sipi, der Gren­zfluss von Wis­con­sin zu Min­neso­ta und Iowa, war damals kein Gren­zfluss, er war eine Hauptverkehr­sweg. Es gibt Funde, die aus dem Golf von Mexiko stammen.

Um 1700 kamen erste franzö­sis­che Pelzhändler (die ersten Expe­di­tio­nen waren bere­it 1634 unter­wegs auf der Suche nach dem Mis­sis­sip­pi). Viele franzö­sis­che Namen erin­nern daran, die man aber englisch aussprechen muss, was mir immer wieder schw­er fiel: Prairie du Chien statt prairie dog.  Die Gegend hat­te viele Feucht­ge­bi­ete und es war sicher­lich nicht leicht zu leben. Kalt im Win­ter und heiß im Som­mer, das was wir als Kon­ti­nentalk­li­ma ken­nen. Irgend­wie vergessen sie uns zu erzählen, wie die Land­schaften aus­sa­hen, bevor Europäer dort ein­trafen. Bald über­nah­men Briten die Gebi­ete, aber die waren eben­falls haupt­säch­lich am Pelzhan­del inter­essiert. Die Ostküste war in der ersten Zeit interessanter.

Der Druck, der dort auf die First Peo­ple aus­geübt wurde,  zeigte sich als Wan­derungs­be­we­gung. Wie Domi­nos­teine fie­len sie in Rich­tung West­en bei anderen Stäm­men ein. Es war sich­er viel kom­pliziert­er und mir fällt es schw­er, diese Geschicht­en ganz nachzu­vol­lziehen. Die Ojib­we waren ursprünglich am St. Loren­zstrom zuhause und began­nen Mitte des 17. Jahrhun­derts west­wärts zu ziehen. Sie teil­ten sich in 3 Stämme und eine Gruppe ließ sich am Ostufer des Lake Supe­ri­or nieder. Die Sioux, vielle­icht bess­er Lako­ta und Dako­ta (ins­ge­samt waren es 6 ver­schiedene Stämme), über­nah­men die Pferde der Europäer und zogen vom Mis­sis­sip­pi weit­er in die Great Plains._MG_8177

Ich zog also auf dieser Strecke, die schon die First Peo­ple wählten und  nicht nur die Europäer. Irgend­wie war mir nicht  bewusst, dass die let­zte große Schlacht erst 124 Jahre her ist: 1890 am Wound­ed Knee. Das war nach dem Bürg­erkrieg. 150 Lako­ta: Män­ner, Frauen und Kinder wur­den getötet. Eine let­ze Schlacht von vie­len,  die  300 Jahre früher begannen.

Bek­lem­mender finde ich, dass die Pock­en 80–90% der First Peo­ple getötet haben sollen. Manch­mal glaubten Europäer, dass das Land nie besiedelt war, dabei hat­ten sich die Krankheit­en schneller ver­bre­it­et als die Per­so­n­en selb­st. Und manch­mal gab es gezielte Maß­nah­men als biol­o­gis­che Waffe, um diese Krankheit zu ver­bre­it­en. Infizierte Lein- und Taschen­tüch­er wur­den den Delaware übergeben. Die Diskus­sion, ob dieser doku­men­tierte Anschlag  erfol­gre­ich war oder nicht, ist lächer­lich. Man wusste darüber Bescheid und auch wenn dieser eine nicht erfol­gre­ich war, sind die vie­len Undoku­men­tierten erfol­gre­ich gewe­sen. Manch­mal ist Geschichtss­chrei­bung lächer­lich. Wenn Zahlen gegen andere Zahlen herange­zo­gen wer­den, um Tat­sachen in ein schiefes Licht zu rücken.

 

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Ich reiste durch Indianerland

Ich reiste von Wis­con­sin nach Michi­gan, Min­neso­ta, South Dako­ta und Wyoming und beim Zurück­fahren kam ich noch in Iowa vor­bei. Ich weiß nicht, was mich bewegt hat­te, nachzuse­hen, woher die Namen kamen. Doch so fand ich raus, dass alle Namen einen indi­an­is­chen Ursprung haben, auch wenn manch­mal nicht klar ist, was es wirk­lich bedeutet.

Wis­con­sin: Hier gibt es viele ver­schied­nen Inter­pre­ta­tio­nen, kurz man weiß nichts genaues nicht. Von Platz des roten Steins, über wie “wie sich die Wass­er tre­f­fen” oder “Großer Fels”. Viele The­o­rien, nix genaues.

Michi­gan: Hat seinen Namen von einem Wort der Ojib­we mishiga­maa,  das bedeutet Großes Wass­er oder Großer See. Tre­f­fend­er geht es wohl nicht mehr, der Lake Supe­ri­or ist der Größte der Großen Seen, aber eigentlich liegt Michi­gan an 4 der großen Seen: Lake Michi­gan, Huron, Supe­ri­or und Erie. Die Großen Seen sind Übrig­bleib­sel von Bruch­lin­ien eines Rift­sys­tems in mit­ten der Nor­damerikanis­chen Kon­ti­nen­talplat­te (entschuldige, ein wenig Geolo­gie muss sein), es begann mit der Lin­ie, wo sich heute der Lake Supe­ri­or befind­et, und der Sankt-Loren­zstrom fol­gt ein­er weit­eren. Den heuti­gen Look erhiel­ten sie zur let­zten Eiszeit, qua­si den let­zten Schliff, nur dass es nicht der let­zte sein wird.

Min­neso­ta: Bedeutet “Klares Wass­er” und stammt von den Dako­ta. Im Nor­dosten Min­neso­tas liegt der Lake der Supe­ri­or und der Mis­sis­sip­pi durch­quert den Staat.

South Dako­ta: Ist klar, oder? Die Dako­ta sind ein Stamm, der wie die Lako­ta und Nako­ta (manche sagen, dass Sioux der Ober­be­griff ist, der Begriff stammt aber von anderen Stäm­men und wurde “franzö­sisiert”) in den Great Planes lebten, als die Europäer in den West­en vorstießen.

Wyoming:  Ist ein wenig weit herge­holt, denn es hat seinen Namen vom Wyoming Tal in Penn­syl­va­nia. Thomas Camp­bell schrieb ein Gedicht Gertrude of Wyoming. Es stammt von einem Wort der Mun­see  xwé:wamənk, und bedeutet große Flussebene. Das ergibt nicht wirk­lich Sinn. Aber lassen wir es dabei bleiben, oder?

Iowa ist nun der let­zte der Staat­en, den ich auf­suchte, und die Leute, die hier lebten waren die Ioway, obwohl es eigentlich noch viel mehr Stämme in dieser Region gab. Die Reise geht also dem Ende zu, ich selb­st bin schon zurück, aber meine Gedanken weilen noch dort.

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Cody

Now I have to switch to Eng­lish because I am guest as a couch­surfer in Cody.

After some weeks alone, I want­ed to get to know peo­ple. There are not many peo­ple liv­ing in South Dako­ta and Wyoming and I want­ed to talk to locals. Couch­surf­ing is the best way to do so, although I have to say that CSler will always have a spe­cial qual­i­ty and that is trav­el­ling. I don’t know any bet­ter way to become open mind­ed and open heart­ed than trav­el­ling. There­fore I decid­ed for a couch in Cody.

The city said wel­come in send­ing me a rain­bow. With­out any clouds and any rain around. That’s quite nice.

You nev­er heard of Cody? Me nei­ther. Stop, back to the start. Cody is a city in Wyoming. Wyoming got its name from the Chayenne and it means: great plains. But Wyoming is far more than plains. It has lit­tle parts of the Black Hills, it has its own Bad­lands, the Rocky Moun­tains and YELLOWSTONE.
cr2One of the most excit­ing places in the world. A super­vol­cano and you can walk into it. Let me give you one lit­tle advice: don’t watch ‘Super­vol­cano’ a day before you go there. It is fright­en­ing. I did and I need­ed a while to for­get about it.

Cody is at the east entry of Yel­low­stone. That does­n’t make a sto­ry. BUT you have heard of Buf­fa­lo Bill. His real name is William Fred­er­ick Cody. I think you have heard about the shows. This was some­thing typ­i­cal for the time, no TV but explor­ers and adven­tures telling their sto­ries. The ele­va­tion is 1523m and it became eas­i­er to get a sun­burn. Ruth and Peter have 3 love­ly dogs and 2 lamas who are their lawn­mow­er. They were so love­ly hosts and it was a per­fect way to get to know peo­ple from Wyoming.

They have 300 sun­ny days. The snow is blown away eas­i­ly and you need cars with clear­ance height. 10.000 peope live there, they have a news­pa­per which is pub­lished twice a week, a big library (I will always be jeal­ous when I see libraries in all these lit­tle towns in the USA where kids start to use them at the age of 4).

I did­n’t attend a Rodeo and don’t feel sor­ry about that but I spend a day in the Buf­fa­lo Bill Cen­tre of the West and believe me, the name is the worst of this muse­um. It is gor­geous, I had­n’t expect to learn that much. For the sec­ond year in a row it has earned the Cer­tifi­cate of Excel­lence Award from Tri­pAd­vi­sor, the world’s largest trav­el web­site. It is not just about Buf­fa­lo Bill! They have a won­der­ful nat­ur­al his­to­ry Trip-Advisor_Plainsmanmuse­um which gave me a good overview which ani­mals pre­fer which height. Anoth­er long stay for me was the plains indi­an muse­um that is anoth­er part of this cen­ter. Of course there is a Buf­fa­lo Bill part too but I was tired and it would have need­ed quite a time to under­stand him in a bet­ter way. He had lots of shad­ows of grey.

For lunch I decid­ed to stay at the Drap­er Muse­um Rap­tor Expe­ri­ence. They have six birds which aren’t able to live out­side any­more because of dif­fer­ent kinds of prob­lems (acci­dent or blind on eye…)

I learnt about the vol­un­teer work, how the com­mu­ni­ty is sup­port­ed by cit­i­zens. It is not the cen­ter of the Uni­verse but a beau­ti­ful place to live if you love the nature.

And of course a nice (quite long) talk with Ron, a pro­fes­sor from Colorado.

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People I met and I want to thank

and I would like to thank in this way, even if I don’t know the name of everyone.


2011usa_3-025Ruth:
She was my first host and com­fort­ed me after my long flight. I am grate­ful how easy she made my first days in Cal­i­for­nia. It was very spe­cial to stay in the Los Ange­les Ranges, a place I might have not seen with­out her. She showed me not only the Pine Moun­tain Club, she also intro­duced me to:

bud­dhist monks: Rev­erend Mas­ter Phoebe and Rev­erend Mas­ter Seikai:

2011usa_3-033I was invit­ed to be part of the Lotus Cer­e­mo­ny and here you can lis­ten what Mas­ter Phoebe said about the cer­e­mo­ny dur­ing the Dhar­ma Talk where we sat togeth­er and drank some tea and had some cook­ies which I found a touch­ing way of teach­ing as we were encour­aged to talk with her and ask questions.

San­dra:
I met San­dra at the park­ing lot of San Andreas Trail close to Palo Alto. She is born in New York and lives now since almost 30 years in Cal­i­for­nia. She encour­aged me to write about my expe­ri­ences about my trav­el and she is read­ing this blog too. Quite a lot peo­ple I met use google trans­la­tor. I was sur­prised how many were inter­est­ed to read my blog. That is also a rea­son why I write this in English.

Har­ri­et:
She is anoth­er couch­surf­ing host of mine and she is still encour­ag­ing me and I love that we are still in con­tact. I had to smile when she wrote after I sent her a book back, she bor­rowed me: 
I have lost a cou­ple of books over the years by lend­ing them to close, dear friends that I had known for decades, and that I would trust with my life.(One of the couch surf­ing rat­ings, trust­ing some­one with your life)
But trust­ing a book return is one step high­er than trust­ing ones life!
So, I trust you with my life, and with my books!
 Maybe the librarian’s heart came through. It means a lot to me that she told me that she invit­ed me because of my pho­tos but also that she uses her annu­al pass to the Cal­i­for­nia State Parks now more often because of my trav­el blog. I like her pic­tures and her hous­es. If you want to see her hous­es, than enjoy I like her style.
Spe­cial Thanks to her.

Lyn and Sam:
while Sam was quite busy, I had won­der­ful talks with Lyn. It was like know­ing her for ages and I came just home for a vis­it. We spoke about fam­i­lies, the world, our jobs … all that stuff you talk to famil­iar peo­ple. I am grate­ful that she made me feel we know each oth­er since decades. I miss talks like I had with her. He, Lyn, you won­dered what I will resume about you. Here you can see.

Ranger Car­ol:
She works at the Lassen Nation­al For­est close to the camp­ground where I staid at Mount Lassen. She was cheer­ing me up for this trav­el ask­ing if she could come along with me. She was so friend­ly and nice and explained and showed me where I can go and what might be spe­cial for me. That she looked at this blog even after weeks was a love­ly sur­prise. Rangers like her are doing a won­der­ful job and I think they give a lot to all of vis­i­tors — hap­py we found some­one like her.

Rachel:
Rachel is a 20 year old woman and I found her on a rainy day cry­ing with her lit­tle dog on the stair­case of my motel. I did­n’t know what to do. Might it be obtru­sive if I talk to her? I did and as I could­n’t under­stand her because of her heart­break­ing tears I invit­ed her for a break­fast. She told me a long sto­ry and I don’t know if it was true or not. But I saw her care for her dog, I saw her wish to make it. Her boyfriend kicked her out and she had no fam­i­ly who cares for her that was easy to believe. I don’t know if she real­ly gave her child away for an adop­tion, she lost her mom 15 months ago. But I saw how strong she want­ed to make it. Few days lat­er I saw Will Smith in The Pur­suit of Hap­py­ness and I asked myself how many home­less or almost home­less peo­ple has the same dream and how many won’t make it.

Polit­i­cal talks:
At Low­ell Cov­ered Bridge I met a lady who was clean­ing the exhi­bi­tion inside the the bridge. I asked her why this bridge was only cov­ered part­ly. She did­n’t know but then I could see that the oth­er part was a dam and not a bridge any­more. I don’t know how it came but I spoke about the Roo­sevelts. Theodor Roo­sevelt whom I just knew from “Arsenic and Old Lace” when the cousin was dig­ging the Pana­ma-Canal and who gave the ted­dy bears his name. Hon­est­ly he want­ed a canal through Nicaragua and they bought it from the French. But he made quite a lot of Nation­al Parks, Nation­al Mon­u­ments, and Nation­al Forests and was the founder of Muir Woods Nation­al Mon­u­ment. Here I heard of him and startet the research because this hap­pened in 1908 and in 1945 the 50 del­e­gates who signed the Unit­ed Nations Char­ter went there. Franklin D. Roo­sevelt died short­ly before it and on May 19, the del­e­gates held a com­mem­o­ra­tive cer­e­mo­ny in trib­ute to his mem­o­ry in Muir Woods’ Cathe­dral Grove.

There­fore I start­ed to look for them while the first was a Repub­li­can, the sec­ond exe­cut­ed the “New Deal” and a Demo­c­rat. So I told her that quite a lot of the dams at this time were built as a activ­i­ty against the great depres­sion of the 30s. Lot of the meth­ods are now part of what Oba­ma is try­ing to force. I spoke with her that the Repub­li­can act as this has nev­er hap­pened before but it did. She agreed and I was a lit­tle sur­prised because I did­n’t expect to find peo­ple who like Oba­ma in the coun­try­side. So I told her that he has now gained more mon­ey from pri­vate peo­ple than 4 years ago. More peo­ple are active in his new cam­paign than 4 years ago. The Repub­li­cans like Palin have 1/7 of friends as Oba­ma has in face­book. Maybe just jour­nal­ists love the loud odd opin­ions of Repub­li­cans and there­fore We hear more of them. Not all are watch­ing Rachel Maddows.
On 4 July a young man came to me and asked me if I want to reg­is­ter for the elec­tion. With him it was clear that he was look­ing for vot­ers for Oba­ma. With him I spoke about the pow­er of com­pa­nies. Few days ago the 5 Mil­lion women lost a law­suit because men are earn­ing more than women at Wal­mart. They treat com­pa­nies like any liv­ing per­son which is quite strange but start­ed some­how with the roman law where prop­er­ties count more than human lives. And we still have that but with deci­sions like that it becomes more obvi­ous what strange direc­tion our soci­eties are going to. But if it does­n’t fit the com­pa­nies a state can’t do any­thing. Some cities want to ban plas­tic bag but the plas­tic com­pa­nies are fight­ing against it. Or stronger laws against pow­er plants: here the Fed­er­al Supreme court says it isn’t pos­si­ble that sin­gle states make stronger laws. We spoke about the unbe­liev­able pow­er of Mon­san­to and their restric­tion which is in my opin­ion against human rights. They bring more poverness than any oth­er com­pa­ny I know.

I was just hap­py to find some­one to talk about that after I was lis­ten­ing to dif­fer­ent shows. And of course the talks with my friend Bet­ty with skype who spoke with me about the sit­u­a­tion in Wis­con­sin. I am def­i­nite­ly curi­ous how it will go on because the peo­ple became active after the elec­tion and a Repub­li­can won.

Andrew:
I had almost for­got­ten that I met him till he wrote weeks lat­er. I think he is not aware that he was the only one for 2 days who spoke with me in the Port­land Hos­tel. I know that I don’t have real prob­lems to get to know peo­ple but there no one spoke to me. They looked at me ask­ing what the hell I want to do there. One stopped talk­ing after real­iz­ing that I am from Aus­tria like Schwarzeneg­ger. Thank you Andrew, you gave me the con­fi­dence back the oth­ers took away. Good luck for your job!

Haley
I don’t know if this is the cor­rect writ­ing Haley like the comet but not writ­ten like it. Which was the com­pro­mise of her par­ents and not call­ing her “new moon” but still peo­ple call her that way. What a nice talk we had on a lazy Sun­day after­noon. Her Grand­moth­er is from Wels in Upper Aus­tria and she knew some Ger­man words. Her baby is almost a year and I just remem­ber the 2nd name “Rebel”. I hope that he will live his name. We spoke about her child­hood (she is 25) and now even at the most peace­ful­ly coun­try­side chil­dren pre­fer to play with the com­put­er dif­fer­ent to her. She was out from morn­ing till evening. I won­der where chil­dren will be able to learn what we learnt play­ing with oth­ers. Are they faster in learn­ing social com­pe­tence and empa­thy? This is the beach where she played as a child. We also spoke about the idea that Amer­i­cans are seen as super­fi­cial. She first thought so but I think Amer­i­cans are quite open and oth­er peo­ple are in dif­fer­ent ways close but you can’t con­nect ope­ness with super­fi­cial. You might need as long as with close peo­ple and as much patience and efford for all peo­ple. If you don’t care more for the oth­er, the result will always be the same.Take care and all the best for your small fam­i­ly and mar­ry if you like it and if it is impor­tant for you and for no oth­er rea­son! And vis­it your grand­moth­er as long as it is pos­si­ble, this is important!

Twi­light Town Forks  and their Jan:
She is a love­ly lady from Town Motel and we had some love­ly talks and I am look­ing for­ward to read the book of Nicholas Spark she gave to me (and I will look for Note­book by him too). And the leg­end of the Sand Dol­lar. It is beau­ti­ful for me to hear that for the 50th anniver­sary she took her whole fam­i­ly of 27 and cruise to the Caribbean. I have to write her that I came home safe­ly which she asked me to do. I just saw now on her web­site what good prize I got. Maybe because of the rain? I was quite grate­ful that I did­n’t had to learn about the “Twi­light” which you found all over the place. Thank you for all.

Bill:
It was rain­ing and I stood at one of the less beau­ti­ful trees of the “you have to see” trees of my trip when some­one asked me if I am impressed by this big … wow I had to look into the infor­ma­tion of Olympic Nation­al Park. I for­got the name of the tree: it was a big Sit­ka spruce tree. I told him that the Big Cedar more south is more impress­ing. He was curi­ous and as every­one who knows me: I CAN talk. And I told him about the trees, old and young land, about Nation­al Parks and so on and so forth. And he made notes, final­ly he said that he is a jour­nal­ist and curi­ous as I am, I asked for the news­pa­per. New York Times… He took a pic­ture of mine which he send me lat­er. He does­n’t know that I was mar­ried to a jour­nal­ist. I know their fire when they hear good sto­ries. Thank you for your fire.I pre­pared these lines  a week ago as a fin­ish of my trip (is there any­thing bet­ter than a BIG THANKKS at the end?). But dur­ing that week Bill wrote not just an arti­cle about the rain­for­est which was what I expect­ed but an arti­cle about my travel:
Earth­ly Dream Is Real­ized in the Rain Forest
By Pub­lished: July 27, 2011
It is my fire to write “My lit­tle Sto­ries about almost Every­thing” which I already start­ed. It made the end over­whelm­ing. My sto­ries are also encour­aged by the next lady:

Lau­ra:
she was hitch­hik­ing at the Pacif­ic Rim Nation­al Park on Van­cou­ver Island. And she almost felt asleep because of her 2 jobs and she was going to vis­it her daugh­ter in hos­pi­tal. But she lis­tened quite inter­est­ed to my sto­ries where I try to explain in easy words what sci­en­tists know nowa­days about the uni­verse and the world. She belongs to the First Nation of Ahousat but nev­er lived in the reser­va­tion. I was hap­py to hear that she start­ed to lis­ten to the sto­ries of the eldest. She told me about the eagle and the sea ser­pent which are the ani­mals of her tribe. The eagle who came to every funer­al and fly in cir­cles around the fam­i­ly and friends. I remem­bered when I drove into their ter­ri­to­ry by acci­dent that it was dif­fer­ent feel­ing, a peace I did­n’t felt on oth­er places. But I was also in oth­er reserve which felt more inse­cure and search­ing. She thanked me telling that stuff in words she can under­stand. That con­vinced me about the impor­tance of a book like that.

I told her the sto­ry of The Every­thing. It is quite inter­est­ing that I talk about it most of the time in Eng­lish The Every­thing, that is what my friend Trent made out of it.

It was record­ed and the music is by Trent. (We were sit­ting in a cof­fee shop in Vien­na just talk­ing, and that’s what he made out of it :-).

Win­nie, Yvonne and Gael:
Fun­ny Vic­to­ria! After lux­u­ry couch­surf­ing places with an own room and an own bath­room, I stayed now at Winnie’s place. I was lucky that I had my mat­tress and sleep­ing bag with me as she had just one blan­ket but three couch­surf­ing guests. After the first night with Yvonne from Ger­many, Gael from New Mex­i­co arrived and we slept in the kitchen/livingroom of about 18 sqm with a park­ing in it. It was good that she wrote in her pro­file that she smokes med­ical .… I did­n’t know how much you need of that. In her enthu­si­asm of hav­ing guests from all over the world, I think she over­es­ti­mate the tol­er­ance of the guests. It was a kind of strange to sleep 2 oth­er strangers in a small room on the floor. But on the oth­er hand I had an expe­ri­ence I would­n’t have had with­out her even if I don’t want to expe­ri­ence it again.

Talk with 2 enlight­ened guys at McDon­alds in Victoria
Would you expect to sit at McDon­alds and talk with enlight­ened peo­ple? Me nei­ther. We spoke about uni­ver­sal pow­er, uni­ty and eter­ni­ty. I did­n’t expect that. But I had this con­ver­sa­tion. I was just leav­ing when the man next to me said some­thing and I total­ly for­got what he said. (I could­n’t even remem­ber dur­ing the con­ver­sa­tion how all began). But after 2 min­utes I explained him my def­i­n­i­tion how every­thing start­ed. It was­n’t the first time I did that.

But after speak­ing for a while with one guy the sec­ond accom­pa­nied us and we spoke for 2 hours till we went our own ways. Also this talk was def­i­nite­ly inspir­ing and touch­ing. But I am not enlight­ened and one said we should believe and he would teach us. While the oth­er enlight­ened said he found it and knows that he can’t explain because he lives now and don’t believe I will answer mails. The man does­n’t know me.

I just meant that noth­ing will con­vince me that I just have to believe. I want to under­stand and not all under­stand­ing comes out of mind. Once I heard at a radio-show a first peo­ple sto­ry­teller say: Food of the mind will feed the heart. Isn’t that an inter­est­ing view? I still see my wish to grow, as I still have prob­lems to under­stand the no-attach­ment. I would have loved to com­mu­ni­cate at least with the sec­ond one but he thought that he isn’t attached to any­thing any­more. I believe that love for each oth­er and care is more impor­tant than any enlight­en­ment. Or should I say my vision of enlight­en­ment is love and care? And I don’t know how this goes with­out attach­ment. I’ll see.

Jan and Jakub:
2 young Czech men in the hos­tel in Van­cou­ver pre­pared me in a way to going home. The 2 of them are trav­el­ling around the world and I don’t know exact­ly what it was but the way they speak or behave just brought back my home. Is there a spe­cial mid­dle Euro­pean way of bei­ing? Maybe.

THANK YOU ALL. You were all part mak­ing this trip spe­cial! Good luck and save trav­el through your lives!

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Mount St. Helens

Mir ist erst jet­zt klar gewor­den, dass nicht nur der Mond­flug für mich eines der aufre­gen­den Ereignisse mein­er Jugend war, da war auch der Vulka­naus­bruch von Mount St. Helens 1980. Nach­dem ich im Mount Lassen Nation­al­park schon andere Ergeb­nisse von vulka­nis­ch­er Tätigkeit gese­hen habe, war ich hier über­rascht, wie sehr das Leben, sich wieder Land erobert hat. Ein­er­seits wur­den die durch pyroklastis­che Ströme (das sind gas­re­iche Mag­men, die aber durch das Gewicht des Mag­mas über die Hänge eines Vulka­ns run­ter­laufen. Das war auch schon bei Pom­pe­ji der Fall und wurde von Plin­ius dem Jün­geren zum ersten Mal beschrieben. Sie wer­den deshalb auch plin­is­che Erup­tio­nen genan­nt) die Wälder rund um Mt. St. Helens wie Stre­ich­hölz­er niederge­fegt, ander­er­seits war der gewaltige Erdrutsch, der den Berg um 400m niedriger wer­den ließ. Die Wälder wur­den dann nicht über­all aber dur­chaus gezielt wieder aufgeforstet.

Trotz­dem kon­nte ich sehen, wie sich das Land teil­weise mit zartem Grün über­zog und jet­zt rel­a­tiv kurz nach dem let­zten Schnee mit zahlre­ichen Blu­men durch­zo­gen. Lupinien liefern unter anderem das notwendi­ge Nitrat. Neben den ver­schiede­nen Tan­nen (die Dou­glas fir ist sich­er der Baum Ore­gons und Wash­ing­tons) bre­it­en sich an den Rän­dern ver­schiedene Laub­bäume aus.

Der Erdrutsch führte unter anderem dazu, dass Schnee und Gletsch­er schmolzen und eine Schlamm­law­ine zog sich durch das ganze Tal. Alle Brück­en wur­den zer­stört, die Straße gab es nicht mehr. Die neu errichtete auf der ich fuhr, geht nicht mehr durch das Tal wie es früher war.

Auf meinen Fotos sieht man, alles was mir aufge­fall­en ist, so unter­schiedliche es ist, aber es sind jene Dinge, die mit diesem Aus­bruch zu tun haben.

Der Berg hat sich ver­steckt, fast bis zum Schluss. Trotz­dem hat­te es etwas Beson­deres, dass die Bergspitze in “Rauch” gehüllt war. Das einzige, was mich tat­säch­lich störte, war, meine Unsicher­heit, ob ich tat­säch­lich den richti­gen Berg fotografiert hat­te. Die weite Fläche vor Mt. St. Helens war damals bewaldet. Jet­zt liegt eine dicke Ascheschicht darauf.

Jet­zt ist es ein klein­er Fluss, aber es ist klar zu sehen, dass er manch­mal gar nicht so klein ist. Die meter­dicke Schicht der Asche hat mich schw­er beein­druckt, aber auch das zarte Grün, das sich über­all aus­bre­it­et, und die Erde für weit­ere Pflanzen auf­bere­it­et, war wun­der­schön. Kaltes Wet­ter war vergessen.

Lupinien sind die ersten Blu­men, die nach nach dem Vulka­naus­bruch kom­men. Sie liefern Nitrat für die nachk­om­menden Pflanzen.

Und über­all waren noch die Über­reste von Bäu­men zu sehen. Die dreißigjähri­gen Edeltan­nen zeigten mir, wie lange es her war. In einem Doku­men­ta­tion­szen­trum zeigten sie, wie sie sich durch die Asche gruben, um die kleinen Bäume zu pflanzen.

Wie zum Dank für meine Geduld hoben sich zulet­zt die Wolken, ich wollte nur noch einen kurzen Blick zurück­w­er­fen und dann sah ich sie, die nicht mehr so schöne Hele­na. Erst durch dieses Foto wurde mir klar, dass ich doch immer die richtige Wolke fotografiert hatte.

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Hier ist eine 23 minütige Doku­men­ta­tion, die so ziem­lich alles zeigt, was ich gese­hen und gel­ernt habe.