Preparing to Prepare

This is the first test drive of a system of which I am already dubious. I should say from the outset that I've never actually begun, much less maintained, a blog or anything of the sort, and in fact even my facebook account is pagewith perhaps less diligence than customary for my generation. At the heart of the matter is, I suppose, my general feeling that if one is going to write, particularly in a public forum, one should be saying something informative or worthwhile, and generally the tedious particularlities of my daily life don't strike me as worth communicating. That said, I am more than a little bit excited about my upcoming travels, so perhaps I can project that excitement onto the faceless avatar of My Reader and muster up some enthusiasm for this business. Here's hoping. Sort of.

Right now, as the title of this post implies, I am preparing to prepare for my stay abroad. A select few of my activities are actually directly applicable to my travels, such as visa applications and such, but for the most part I've just been training when and where possible, and taking small trips to visit friends, so that I can figure out exactly what I really NEED to carry with me when I go abroad. As I've mentioned to several people, it is my ambition to spend my Fellowship time without any more than I can fit into my backpack and one duffel bag. So far, I'm pretty optimistic about that goal, and at this rate, I expect success.

One of the major things that I've been doing to train is bicycling. Here in Kansas City (where I've been for a little over a week), I have a regular route that I take sometimes at night, and which, all told, is around 25 miles. It's a decent cardio workout, but I admit that I'm really dodging doing less pleasant things (plain old running, as a primary example) under the guise of alternative exercise, and because whatever the benefits or shortcomings of cycling, I just plain enjoy it. In addition, after an incident two nights ago in which two young men attempted to steal my bike (and were very nearly successful), I have returned to my old habit of carrying a japanese sword on my back to deter troublemakers and miscreants, and I suppose for some nonsense about getting into a fighter's mindset.

More to follow.