adventures in biking

i really like biking. when i bike, i can think and pray and get places and see new things and get rid of frustration all at the same time. so i'll bike because it's sunday and i don't have to do anything. i bike when i'm frustrated and/or confused. and it doesn't matter to me where i go, biking just generally clears my head and makes me more appreciative of the challenges in life. and it's environmentally friendly and cheap and so i think it's the ideal means of transportation (although i must admit that biking fits better with the flatness of Amsterdam than the fairly daunting hills around my area of Grand Rapids). and so for the last couple of weeks, i've been biking a lot of places - and it has its adventures (besides the joy of telling people how far i bike :)).

yesterday as i'm biking home, some guy is biking along the road towards me (on the wrong side of the road). as he gets ready to cross the intersection, i turn right - and he yells "you're hot." i was a bit flabbergasted, but i said "thanks." i mean i was hot, but i don't think the fact that i was sweating was really what he was referring to.

a few blocks later, i pass a guy in a car coming out of a parking lot who waves at me. i might have waved back (i grew up in the country - i can't help it). a minute later, i saw him on my left side driving past - and waving again. creepy. then his car pulled into a parking lot ahead of me. so i started to get nervous. i was glad to turn at the light - and spent awhile after that looking around nervously for him.

then as i'm almost home, i see a car do this funny u-turn in and out of a street that i usually go down. the car pulls up beside another car. as i turn, i see money changing between them. very suspicious. but all in all, it reminded me of Amsterdam. at least that's the usual place where i get hit on by random man and witness possible drug deals...

but the adventures continued today. some teenagers drove by me today and yelled out their window that they liked weed. i was wearing a skirt and boots (both dutch) while riding a dutch bike so it is possible that they realized i was from the Netherlands, but that still doesn't mean i'd care whether they like weed.

and it rained today. a nice quiet gentle rain until i was about 3 km from home. and then i was completely wet within about 3 minutes (i could actually see water running out of my boots!). with that much rain, there's so much water on the roads that i have to go to the sidewalks - and walk down steep hills since i'm not sure my bike brakes are made for stopping quickly in the midst of a large puddle. and what gets worse, a km from home, my pedal falls off. at least it's friday, and i'd left early - and so it was easier to laugh at the adventures.