AT LAST!!!!
today has been quite the dilly-yo. i woke up to a text from Mo saying lets ride. how could i refuse. so off we went to do the margraten route on the trusty mtbs. totally off topic, i saw my first dutch crazy today on the way to his place. she stopped me at full tilt whilst on my bike to ask me if i had a lighter for her cigarette. she gave me ´the eye´...you know: all crazy like. as if i looked like the kind of person that has a lighter as i speed by in my tights...anyway....
Mo and I were a little worried about the weather as it had been switchy all week and at the moment we left, it looked like it might storm. rather i was worried and mo was fine. our ride got cut a little short however because of some mechanical diffculties on Mo´s bike that caused us a 3km walk. how nice. that´s all i´ll say about that....except: always carry a spare. (he couldn´t use my spare because it was too big in the valve and wouldn´t fit.)
I got home from our bike ride and had some lunch, a little nap, got a text message from my crazy italian ex-fling who is really crazy (did i already say he was crazy?) which woke me up early (grrrr) and then i went to meet my friend Wouter from Duth Mountains and we...drumroll please....went for my first ever Road Ride. it went alright! i didn´t fall off at least. i wasn´t very fast though either. oh yeah, and my hands were too small to operate the brakes properly which was lots of fun on a 10% gradient full of curves and switchbacks. the only feather in my cap was that climbing was way cool. it hardly felt like work at all, and i could keep up to wouter so i felt somewhat fast too. however, my ride is a little rickety in the gearing, so on the flat stuff, i didn´t have much option other than to go really slow, or spin my brains out. we got some interesting weather...i don´t know why, but everytime i make an effort to row or road bike, the heavens split and the thunder starts and today, we even had hail. luckily, the bad weather only lasted for about 5 minutes this afternoon. unfortunately we were far from home. oh well.
we got back to his place in time to switch my pedals, arrange to watch Team America later in the week (has anyone got anything to say about team america?) and then I was off to ROWING.
Oh heaven. I was on the water today for the first time in ages. I rowed with four other nice ladies in a quad, and it was actually not so bad a row. they kept telling me they were awful but they don´t give themselves enough credit. the club is very rec, which is fine, so i will be rowing twice a week most likely, and socializing quite a bit it would seem as well. just let me say: rowing in dutch is a bit tricky. but i was pleasantly surprised at how much i did understand. i did miss the meaning of one exercise, but luckily, my cox was (yes, coxed quads...wtf!) sensitive and explained it to me: i won´t go into details, but the title of it was ¨ten little niggers¨. you know, like the black people she tells me, with a straight face and seemingly no concept of how off the wall that is. i guess i am too canadian. i was aghast.
anyway, after the row, we hung out in the bar, i had some dinner made by Jack´s wife marian who is spanish and who´s cooking is also spanish, and a tea with some of the ladies. one of them, Ingrid, is also a cyclist and when she heard about my afternoon adventure, she invited me to show me a couple other things as well. hopefully i can line up some more appropriate wheels.
anyway, my hands are blistered, my ass is sore, and my legs are lead. i couldn´t be in a better mood to end my long day of NOT studying for my dutch exam...directly...so that means tomorrow, i have almost an entire language to learn. at least the parts that don´t pertain to biking or rowing.
goodnight!
Mo and I were a little worried about the weather as it had been switchy all week and at the moment we left, it looked like it might storm. rather i was worried and mo was fine. our ride got cut a little short however because of some mechanical diffculties on Mo´s bike that caused us a 3km walk. how nice. that´s all i´ll say about that....except: always carry a spare. (he couldn´t use my spare because it was too big in the valve and wouldn´t fit.)
I got home from our bike ride and had some lunch, a little nap, got a text message from my crazy italian ex-fling who is really crazy (did i already say he was crazy?) which woke me up early (grrrr) and then i went to meet my friend Wouter from Duth Mountains and we...drumroll please....went for my first ever Road Ride. it went alright! i didn´t fall off at least. i wasn´t very fast though either. oh yeah, and my hands were too small to operate the brakes properly which was lots of fun on a 10% gradient full of curves and switchbacks. the only feather in my cap was that climbing was way cool. it hardly felt like work at all, and i could keep up to wouter so i felt somewhat fast too. however, my ride is a little rickety in the gearing, so on the flat stuff, i didn´t have much option other than to go really slow, or spin my brains out. we got some interesting weather...i don´t know why, but everytime i make an effort to row or road bike, the heavens split and the thunder starts and today, we even had hail. luckily, the bad weather only lasted for about 5 minutes this afternoon. unfortunately we were far from home. oh well.
we got back to his place in time to switch my pedals, arrange to watch Team America later in the week (has anyone got anything to say about team america?) and then I was off to ROWING.
Oh heaven. I was on the water today for the first time in ages. I rowed with four other nice ladies in a quad, and it was actually not so bad a row. they kept telling me they were awful but they don´t give themselves enough credit. the club is very rec, which is fine, so i will be rowing twice a week most likely, and socializing quite a bit it would seem as well. just let me say: rowing in dutch is a bit tricky. but i was pleasantly surprised at how much i did understand. i did miss the meaning of one exercise, but luckily, my cox was (yes, coxed quads...wtf!) sensitive and explained it to me: i won´t go into details, but the title of it was ¨ten little niggers¨. you know, like the black people she tells me, with a straight face and seemingly no concept of how off the wall that is. i guess i am too canadian. i was aghast.
anyway, after the row, we hung out in the bar, i had some dinner made by Jack´s wife marian who is spanish and who´s cooking is also spanish, and a tea with some of the ladies. one of them, Ingrid, is also a cyclist and when she heard about my afternoon adventure, she invited me to show me a couple other things as well. hopefully i can line up some more appropriate wheels.
anyway, my hands are blistered, my ass is sore, and my legs are lead. i couldn´t be in a better mood to end my long day of NOT studying for my dutch exam...directly...so that means tomorrow, i have almost an entire language to learn. at least the parts that don´t pertain to biking or rowing.
goodnight!
posted by Unknown at Wednesday, April 27, 2005
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