No. 7

Date: April 29, 2016

Status: Learning to do everything on a bicycle

              I've always liked riding my bicycle. And I suppose that's lucky because I do an awful lot of cycling around Yangzhou, China. It's a wonderful way to travel. You get to see everything at a brisk, yet manageable, pace. You have time to take in the smell of the sweet potato man's furnace/cart. You get to smile at the staring children packed onto the back of mommy's e-bike. And you can take a moment to laugh at the Fedex man's precarious load. 

Here we see the wild parcel-delivery man, retrieving a
lost parcel, saving it from an uncertain fate.

The parcel-delivery man replaces the young parcel.
Both will live to see another day.

               And I've certainly gotten better at biking overall. I've gotten faster, and I can now overtake my coworker Angelo's little e-bike without too much effort. Having reached a satisfactory level of actual cycling skill, I've also developed some related skills.

              Following is a list of things I can now do on a bicycle: 

 1. Converse without getting immediately winded. 
              My infrequent bicycling adventures in the United States never included conversations. I didn't seem to have the lung capacity to both peddle and talk. But now I can keep up a good pace both on the road and in the conversation. 

2. Sing a song...and hit all the high notes.
              I think I would have been too shy to do this in the US, but I've observed the Chinese singing (not to mention clapping and slapping themselves) while walking or riding in public. And why shouldn't I sing? Everyone is already staring at the foreigner anyway.

3. Put on a face mask.
              You Americans have it good. You go outside and say things like, "It's sunny" or "It's foggy." Sometimes I go outside and say, "It's gritty out today." I usually don't notice it until I've picked up speed and lick my teeth to find the fine bits of pollution. But I don't like to stop once I'm going, so I've learned to put on my face mask while peddling. I suppose a one-handed person would put it on the same way. Slip the elastic over one ear, put the middle bit in your mouth to hold the tension, slip the elastic over the other ear, release the middle, and adjust. Now you know.

4. Drink a hot drink.
              They usually come with one of those nice lids with the little opening. If you can steer one-handed, there's no reason you can't drink your morning coffee on a bike.

5. Drink a cold drink.
              Oh no! A crazy foreigner drinking a cold drink! She'll surely get sick from all that cold liquid in her stomach! It's even easier than the hot drink though. Just use a straw.   

6. Send a text message.
              I suppose this is a big no-no, but when I'm in a lane designated for bikes and e-bikes with shrubbery on one side and the sidewalk on the other, it's hard to imagine the odd text message turning into a deadly accident. I'll be careful, Mom, I promise.

7. Transport another person.
              As an American, I'm proud of this one. How many of you Americans can say that you've transported another grown human being on the back of your bicycle using just your own physical strength to go forward? But in China, this is nothing. Frail old grannies are peddling about with their chubby grandkids perched on the back seat. High school friends are giving each other rides to their after-school hangouts. A family of four is piling onto an e-bike, with only one set of legs coming down to balance everyone at a red light. 

              I'm sure I'm forgetting a few bicycle skills at the moment, but there you are. That's what happens when you sit down to write at blog at two in the morning. May you, too, learn many fun and useful cycling skills.