The First Step to Becomig German: Learn to Ride a Bike

And I'm not talking about when you were little and you took off your training wheels and your dad promised not to let go but he did anyways because it was good for you. Or maybe that is a little bit of what I'm talking about. Germans don't just ride bikes. They have mastered the art. This entire week I have seen German women riding bikes in dresses and heels. I figured hey, if they can do it I can do it. False. Tuesday was too early in the game to be this ambitious. We have to ride bikes to class every morning, and Tuesday morning I decided I would try to wear a long dress. This particular dress has slits up to my kness on both sides, so I figured I would be smart and tuck it up underneath my seat to keep it out of the way. I have since found a more effective way to do this, but at the time I was pretty clueless. Anyways, I tucked it under my seat and sat on it, but as soon as I started to pedal away some of it came loose and got caught in the spokes. I yanked it out and proceeded to rearrange myself while on the go. In my inexperience, however, I forgot to steer somehow. I soon found myself headed straight for a pole and, instead of turning the handlebars or even just braking, I continued straight for it and hit it even though I had plenty of time to react. I have no idea why I did that and I now have some very beautiful bruises on my legs. I'm just glad there werent any witnesses, especially German ones! Back to the training wheels reference though. Sometimes you just have to try new things even if they scare you to death and you have no idea what you are doing. If you never try, you will never grow. If you never explore, if you never push your limits, you won't live life to your fullest potential. Week two, come at me!