My Bike!

I bought a bike today! It has one gear and a basket. :) I paid 300 RMB (about $50). I think I paid too much but I had to beat the guy down to get 'that' price. I took the subway to a small bike shop I'd seen when I'd been apartment hunting. I had a great time bargaining with the old guy that ran the shop and test driving bikes. He convinced me to buy what looked like a bit of an old clunker instead of another one that looked shiny and new. I think he was saying that the shiny new one wasn't as mechanically sound.

However, as I inspected my soon-to-be new bike I noticed the front breaks weren't adjusted properly. I pointed this out and the shop owner went about correcting the problem, with a hammer. Yup. Nothing a few wacks with a ball peen hammer won't fix! Everything looked OK after that so I paid my bill and off I went.

About 15 minutes into my ride, my left pedal fell off. Luckily I wasn't in the middle of an intersection! I rode back and picked it up. As I screwed it back on I couldn't help thinking it was on the wrong side. I couldn't get the pedal on the other side off to try and switch them so I kept on going, only every few minutes I had to stop and screw the pedal back on, as I seemed to be pedaling it off as I rode along.

I usually have a pretty good sense of direction and I was sure I knew my way home but I kept getting lost. Over and over again! I had a map but it was confusing. There was too much going on for me to concentrate on my route. I had cars and bikes and mopeds and people coming at me from all directions. Going through major intersections was a bit crazy, to say the least. It seemed that no matter how much I looked around for traffic, I was always taken by surprise by a wall of bikes coming at me from some direction in which I hadn't looked. At times it was a bit stressful but I loved it!

Between stopping to screw on my pedal, stopping to look at my map and getting repeatedly lost, it took me an hour and a half to get home. I think it should have been about seven or eight kms if I had taken a more direct route! Thank God the road signs are in Chinese and English or I'd still be out there now!

My ride home made me realize something. I never see Shanghai! I always travel underground on the subway. On my ride home, when I dared to take my eyes off the road, I finally got to see the city! It was great!

I'm a bit worried now that I don't have enough medical coverage to cover a bike accident. Could be a problem! Better make sure I always ID on me at all times. In case I'm rendered unconscious!

Too Many People?

What happens to you when you live in a city with over 20 million people? You stop noticing. You see people begging in the street and when they ask you for money you ignore them. You see people with no arms and no legs, you see people who are disfigured and you just keep on walking. Maybe it's because you can't help all of them, so you don't help any of them.

Today, I saw a well dressed young man. He had on a big traveler’s backpack. He was sitting under a tree on a narrow stretch of sidewalk on my way to the subway. He was just sitting there looking forlorn but everyone noticed him. Everyone stared as they went by. Why does everyone walk by the lady with the dirty little baby, on the same stretch of sidewalk, without even giving her a second glance?


I met my landlord today. He wears pyjamas. :)