Learning to ride a bike (again)

Es ist Sonntag - the day of rest - but I'm feeling restless stuck inside on this gloomy, rainy day. As I may have mentioned before, Theresa is leaving on Thursday for a year in India, so naturally she has lots of last-minute preparations to do. To be honest I'm a little frustrated, because I'm left with little to do until my class starts on Tuesday. I've spent most of today studying in attempts to improve my feeble vocabulary.

Of course, these past few days I've spent lots of time listening to German, especially at meals, but I'm still quite intimidated to speak German other than simple phrases. I know that continually trying to speak is the only way I'll improve, yet when I try I feel like I've regressed so much! How do you tackle something when you know that you will inevitably make so many embarrassing mistakes? And yet this is the only way to get better... practice, practice, practice. Not as easy as riding a bike!

Ironically, I've just found out that I don't even know how to do that accurately.

Yes, it sounds ridiculous. Riding a bike is one of those things that practically everyone knows how to do, like using a telephone or making macaroni and cheese. But yesterday I discovered that I've been doing it all wrong, apparently. Quite often when using someone else's bikes, it seemed to me that seat was too high - I assumed that this was because I'm 5'3. I guess I've grown accustomed to riding one low enough that my feet touch the ground when I'm sitting on the bike, and pushing off from that position to start. Is this too low? I'd never given it thought before.

So when Theresa and I went to ride into town yesterday, I was suddenly confronted with this embarrassing obstacle - all five or so of their family bikes (old and new) had high seats, which for them seems to be the norm. I explained this to Theresa, but after a few tries in her driveway I managed alright, and so we were on our way.

When riding, the ease of balance made me forget the precariousness of my new height until we had to stop at a crosswalk - no longer could I simply touch a foot to the ground automatically, but instead jolt the breaks while clumsily falling forward off the seat (and simultaneously trying to figure out the proper way to do it).

Basically, I'm feeling pretty inadequate at the moment. Learning German now seems much more daunting than I thought it would be, like learning to speak - or ride a bike - all over again.

I'm really hoping that my first class at the Institute gives me some confidence, and helps me get rid of these training wheels.