May 21, 2007 (Mon)

yepey!
yes. you heard and read it right. i didn’t know how to ride a bike. i wasn’t exposed to bicycles. my family doesn’t own a bike and perhaps, i wasn’t that interested. a bike was merely a want, not a need.

well, here in Japan, a bike is considered every man’s feet, a need, not a want. young and adults alike have bicycles. and while i maybe capable of having one, i didn’t know how to ride on it. confessing to anyone (here in Japan) that i didn’t know how to, is such a shame. all of them were surprised and did think that i was just kidding. but, no, i wasn’t kidding.

i missed all those bike riding activities and i replaced bike rides with train rides and walks.

until i decided to finally try learning how to. to be honest, it’s hard. i wanted to learn it quick but i couldn’t. i tried moving around the park only to fail. watching young and adults riding on their bike made me feel so frustrated and somehow, i felt a bit discouraged and yeah, so ashamed.

kay was encouraging me and telling to ignore all those surprised faces of both adults and young watching me. she was coaching me how to do it in the way she did it when she was yet learning.

but i never did learn on my first day. i only earned bruises and body pains (esp my butt). but it’s worth another try. i concluded, learning japanese especially kanji is easier than learning how to bike.

i searched the internet for tips but the lists are those that i know. there was no secret revealed that i needed to know to learn quickly.

this morning, i was with another friend, keren. she’s an expert with bike riding and she swore i’d learn in just a single session. so, we went to the park again and she taught me the first few steps to learning how to do it. balancing was the first goal. i rotated the park for perhaps, almost an hour, just trying to balance. and then, i tried putting my legs on the pedal. alas! i did it! in two hours, i learned how to do it.

and i am damn so proud of myself. and i was wrong. learning japanese (kanji esp) is far more difficult than learning to ride the bike.

i think i am the only one in our family who knows how to ride a bike (except my dad). hehe.

i’ve learned that there are some things in life so simple for the majority but so complicated for me. i’ve learned that some things in life are only learned by actual activity and never by theory.

thanks to kay, keren and kagz!

Posted: May 25th, 2007 under Health, Passion, Serious Talk.
Comments: 4