bikin' it / art history

e. and i finally got bikes yesterday.

finding bikes was easy. finding cheap bikes, however, was impossible. we'd been everywhere but couldn't find any used bikes for less than 100 euro, so we finally resolved to shell out the cash (plus 30 for a decent lock--bike theft is apparently the most common crime here) and hope that we can sell them before we leave. still, there have to be way more bikes than people in this town:


neither of us have been on bikes in a while--plus, it's a bit odd riding on cobblestone rather than pavement--so we've been practicing on side streets and in alleys.


when we come to busy areas of town, though, we usually play it safe and walk our bikes through rather than risk colliding with another bike/pedestrian/vehicle. eventually, i'm sure we'll be able to maneuver through the madness. i actually saw an almost bike-car collision today. a woman on a bike was turning left around a corner while a man in a car was turning right around that same corner. he screeched to a halt and she leapt off her bike. they exchanged what i assume were harsh words, then each took off in their intended direction.

bikes here have back-pedal brakes rather than hand brakes. i like it.

***

our art history class started today. it was okay. the teacher seems really nice but kind of scatterbrained (although in my observations, scatterbrainedness is often a side effect of creativity; she's an artist, so it would make sense). the workload consists of a ridiculous amount of reading and three 8-page papers (the first of which is due a week from today). the class covers dutch art and artists from the 15th-20th centuries, with the main focus on the 17th century. three straight hours of listening to someone talk, no matter what she's talking about, does not excite me in the least. what does excite me, though, is the active component of the class.

throughout the course, we get to go on five museum field trips to amsterdam, the hague and haarlem. we have to get ourselves there and back, although school pays for museum admission. since our first trip is to amsterdam next friday, and we wouldn't have class again til the following wednesday, e. and i are considering spending a few days in amsterdam, since all we've seen of it so far is the airport.

smooches,
b.

p.s. here is photographic evidence of the previously mentioned two-button flush system: