I have a bike

So what? What's the big deal about bikes, anyway? I don't want to sound too pessimistic, or unhappy in any way, but everything that could have gone wrong today, went wrong. I woke up late, which means I couldn't talk with my family as I've been doing these days (7am here, is 10PM there, the only suitable time for both sides.) The elevator in the building is broken, not a big deal when going down from the 4th floor (consider that here, the numeration of the floors starts at 0)... not so funny when coming back after completely failing with the bike (more about it below.) We took the bus to the closest stop to the store... and even though it was ridiculously close we got lost, and my "French" was completely useless... Once we got into the store, I totally misunderstood the explanation about the price, and thought the bike was 350 (after a "discount"), when in reality it was 450, after an "extra charge".. I understood "moins", not "plus".. I don't know. While waiting for one of the bikes to be assembled, the fire alarm went on, and we had to evacuate the building. Pas drôle!!! And then, back inside... I made the cashier pretty mad, 'cause only 'til then I realized of the price misunderstanding...

The worst: "riding" the bike. I'm not even sure if I can use that term, "ride." You see, some of you might already be aware of my "difficulties" with bikes, but the truth is that you have no idea of the extent of them. Even though my family claims I've used one before, I wouldn't be so sure that I actually managed to ride it. Most likely, as with the roller skates, I tried for some days, and then I gave up. It's not like I'm proud of it, but right now I have no choice but to admit the biggest trauma of my life (oh yeah! it actually is.)

Well, since we couldn't take the bike with us in the bus, we had to "bike" back to CERN. It was just one of the most ridiculous episodes of my entire life. Consider this: I am a ridiculous person... that's how ridiculous it was. Apart from crashing over some (many) bushes, I managed too only hurt the tendon in the back of my right knee. Now, I can't even walk... not that I was any good at it before.

The sad part is that, I can't say I succeeded in biking. The biggest achivement of the day was when we finally got close enough to CERN and took a country road (as advised but the nicest lady ever... who walked us, so we wouldn't get lost) and managed to bike for longer intervals... slightly more successfully when going down hill.

Then, back to the office.. and deal with wrong compilations... I really need to catch up as fast as I can in all this new stuff.. but, I also need to slow down... I've been here for one week, and I'm already spending the whole day in the office.

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Arely is, as usual, being unable to draw the line between working too much, or working hard enough.. or working.. or not.

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I will have to keep trying... Hm. I can't be tired of trying already. To be honest, (after a good cup of coffee) I started to think that I'm just thankful that the situation is such that I have to learn to ride the bike.. otherwise, I could have gone my entire life without doing it. So, in the end, after the pain and sorrow, I might actually say that this day made my life a little better.