'Biking through my PhD'
08-23-19, 04:07 PM
#1
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'Biking through my PhD'
'Having flown halfway around the world, I finally arrived in the Netherlands to start work on my PhD at the medical microbiology department of University Medical Center Utrecht.
I was delighted to think of all the things I would see and experience in this new and different world. That was until I saw the one thing that absolutely terrified me -- a bicycle.
I had never learnt to ride a bike. Growing up in Qingdao, a hilly, seaside city in China without cycle paths, biking was dangerous. The local laws discourage it for safety reasons. Now, my Dutch neighbour was telling me I had to learn. She sold me a second-hand bike and pointed me to the car park. I upgraded my insurance and started practising.'
I was delighted to think of all the things I would see and experience in this new and different world. That was until I saw the one thing that absolutely terrified me -- a bicycle.
I had never learnt to ride a bike. Growing up in Qingdao, a hilly, seaside city in China without cycle paths, biking was dangerous. The local laws discourage it for safety reasons. Now, my Dutch neighbour was telling me I had to learn. She sold me a second-hand bike and pointed me to the car park. I upgraded my insurance and started practising.'
08-23-19, 05:23 PM
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Ha ha, funny. My wife is from Shanghai and says riding a Bike for transportation, not fun.
I can can relate a bit.
-scott
I can can relate a bit.
-scott
08-24-19, 05:15 AM
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It's a shame because there used to be a lot of cycling in China, but the car became the symbol of progress and personal success.
08-25-19, 03:22 AM
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^sounds familiar...
08-25-19, 12:21 PM
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those particular workers don’t earn enough to own a car. They are either taking the subway, bus, walking, or their scooter...or bike. There are still plenty, just not as many as what I saw during my first visit 20+ years ago. Even the bike sharing programs have failed.
08-25-19, 12:45 PM
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Very clever blog post. Thank you for sharing the link.
You might enjoy this essay written by Mark Twain when he learned to ride an ordinary:
Taming the Bicycle
The last sentence is worth thinking about as you cycle through the Netherlands (and through life):
"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live"
You might enjoy this essay written by Mark Twain when he learned to ride an ordinary:
Taming the Bicycle
The last sentence is worth thinking about as you cycle through the Netherlands (and through life):
"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live"
Likes For bikemig:
08-27-19, 01:31 AM
#7
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Thanks for that, bikemig.
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Some people are like a Slinky ... not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.
Some people are like a Slinky ... not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.
08-27-19, 07:18 AM
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Yes, but it's still surprising how fast it happened, in a time the drawbacks of mass motorism were already clear and while the Chinese weren't that rich.
I'm not too worried. I live in a simular Dutch city, but the university is relatively much bigger, and usually the foreign PhD's, professors and students will be fine if they survive the first month after arrival. Around this time of year with the opening of the academic season there's a higher risk because they don't get it yet. I crashed into a Baltic young lady the other week and last year there had to be one escorted off the highway (70kph minimum speed) by motorists with blinking lights shielding her. But there's no escaping cycling here.
The good thing is lots of them will take their experience here to other cities in the world and therefore do some advocacy. I have a Chinese family as neighbours, who are here to stay, and I sa their youngest son cycling with the training wheels off a couple of months ago and he's only 3 years old, that's the better way of course
The good thing is lots of them will take their experience here to other cities in the world and therefore do some advocacy. I have a Chinese family as neighbours, who are here to stay, and I sa their youngest son cycling with the training wheels off a couple of months ago and he's only 3 years old, that's the better way of course
