the americans are:

i have been pretty lucky these past couple of days, it has been sunny out. today was the nicest day thus far. not a cloud in the sky, bright sun, happy birds.
since our theme in class today was travel, we talked a bit about stereotypes of people from certain countries. so the us came up. so from the people in class that spoke up, this is what ive found out... the belgian see americans as lazy, and like to eat hamburgers. aparently canadians see us as fat, and eat unhealthy (to many hamburgers?). the polish see american as the country that rules the world...with force. the finns said, lazy, fat, and bad a geography. and the teacher. from eastern europe, but in germany for quite some time added, that we are superficial, not a whole lot goes into our relationships, and that we all eat fast food all the time (more hamburgers) i think that most of these things are pretty true. coming from a place where i guess you could say is not typical american (everyone skis, runs, eats well, is well educated, etc...) i could not really deny any of these for most americans. kinda sad. not a whole lot of positive in there...
after class and a good lunch of chili (con carne) i of course went biking. since i was feeling pretty good i decided that i would do something hard, since i had not done any hard stuff for a couple of days i decided quite hard. so i did some long ladders (5,7,10 and back down) hopefully that is good for something...if that only hurts me let me know so i dont ever have to do them again. any ways there was a pretty stiff wind today, luckily i had the strongest headwind on the way out. so after 20 min i started the ladders, and for the first 3 there were all uphill, and into the wind. maybe a dip in the road here or there, but nothing big. about 2 min before the highest point (elevation) in the ride the 4th started so i had a long downhill into the wind, i did not know it was possible to make downhills hurt like that. so eventually i finished those, and ended up on the climb that i first did with paul, so i took that one fairly hard too. by the way i did that same route plus a little bit. i took a picture near the top of that. not very good, but hey its a picture.

look no jacket or hat!

eventually after another section that was pretty much into the wind? no idea how, i though i had a for sure tailwind at that point, i turned a bit and had a nice tailwind to carry me all the way (7 km) home.
total time was 2hr 43. distance was 69.55. avg hr. 146

after i got back i ate a bit. i am also eating with the others tonight, but not till later. the pole is going to make some polish soup. i wonder if it will be good?
ive been sharing the Reeses i got as to not get fat. they are a huge hit with the europeans. (and myself) but they just love em....