something to do

a cloudy morning with wet roads told of a night time shower. so i decided to wait until the roads dried out a bit before going for my bike ride. they dried out really quite quickly so at around 11 i took off. an hour and a half, with a bit of short sprints.


along the way

came home. cleaned up. ate some lunch, then went down to help set up the race course.
i helped out first with setting up metal barriers that are on every corner and a quite a bit of straigh too (its a loop). i got to ride around on the back of the truck while driving from place to place. quite entertaining, and those of us on the back got really weird looks whenever going by someone. after this we set up the drink and food area. i even got to carry tables just like the past summers...oh boy!
standing around waiting for the first race to start i found out i had been registered for todays race! i declined racing flat out cause i was in no racing shape tonight. not much eaten and i had already ridden. i am also registered for tomorrow so dont worry!
after that little bit of confusion the womans race started. i watched that for a bit, then watched the first bit of the mens race, but i was hungry and really had to pee so i came home.
after peeing i made and ate a whole lot of speghetti. hopefully i am going to be charged up for tomorrow! althought the race starts at 2:15 so ive got some time.

part of the course

yesterday and today

yesterday was nothing special. a very uneventful class that was an hour 15 long instead of the schedueled two hours, so that was nice. that class seems to do that every time. oh darn. then an easy bike in which i ended up on a gravel road in the forest. it was really nice. i think it was the longest time i had gone without seeing another person (with the exception of sleep and doing things on my computer), and it was only about 20 minutes of soloness. and of course as soon as i thought that i came over a small rise and there was a guy walking some dogs. soon i noticed what kinda dogs they were and then saw the face of one (of three) it looked so much like tess it was amazing. i mean if tess had a exact copy in which the only difference was that it was male (i think) that dog was it. it even had the greying of the face hair! made me miss the two dogs.

party time (beer in the trailer)

today another bright and sunny day, but unlike everyone suggested i didnt want to do a long ride today for i am racing on sunday! need to save my energy. wahoooo! so i did an hour on a nice loop in germany. its a good one partly cause its fairly easy making it good for resting, and then there are not many people on it. ive decided that if i am going to crash while here it will be because of commuter bikers. but only when on my good bike. i think they see someone and think oh i will go catch and pass that person, then i will be a good biker. its really annoying. yesterday i was on my way to the border and i passed a kid with a bike about 4 times to big for him. i was going easy and so on the downhill area he caught up and looked about to pass out. then he passed me on a corner, cutting me off and swerving to miss a car which then in turn nearly hit me. then the next corner he took to sharp and ran into a fence. luckily i was away from this. but all kinds of people do stupid things like that to me when i am coming home or pass them here in germany (so far not in switzerland). another thing that often happens is when i pass someone i hear a click click and the person is soon wobbling near my back wheel. i wouldnt mind if they knew what they were doing, but oxygen deprived people who are just inflating their ego dont make the best decisions...i brought this up cause someone got behind me today and was really annoying.
also when i got back into the city i got behind this guy.


anyway after my really easy bike i ate some lunch then cleaned my room really well. vacuumed and moped! the floor is nice now. no dirt! then i went to the grocery store. ran up the highest food bill thus far at 19€, i bought some things i dont need like special edition milcha bar that has little soccerballs on it. hahaha. then came back, realized i forgot two of the three things i actually went for, so went back and spent a few more €. now i am not doing a whole lot, and my plan for tonight is to spend some quality time with my bike and make it nice and clean.
so its been a low key birthday.
also happy birthday to hilly, and ana jeronimus, and the gazillion other of you!

let it begin.

speaking class, not much happened. then witch hunting i did not understand a thing. hopefully reading the stuff next time will help...
then it was off to lunch. did my floor duty of the week by taking the compost out. then sat aroud and drank water until 4:50 when it was off to race!
i rode with another guy from the team. and there were 3 others from here there too.
the course was flat as a pancake. four corners all of 90 degrees, and two of which had rail road tracks that i thought were going to be a problem. the race was 25 laps and if the total distance was just about exactly 37 km figure it out.
during the warm up my legs cramped a bit, but near the end they were feeling decent. then we lined up. id say around 30 or 40ish. and it was off! my first European race.
for the first 7 or 8 laps the group stayed together, although strung out in pretty much double or single file lines. i was in the back of the pack for this as i was getting used to racing again. its been awhile. i could see up ahead people trying to get away, but just unable. eventually some people did get away and the pack began to break up. i had to chase quite a bit to get up to a good draft. so by lap 11 or 12 there were probably about 20 left in the front and i was in the middle. now there were three of my team and i left, there was a group of two that had been away for 2 laps or so. so i went up front to see if i could do some pulling and get working hard. i did so and the team mates put me up there and then did some blocking and sent me off. i did not get to far before counter attacks occured one of which i latched onto and held on. eventually everyone was back in the group. then on the 7th lap to go or so lap there was nothing but fast biking happening, and i think a sprint for points was coming up so i decided to see what i could do. so i attacked and stayed out front for the next lap and a quater. i think i may have gotten the sprint points with this move. but eventually i was caught and then moved back a bit to rest. some more laps with failed attacks. keeping the pace nice and high. and it was the final lap. since the sprinters seemed to be all looking for their lead outs i knew i could do nothing against that so i tried my luck a bit early. out of the first corner on the lap i attacked again to see if i could hold the others off, but i made it to the final corner before being caught and passed by around 10 people or so. but thats ok cause i tried.
so my first racing experience here has been great. my legs after starting and a few laps felt great. thus i was able to attack 3 or 4 times. solo for two. my cardio and air systems also felt great. i think i did somehow by chance, the right training. once i find the results online i can put a link up.
and even though this was just a trainging race. it was great.

sunday i might be able to race here in konstanz in a real race, but if not next wednesday, after that i will get my license.

total race time. 52:45
total distance:37.08 km
max speed. 57.0 km/h (i think my first solo attack)
avg speed. 42.1 km/h (but one of the others said 46 so i dunno)
avg. HR. 157
max. 198 (highest recorded!)

rainy day.

waking up to rain, cold, and wind is never fun when you need to have it be nice outside. especially when in germany...
after a slow breakfast and quite a bit of sitting around (woke up 9 30, class 12 15) i went to class. the lecture was not very good. but the discussion about metahpors and the internet was good. there was a lot being said and it would require me to type way to much. so ill leave it at how it is now.
after that i came home made some lunch then again sat around. hoping the rain would stop and i could go racing. the germans, at least in my experiences, are weather wusses. they will wear pants unitl its 85, jackets up to 70. and if its raining, well it might as well be raining acid cause they sure dont go out to check. thus racing did not happen. and in most ways i guess thats good.
first its rainy windy cold. i dont really want to race in this kinda weather either. no fun. second and more importantly my damn legs.
yesterday i took the day off from biking, except for going to the uni and to the movie (which was decent by the way). so all together around 30 min of easyish riding. and i dont know weather the four hours on sunday counts for much either. so we will just count it as a half day rest. so after 1.5 days of rest this morning biking to the uni i got a small cramp in my leg. this was a bad sign. this is definatley not the first time such a thing has happened, but just from that i knew biking today was gonna hurt.
my legs do this weird thing, which i truly truly hate, that if i dont bike for a day or two after doing a lot of biking, cramp up like crazy. and it hurts like heck. so much it is hard to continue. why i dont know. but i want it to not happen. and its not from not drinking water, cause i watch that pretty carefully because of my problem. also its not lack of steching either, cause i did that yesterday too. so if anyone knows what is wrong with me please let me know. and as you can guess the cramping happened today. it was pretty bad too. i wanted to do short sprints today, but for the first hour my legs hurt to much to do anything but move then round and round. at just about an hour the pain began to subside and i did some short sprints, actually quite a few. at first my legs were very sluggish, but eventually i got a little bit of snap back into them.
30 min later i was home. took my bike in the shower, cleaned the dead worms off. then did a bunch of stretching and found that today the problem muscel(s) can be stretched if you lie on your back, one leg straight out, then bring the other up like doing a cannonball, one there push it towards the center of the body.
anyways. that is why it is good i did not race today. i would have not had a good time. hopefully i wont be cramping tomorrow.

oh, i got some photos today...

racing sooner

good news. i am for sure racing this wednesday. also i am racing tomorrow. i dont think tomorrow is as big as wednesday, and whatever kinda race it is it is close. we are biking to it! ahahahaha. im so excited.
anyways. today was not a whole lot of action. grammer class that we went over the prepositions again (very important in german). then at 10 i was done. so i read my sociology for tomorrow and then came home very hungry and ate my left overs from yesterday. i decided to take the day off from biking just to get my legs packed full of energy. they are about to explode. wahooo. that makes me happy.
anyway i decided to do my laudry cause i was outta socks. there are 4 washing machines down in the wash room. one is really new and i like using it, mostly cause its new, but also cause it is a bit bigger. someones stuff was done and the other were full, so i waited nearly 30 min and then took their stuff out. somehow the machine still thought more needed to be washed soo i got a free load! wahooo.

socks

after laudry i got a flurry of emails about the bike races this week, and i a bit here ill make dinner. tonight i am planning on going to Mission Impossible III, but dont know if the others will make it back in time to go. i hope so. i could use some popcorn right about now.

also for those of you have not seen fathers arm...

the waiting game (a novel)

is something i dont want to play for along time. but more on that later.

.foreword.
today was the first "exkursion" for us oles. there are 3 of us, two girls and me. Herr Eichler, our counsler type guy here (he is old, retiring after we leave), set it up with us last week. i figured it would not be all that bad seeing we were not going to far and all. but....

9 o'clock A.M. rolled around this morning and i went down to meet him thinking id be getting in a car. i got down there and he (Eichler) said go get a bike (and a rain jacket, he was convinced it was going to rain), so i got my crap bike and went back down. the other two eventually made it and he told us we were meeting him down by one of the bridges, he had to pick his bike up. so with the other two in tow i led them (slowly) to the meeting place. there we waited for 15 minutes (so much for german punctualitly) and eventually he showed up, with his wife. right at that moment i knew it was going to be a long day. i thought we were just going to take the bikes on the train and use them in the cities. wrong. we were biking most of the way. our first destination was Stein am Rhein, that village with painted buildings i have a picture of a while ago. at my or others like me, this takes about an hour. only 28 km or so. not bad. but with two senior citizens and two girls who dont bike more than to the town center i got scared. so we got going, instead of taking a nice direct route right to the bike path Eichler wanted to go through the woods because it was prettier. yeah ok i can do that, change is not bad. this was not all that bad. just really slow. eventually we got to the bike path and luckily started looking at train scheduels to Stein am Rhein. about 30 min later we got on a train and were soon in the village. that was not so bad. then we took a break. and slowly walked through the village, thank the lord it is tiny.
then to my dismay we started biking in the direction of Schaffhausen (20 km), i thought maybe we will just go to the next village. i was wrong. for the next nearly 3 hours i was basically sitting on a really really uncomfortable chair swinging my legs in a pedal motion. at one point along came a small incline, id say 4-6% grad for a km or so. we passed some hikers at the bottom. at the top i waited for 15 mintues, watching the hikers go by. i nearly died. luckily this was a gravel trail through a wooded area so there were mesquitos (sp?) to entertain me. it was awful. eventually the others showed up, walking their bikes (no other tourer was walking) and i resumed swinging my legs. 15 min later after a downhill/totally flat section i (and one of the other girls) had to wait 5 or so min again. how? no idea. the other got there stopped at a fountain nearby filled water. and then 3 min later a 10 min break was suggested and enacted. honestly we just stopped for 10 min!!!!!!! AHHHHH. eventually we got going again and made it to schaffhausen. but kept right on going (or waiting) until we got to the Rheinfall. which is 3 km past schaffhausen and basically a smallish waterfall that is wide. here is a picture

the "amazing" Rheinfall. thats it folks, nothin more.

it was packed with people. getting a "nature" experience or something. it even cost money to see the falls. sure if it was like Niagra i might be amused, but Jay Cooke State Park is i think more entertaining.
we were forced onto a little boat to go see the falls from there. i thought it might be fun. but like everything else today. it was slow. for little kids and old people!

a few hours later we started back. we were (luckily) asked if we wanted to take the train back from schaffhause or ride back to Stein. without pause you can guess my answer. luckily the others were tired.
then one of the highpoints of my day came along when i decided to get some swiss francs. since i could only get 50 or more. i got 50 and then bought some swiss chocolate to get smaller bills. which are really really cool. i really like the bills. i wish the $ was this cool.

pretty. i think i will get a swiss bank account next time im bored.
then on the train. blew the Eichlers minds by telling them it is possible to go around the Untersee in under 3 hours. and then we got back to right near the border. i knew how to get home from here so i turned to go the fast way and was told no we are going to go the pretty way. which is not all that pretty. finally we got back to konstanz and it was over. i took off, liberated at last!!! but not for long. at the train tracks the gaurds were down. for 1 train, 2 trains, long long pause, 3rd train. gates still down. it had now been 15 min. the pizza moped went around the barrier, a few bikers. i said screw it the train is nowhere near (neither see or hear) and went. going across the tracks like that i am sure is an exectutable offense. but i did not get caught. so no worries.
so that is the waiting game. and i hope it is obvious that i am sick of waiting because i did it for 7 hours today. if i have to wait for anything but food for the next week something is going to die.

by the way, my internet is making me wait right now. i want to burn the network center..
and it was nothing but bright sun today

oh on a good note that chocolate i got, wow.

fresh ice cream.

i decided to finish off my loaf of bread this morning by making french toast again. a very good way to start the morning. after a bit i went out for a bike. i wore my new shorts. they are quite comfortable. and i decided to do some short intervals to get ready for racing. so i did those which were mildly painful. and after 2 hours and 20 minutes of headwind i was back home.
today there was supposedly a bike trade type thing down town, so after my ride i went to check it out. i got there and there was nothing. either it was already gone or there was never anything. oh well. didnt really matter anyway. then i went to search a different grocery store for tortilla shells. but couldnt find them. i know they are here somewhere. ive had them before! after that failure i went to get some ice cream just because i had not had it since ingrid was here. i lucked out and they were putting out a freshly made batch of what i wanted. it was soooo freakin good. ahhh. then it started raining. its amazing how the area went from crowded to empty in about 5 mintues, everyone just dissappeared. into shops i suppose. and there were some also crowded under balconies. it was pretty entertaining. i also noticed that in the very center by the fountains there was a movie being filmed. no idea which though.
then i bike back up to my grocery store. got some supplies and headed along the empty roads (these became deserted as well) back home.
now the sun is back out and the birds singing while i sit at an open window eating chips and salsa. the salsa i got for free cause one of the other oles didnt like the taste. haha! i think its pretty decent. wahoo! but unfourtunatley my chip supply is rapidly diminishing...
speaking of olaf, today is "lutefest" where bands play and all. last year was nickle creek this year is rooney, which from what i have heard from them are decent. so if your in the area and its nice out. go its outside, which means its free. or at least it was last year.
and that so far has been my day.

hiding from the rain.

making money.

well yesterday not a whole lot happened. had one class and then the weekend started. went for a bike. hit the hills nice and hard, felt pretty good. and then came home and that was pretty much may 4th.

my entertainment. watching kid throw water ballons at cars.
today i woke up to thunder. no rain. just thunder, sat around a bit. tried calling someone about an advertisement in the paper that said they needed garden(yard) help once a week. perfect. but no one was home. ill try again tomorrow. then i went for a bike, had no idea where i was going to go, but ended up starting to go around the Untersee (lower part of the lake), made it aways then instead of following the flat bike trail around one part i took the over land route. up a hill down a hill. quite nice actually. both bigish hills. then got to switzerland and instead of following the lake went up into the hills again. got a bit lost, eventually got going in the right direction had a wonderful decent and was back at the lake. thus making my way home very easy to find. oh it also got sunny about 20 minutes after i started.
then after my shower i was just about to go to the store to get some food for weekend, not that i needed it tonight (luckily) but so i wouldnt have to go tomorrow. but as i was getting ready to go i found a note next to my door. translated in short it said. "i need you come to this place." i went and it was a guy who needed bike fixing help. i then remember last week i put up a peice of paper that said "bike repairs, cheap, jake room 417." and so i helped him with what should have been an hour job, but was closer to 2:15 or 20. because of a stupid shifter, but eventually i got it working and collected 15€. wahhooo. i feel rich! haha.

a few observations on the germans:
first.
i have found out how to tell who is a really fast biker and who isnt. it requires a few quick observations. just judging by speed here does not work. people go super hard for a while then just die, so you never can be sure about that. but anyways. first you look at their clothes, do they match? are they for a team. if yes continue, if no quick check the bike, then continue or stop. second check the bike. is it nice? if yes, then continue. how much clothes are they wearing? this is the biggy. the day i rode with bert it was nearly 75 and he had long sleeve jersey and leg warmers on. and others who seem to be fast also wear lots. i dunno why they wear so much but it seems to be such as mentioned above.

second.
german drivers (and some swiss) piss me off. they drive insanely fast, and when you are biking they love to rev the engine as they pass. pretty much everyone does it. why i do not know. they also often decide turning the wheel a lot is too much work so they come pretty close. i have decided if it is worse then american drivers or not. i think that just the speedlimitless roads are what does it. with a limit (in a small village) its never too bad, but on the open road. watch out! but i never get honked at here. well i guess not never, last week was the first time since coming south.

third.
many young teenagers. (guys) all seem to want to be gangsterish. they wear baggy clothes and all, and walk around playing rap or techno on their cell phones (which act as speakers). put their hair in mohawks, or dye it. and of course if they are id say around 16 smoke. maybe it is the same at home? but i have not seen it there. i dont know why so many act this way, but they do.

fourth.
cross walks. something i will never understand. there i am biking along an empty road. not a car around and ahead is a stop light, with a cross walk. in all but a few cases someone is standing at the light, waiting. why? for the walk sign to come on...the germans are obsessed with the cross walk, and not going across till it says too. they will wait through 2 or 3 rounds of cars before even thinking about going during the red. even when no cars they wait. sure your supposed to, but noone at home or in other countries seems to wait. when its open they go. weird...

fitting right in.

another nice breakfast shared with my choco rice perls and it was off to speaking class. didnt do to much in there, just talking i guess. ha. then it was the first day of my "witch hunting in the middle ages" class. it was packed full. so full that the prof. created a second class time. i stayed in the one i was in. since it is a proseminar i was unsure if i was going to stay. those are the most work here. but then a girl asked what to do if she just needed the course credit not the proseminar credit and if i heard right we just have to do a protokoll which i think is basically a book report kinda thing, but on only one chapter. sweet. so i think that class should be pretty fun. hopefully get my GE for history out of the way. then i went to the elusive mtn bike class again. and even though the scheduel says it was happening today. nope next week. so i went for a 2 hour bike. the view of the alps was even better today. i saw some mtns i had not seen before.
then at 5:30 was the "team presentation" for the bike club here. it was actually a photo shoot. so i went there just to talk to the people and see when they would be riding and all. after a while the guy who i talked to already came and introduced me. so that was nice. then it was photo time for the club. i was give shorts and a jersey and told to put it on, and come in the photo. so i fit right into the new clothes. and then went and got my picture taken. haha. they even have a team car. pretty cool. im excited. then i was told i need the at least the jersey to race. and i can barrow it if i want, or i could buy it for 42€ or i could get the shorts for 30€ or both for 50€. how that works i have no idea...
so tomorrow i am gonna pay the guy and ill have some new bike clothes. neato. then a guy from the news paper came. took some pictures and all. then i was called over to him and the leader guy of the club and i found out he lived for a bit (newspaper guy) in fairbault. that was interesting. i had just ridden my crappy bike over, so i could not go with most of the others who went to go take "action" shots. but i stayed and talked with the organizers of the team and found out that even though i cant race in germany this weekend because i have no license yet there is a race in switzerland about 40 km away that you dont need a license and it is only 3 € to enter. so if i can get to it ill do that one. someone might be going to it from the club and i can ride with them. if not maybe ill take the train. dunno. and its a training race kinda like the opus crits i think. (its a crit) and an hour long. it would be a good first race. so my late afternoon was quite good. i am thinking the team picture will be available some how eventually to me. so when i get it i will put it up.


i figured id just throw in a picture of one of my hills to show how green it is...

cows.

a busy day it has been. this morning after waking up from a nice sleep i went up to the uni and got my copy card (which is needed to copy anything), and copied a bit of reading for sociology. however i screwed up once, wasted 45 cents (5 cents per copy) and then got it right. Then i went down to the stamp shop, because thats where the guy works i needed to talk to about my license. so i finally got that all figured out. the only cost for the license is a 10€ processing fee. but i also had to pay the membership for the club. so it was 65€ total. and the only stupid thing is that it takes usually 3-4 weeks to get, and there is no temporary license, so i wont be able to race till i get it. but the good news is i will be able to race after that. wahooo!
then i went to class, figured out that i only had half the pages of what i needed, luckily it was not my fault someone took the original. class was basically a lecture on the different types of sociology for looking at technology. but basically the point was user make technology better. coulda said that and been done for the day.
after class i went for a bike. ever since yesterday as i was getting back from my bike i have had the incredible urge to take pictures of cows. why, i have no idea...so today on my bike i went to a few places that i was sure had the kinda cow i was looking for.

mooo..

mooo again.

badass or fatass?

after looking at cows. i came home then eventually made some dinner.

success for under a €uro.

may day!

another day off...i really dont know how the education is decent over here with how little we go to class! but somehow it is.
after waking up i went for a nice bike. easy. today was the clearest day yet i think, and it wasnt to clear. on my ride i tried taking pictures of the alps which i could see perfectly, however the camera doesnt show them very well. oh well. one of these days. i got a few ok pictures...

just look closely

my valley


i did a bit of exploring to get the first picture, so my ride was a bit longer than i had planned. i was gonna do 2 hours, but it ended up nearly 2.5. oh well, i went easy. eventually i got home. right when i got home i quick ate some lunch and then headed down to the "beach" to meet some people from my floor. the beach is nothing like a beach i think of. (i already knew this though) because of the lack of sand here it is mostly grassy with trees. and the grass goes right down to some smallish rocks right on the shore. the ones that are to big to go straight over, but to small to walk comfortably on top. so to solve this there are ramps leading into the water. weird, but i guess it works. i prefer the beaches on lake superior more, but at least its water. as well as the ramps there is badmiton courts, volley ball courts, locker rooms, ping pong tables, a snack bar, mini golf...pretty developed, not a place that i can truly relax at just because it is so dang crowded. kinda like everything else here. oh well, itll be nice to have in the summer when it get hot.
and no i did not go swimming, it was not that warm out and the water is still pretty cold. next time maybe. i just played ping pong.
then we came home. i cleaned my room (its amazing how dirty it gets, at olaf i never clean my room and its just fine. weird...)
then i made some alfreado, finally with the right sauce. and soon its bed. tomorrow class and hopefully a racing license.
the only problem i am having right now is that i have been really hungry lightly. thus needing to eat a lot, thus spending more money. grrrr....

life is hard.

woke up, went biking. and after being angrily honked at and then coming very very close to being hit twice i made a nice loop and enjoyed not having anything else to do. my legs were a bit tired from being frozen yesterday, but after a while they felt a little better. hopefully next weekend i will be racing so this week i am going to take it pretty easy. do some quickness things. but other than biking today nothing happened. to cold to just go sit outside...and everything is closed so no point in going downtown. next thing on the scheduel is to decide what to have for dinner. then who knows! no class tomorrow so i dont have to worry about going to bed early. haha. life is hard...

cold

ever since i bought that sunscreen it has not been sunny. i think maybe i should sell it. today not only was it rainy but quite cold. never more than 10.
this morning i started my bike early cause it was dry at the time. then about an hour in the roads got wet. i dont really remember much rain, but it got really wet. and really cold. so after 2 more hours of freezing i got back and slowly warmed up. that took me nearly 2 hours to do...
went and got some vegtables at the store and had green beans and spaghetti for dinner. quite good. then played some chess and more i am thinking about bed.

exciting developements

for those who like to read early i figured id get the news out. first and i guess could be considered most important is dad is coming in may.

anyone remember that calander i was talking about the other day, how it had all the races in the area. well apparently i did not read it very well cause this morning i got bored and really studied it. i discovered, to my surprise and delight, that there are a couple of races within 100km in the next few weeks. the first ones i found were not accessable with a train, and i cant find contact info on them. then i found a race in Singen (35 km) away on monday. and being that i have no class monday this is good. i emailed the organizer to see if it was too late, have not heard back yet. i kept reading. next weekend there is one in Geislingen (70 km). then the next weekend Konstanz and i could just keep going...wahooo! i went and talked to the shop guy to see if he knew if i could race he said Geislingen for sure and probably Konstanz too. (i did not have the info about monday yet).
I got back to my room emailed the bike clubs and then a few minutes later i got an email from the club in Konstanz which i have been trying to find since my arrival. it was just a little bit about the club and who the guy was and all. i emailed back a few questions then got another email that basically said (translated) "i am very glad you are interested in the club. You can register for a racing liscense at this certain shop. I dont know who is riding today because the weather is so bad. We race in baden-wurt. and Rhein-land. area and we have a van to transport. the first people to register for the race get a place in the van, but many drive themselves. transportation to the races is no problem. on 03.05 we are having a team presentation, i suggest you come to it and we can talk."


part 2
racing this weekend is not going to happen. you have to have a license to race and you cant buy just a day one like at home. in fact you cant even buy one, you have to register through a team kinda thing. i went to do that today, but the guy i need to talk to was not in his shop (not a bike shop like i had been looking for, but a stamp shop). so i will be talking to him as soon as possible.

baking americans

no lies that is what i did last night. i baked Amerikaners (americans in english). However, as you probablly suspected i did not bake actual people. Amerikaners are a pastry they have over here that is quite good. it gets its name from the frosting, which is supposed to be half white, half black. kinda funny. but i enjoy them quite a bit and since theyare never cheaper than .80€ i decided to make my own. and lucky for me they are pretty dang easy to make. just butter, flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder. unfourtunatley i did not mix the batter quite well enough at the start so the first batch was a bit flat, but i realized what happened and the second few turned out quite well. they are supposed to be round, but mine kinda grew into each other in the oven. oops! ill figure out how to get them right next time. and the frosting i used, powdered sugar water and lemon. was a bit strong on the lemon. also easily fixable. over all they are pretty good.

one of the better looking ones. i ate the others last night.

this morning i got to sleep in a bit. till 8 30. got up ate an amerikaner and went to grammer class. we just did a bit of review, but i needed it! luckily after i figured out what we were doing it was easy.
at the end of class i found out that next monday is a national holidy. which meansss?? no class! so my three day weekend is now four. i think ive figured out why german education is free (or costs very little). and that is because they are never in class!
i was then going to go to another class, but i did not write down the room number. so ill go next week. but i dont really need to cause ive got my 4 classes.
after than i went for an easy 90 min bike. found two delightful 4 km hills not to far away that i will most likely being spending some time on.
after the bike i called Die Bahn (the train) service to find out where my missing Bahncard is. and found out they had a bad address. so now ill get that finally (hopefully). anddd thats my day.
its the weekend!

oops.

this morning i got the pleasure of having "choco rice pearls" for breakfast, and they are amazing. for being a knock of cocoa crispies i think that they might actually be better. wahoo.
then it was of to a german class for speaking work. i think it will be a pretty good class. sounds like most of the focus will be on vocab. next i waited in the room for my "witch hunting in middle europe" to start, but i guess that happens next week.
next came biking, went to that steep hill again. then back a new way. always fun to explore.
when i got back i got ready to go to the first day of my mountain bike class. i was really excited for it and all. then i checked the scheduel to remember the room and saw the class was not at 4, but at 2. ooops. i missed it by two hours. i dont know how i managed to read the time wrong more than once. so i got back and emailed the prof. luckily he just said to come next week cause there is still room. whew...
and tonight is alfreado for dinner hopefully. we will see how it turns out.
i also found some peanut butter at the store today. hopefully it is better than the last german peanut butter i had. ill let you know when i eat some.

in response to a recent comment. the reason that my blog has been basically all about biking is well, because thats basically the only thing ive been doing. class started this monday and since it is the first week nothing is being taught quite yet. just introduction and plans for the course.

still sunny.

another morning with hoopy honeys and i was off to take my placement test for the german classes. of course since i have not studied or written german for nearly a month it did not go that well. but it does not really matter because i am in the same class i wanted to be. also i am going to take a speak proficency class as well i think.
after the test i went for an hour ride thinking i would not have time later. i did my 6.36km TT again and knocked off over a minute. 9:20 i think part of the reason was there was no one to dodge and instead of taking the bike trail the last 1.5km i stuck to the rd. its the same lenght but a bit smoother. but it felt good so now i have a new thing to beat...
then got home and rushed to get ready for the sociology class. made it there a few minutes late. i think i will for sure stay in that class. looks like it will be interesting. all i have to do is write a 15 page paper at the end. but lucky for me its in english! yes!
since today was the first day all that happens is a lecture on the class itself. no point in teaching yet, some people wont stay in it. so it was done at 12:45 and therefor i got a chance to finally ride with those who i have been trying to hook up with for the last week. but i had to cut it short for i had another class to get too. so i rode an hour out, then back. luckily home with the wind. and i went pretty easy. again got home rushed to class and made it early this time. i found out that this class (the roman republic) is a proseminar which i guess means it is hard. so i wont be taking it. also it is about the politics of rome not the action stuff. ha
then i did my laundry and now i will eat dinner.

i also found a list of all the races this summer in Baden-Würtenburg (the "state" i live in) its quite a long list so hopefully i can get into some. i talked to the shop guy about racing and he said i need a licsense (i cant ever spell that one) to race with the teams and such, but i can race the "hobby class" without one. we will see what i find out.

oh it was supposed to rain today. never did. oh shucks.

day one.

after a breakfast of "Hoopy Honeys" (supposed to be cheerioish, but more like froot loops) i headed of to the uni for my first class. it is a german grammar class. today was just the introductions and all, so nothing special. however i never took a needed placement test so i am lucky enough to have to take it tomorrow! oh boy! after that class i headed to were i thought my second class was, but i guess it was not a class day today. hmm. oh well. i didnt complain. so at 10:30 i was done. so of course the only thing left to do on this beautiful sunny very warm day was go biking. i called the bike shop guy to see if they were meeting, but today was a rest day for there was a race yesterday. i really need to get in on that action...since they wernt going i took off and rode up that steep hill i talked about going down the other day. it was hard. instead of starting nice and easy the road out of the village is a steep 14% and that lasts for a good km. then it gets a bit easier for about 1.5k then i am pretty sure it kicks back up to 10% for another km before nearing the flatter top. it was hard, ill be quite strong if i do that a few times a week.

hill

after clearing the top i was greeted with a hazy but very nice view of the alps. they are very hard to see in this picture, but are still there. ill get to them one of these days.

the alps are there
then i went down down down, into the valley. then up up and out and back to konstanz. it was a very nice 2 hr 15 min ride. i cramped up pretty bad after the big hill, i think because i did not drink enough the last few days, but eventually the cramps went away and i was fine.
tomorrow i have a test, a sociology class that looks pretty interesting "sociology on the internet" and then the history class which is on the roman republic. and if i dont like a class, doesnt matter, i just find a new one!

last day of break.

well believe it or not i have not been in class since march 30th. and unfourtunatley class does begin tomorrow. oh well. it should not be to much work. a 4 day week with one of my classes being biking! hahaha. we will see what the actual classes are like, if they are lots of work, or none at all. i hope a bit light!
today i pretty much relaxed. made french toast this morning, although i still cant get it quite right. then sat around. went for an hour really really easy bike, just get any stiffness that there was out. then sat around some more. i finished up the book i was reading, deception point by dan brown. was really quite good. made some dinner. had a floor meeting that was entertaining and now its bed time.

oops! forgot sunscreen...

biking with Bert.

having a group ride fail to materialize is not always a bad thing...
This morning i got up ate a big breakfast and went down to the border to meet other at 11. no one showed up. i called my contact and he was baffled. so at 11 20 i took of solo into the swiss hills once again. after a seemingly random set of turns here and there i found myself climbing a decent hill going up and away from a swiss town. near the top (or thought it was at the time) i saw a guy cruising down. he looked pretty fast so i said screw it and turned around and chased after him. for some reason as i was chasing him down the hill my adrenaline kicked in, why i know now. but at the time it was a bit odd. anyways after i got close again (he stoped for traffic) i noticed he was decked out in Team Phonak gear. of course i just assumed it was a die hard fan like ive seen before. althought he did have the BMC team edition with a super nice power meter and all, but hey a rich fan? but i just rode up and asked if i could ride with him a bit. he looked a bit surprised and said sure why not (all of these events happen in german). so i asked him name and all that introduction stuff (name is Bert) and found out he lives in Kreuzlingen, which is just across the border from konstanz. the conversation then naturally led to me asking him if he does a whole lot of racing. he said yes lots with a bit of an odd look, then since he was wearing Phonak gear i kinda half jokingly asked if he races for Phonak, and to my surprise and utter delight he said yes! also looking baffled. i felt like an idiot. hear i had caught up to a pro and then casual asked him if he raced. i think he thought it was pretty entertaining, or maybe just annoying. either way i was now biking with a professional cyclist. ahahaha and so for the next hour or so i biked around the swiss country side with a guy named Bert who is a pro. he even said my german is good! haha. i asked what races hes done so far this year and he was like oh to many to name so i said paris-roubaix and he said yes, but it did not go incredibly well. i think he hurt his wrist there. i also think he said he does not like that race much. but im not going to say that for sure... i also found out his next race is the tour of Romandie. then we went by a soccer game so i asked if he like soccer and was excited for the world cup like every other European. he said no not really but ill still watch. i thought that was entertaining.
eventually we ended up in kreuzlingen and so i told him good luck and that kinda thing. and then i think perhaps maybe ill see you out biking again. but anyway that was the first hour and 50 of my ride.
oh the whole time we were going around 35 kmh. except on hills. Bert does not like hills...lucky for me. i felt surprsingly good while biking with him. sure my heart rate was a bit high for an OD workout but i figured i could suffer. thankfully he was doing a mildly easy day. i must have caught him after his harder part. again luckily. but i hope he did not mind me going along. i made sure never to go in his draft though always at his side as to not seem as i was just along to say i did it. tried to make it like a normal ride. i also took no pictures as to not impose any more.
berts site
after biking with Bert i had tons of energy so i went back out in the country side and ended up on the same hill i met him on. but this time i kept going up. and up and up it was a delightfully long hill. i did not measure it thought, but i gaurantee i will be back there. so after climbing for a long while i got to the top and came around a corner to see the Bodensee stretched out before me. it was quite a pretty sight. but since i was going downhill at 60 kmh i did not take a picture. ill be back on that hill too. i got to the bottom and went towards Konstanz, but turned around about 15 min later and decided to go around the south west arm of the lake again. ride time was now at around 3 hr 45. and i was out of water. but i just kept going and eventually got to germany. found some nice swiss buildings for mum right before the border.

they all have pictures on them too.

i filled my water bottles up here and then kept on going. i was at about 100 km and had 40 to go till konstanz so i decided to make in 160 or so. a century in miles. at about 120 i could tell i was starting to bonk. the only thing i had eaten was 6 "gel cubes" from Clifbar. (thanks ingrid) and so i looked for a bakery. and just kept going from town to town. never finding an open one. eventually a tired body got me back to konstanz and i ate a bit. dropped my bowl of rice on the floor that i had been looking forward to all day. and went to the grocery store. ate a big dinner and now am finishing this.

so that was my day in the saddle

total ride was 6 hours 13 min. and 162.09 km. not to bad for 5 hours being solo.

interesting

another beautiful day today. lucky me. first i went up to the uni and was going to talk to the professor who does the biking class. but he was not there. however i found a sheet and put my name on it. i also say where the class "excursion" goes. the place is called Engadin. and it is somewhere in switzerland. near St. Moritz i believe. after that i went downtown and got to talk to a guy who rides his bike. and got word to meet on the swiss border at 1:30. then i went and asked about a job at a baker. they needed help, but since i will only be here for 3 more months and the training period is around 6 weeks he said that it would not be worth it for either of us. to bad. he needed workers too...
then i went home got ready to bike. got to the border 5 min early, saw a bike go across. then tried myself. buuuuuttttt. today just happen to be my lucky day and there were some gaurds out. after seeing a bunch of people go across without ids being check i tried. and of course i got check. and of course i did not have my passport. so i waited to see if they might bike in germany. but i think they did not. so i tried to quick get my passport and get back down but it took me a good 25 min. so the riders were gone when i got back. stupid stupid me. but i went across anyway and the same guy checked me and went through my passport a good 2 or 3 times nice and slow, im sure just to piss me off. after that experience i took off towards the hills. after going up one that was surprising long and steep for what i thought it was going to be i got to a high point and was able to look out over a nice valley with some good looking hills on the other side.

swiss roads
i went to the bottom of the valley and decided to turn around and save my energy for tomorrow in case there is a long ride (i contacted the shop guy a few min. ago, 11 at the border, i wont miss it this time.)
and that was my day.
oh i nearly forgot. one the bank clocks in switzerland said 27 degrees. thats 81 F....

bugs.

today was a fairly busy day. got up, went to the uni. finished up all the paperwork there. went downtown tried to find out what happened to my Bahncard, but i asked a lazy guy and he told me to call. thought about getting a job at a bakery or movie theater. contacted a guy about helping him crew his racing sailboat. found out that i can get ahold of the bike club tomorrow. got enough groceries for about a month. and then went biking. since it has been very nice these past few days the bugs seem to have all hatched now. so while biking i must have killed a couple hundered. one did not want to go quietly and bit or stung me on the arm upon contact. i can still feel where it did so. but other than that biking was very nice. working on my tan of course. i think the spring that is usually here finally came. soon it will be summer. horray!
tomorrow i am going to explore the swiss roads. should be interesting. ill find out how far away the alps actually are...

just my bike and i once again.

well the wonderful visit of ingrid is now over, so the only thing left to keep me company is my bike. after the 4 and a half hour train ride home i took off. went up the peninsula right to the mainland then turned left instead of the usually 180. Leo had told me that there was a good hill near one of the cities, so i decided to go find it. and i found it, quite easily actually. it is a hard hill. snakeing along through the forest at 10% for about 4km. that is after about 1km of a very light rise. i have a feeling ill be on it a lot. the view from the top was good, but i did not have my camera... coming down was really fast and fun, lots of turn practice. then after one time up i headed back to konstanz. it the hill is around 17km from here, so i have to want to do a longer ride to get to it. today was 2 hrs 50 and 76.7 km.
tomorrow i am going to finish up all the paperwork stuff up at the uni. how exciting...

Last day...

Ingrids blog

Well, since Jake is to lazy at the moment and busy cleaning his bike i will write in the blog and just sum up my trip. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Just being able to see so much and have to figure everything out for ourselfs. Jake was a big help, he deff. knows how to get around Europe for himself. Every day seemed to just fly by, its amazing when your having fun how fast time really does go. We made sure to do something everyday even if it was just looking for a tv or me picking out a caslte out of a tour book. The weather welcomed me and also said goodbye in a very nice fashion but inbetween was alittle different. ha. We made the most of everyday. I even got Jake to buy a laundry card so he will be set and enough laundry detergent to last him the next three months! :o) Now I just have to hope for a smooth travel home. Good night.

...Jake will be missed

my magnolia tree...so beautiful

oster.

first off happy easter to all.
on with the show...
today was my first big holiday experience in a different country. it was pretty good. just so everyone knows easter here is much like it is at home. little kids search for easter eggs (real eggs) and then baskets (full of chocolate). there are even lots of chocolate bunnies just like at home.
we (Bühlers, ingrid, I) went to church this morning. the oldest church i probablly will go to a service in. (1056)
then went to the village restrauant in frittlingen to celebrate grandpas birthday and easter. we ate really good food. lots and lots of it too. then we went back to grandparents house and were force feed for another 2 hours. i thought my stomach was going to explode. and that was pretty much my easter.
oh, yesterday was good too. 2.5hr bike with over 20km of climbing, lots of food. good time.

happy easter from the Bühler house

finally sun.

finally a day without rain. oh so wonderful. after a light breakfast i took off on my bike. i went up past the high point on the peninsula and the a past. almost to the city where i can take off down the long part of the lake. as i was coming to an intersection on the way home i saw a biker cruising up the way i was not going to go, i figured it would be a good chance to see if he was part of a team or something so i chased him and his Look 585 with carbon wheels and all down. i found out he was not affiliated with the team i am trying to contact, but i did get in a good 10k with him. my first bike with someone since the last time with paul in paderborn. it was delightful to draft someone again...
after he cut off i did my nice little time trail run i figured out. 6.36 km in 10:23. considering the dodging of tourers i did and following the bike path i am fairly pleased with that.
after biking ingrid and i went into town and ate ice cream and peopled watched just like tons of others were doing. it was nice to sit in the sun a relax with the alps in the distance.

the isolated alp, there are a whole ton to the left of this but no good picutres. plus this one is my favorite.
boats and blue.

crabby old men

another day of crappy weather today. but instead of sitting ingrid looked through a book, found a castle she liked and we went there. it was not as good as the pictures made it look was her verdict. on the way there she put her foot partly on the seat edge and some old man told her to take it off, then called us pigs. how nice of him. on the way there since i have a card that gets me 50% off train tickets i bought the ticket in the machine, not needing to use the card to do so, then when the conductor came around i did not have it so i had to pay more. bah. luckily they did not check on the way home. the weather in ingrids city was crappy and cold too. i was unhappy. we were there all of 45 min, then started on the way home. my day got all better when i got to ride in a two story train. now i am happy. and eating corn chips..........

my favorite.

Ingrids blog...

Yes.. i did have two crabby men today but it all got better when jake got to climb a hill to take a pic of my caslte i wanted to see. Having the weather be so crappy has not been bad at all we have found enough to do too keep us busy. Yesterday we went looking for a tv for Jake, but of course could not find one cheap enough ha. Then we went to the grocery store (jakes fav. store) and picked up stuff to make a wonderful dinner, it was very good. Its been a good learning experience having to cook for ourselfs and try to eat heathly at the sametime, its not easy ha. But I think we are doing rather well. Except this morning our pancakes didnt really turn out as we planned, but hey what can ya do?! Alright thats all of now, take care and have wonderful rest of your day!

after racing jake up the hill he had a smile on his face :o)

yummy.


....now off to battle jake in chess (score: 4 to 1) hes winning :o(

switzerland then france.

well the day we were supposed to go to france took a drastic change when the train got cancelled. there was heavy snowfall in the black forest which downed trees on the track preventing us from getting through. sooo after sitting for nearly an hour two stops away from konstanz we got kicked off and went back. instead of going back up to the univerisity and sitting the rest of the day we stayed downtown for quite a while. we in fact accidently walked to switzerland.

switzerland

then we walked around some more, i found a nice rain jacket that wont keep me wet. and we looked at movie times. after a cold bike home we made some dinner, then took the bus back down and went to Ice Age 2, jetzt Taut's. in german, so of course ingrid could not understand it, but i could! haha. maybe she'll comment on that later...
then we tried again for france this morning with success. the train made it through and we got to strasbourg without a problem.
strasbourg was quite nice actually, much nicer than i thought it would be. also bigger. and since it was france chocolate shops and bakery shops everywhere. its what got me through the day. i found one place which had unresistable cake....mmmmmm.

sooo gooood...

starting line of the tour de france, ill be back...
a picture for the moms.

rain rain go away.

well a rainy day, all day non stop. and its a cold rain. no fun at all. since there was nothing better to do we tried to make french toast this morning. it was not normal, but it still was not to bad. then went run/bike. then sat around a whole lot. finally dinner time came around and we made sauce that was really actually not bad at all, with pork and noodles. i ate a ton, so did ingrid. and now i am stuffed. after dinner we drank hot cocoa and played 2 games of chess. both of which i strategically dominated! hahaha.
and that was pretty much the day.
tomorrow we are going to go to strasbourg which is france.

passing a rainy day with jenga.

a beautiful day with a beautiful girl.

yesterday ingrid finally arrived. although not on time. apparently the plane from minneapolis had some issues. so she missed her flight from amsterdam to frankfurt. i never knew it would be stressful to wait like that. but trying to figure out if she was on the plane, or a different plane coming to a different gate. ahh. glad thats over. eventually she made it, 4 hours late. lucky we made the last train of the day to konstanz and after 4 hours of trains got here at 1:30 ish.
today was amazing out. so warm and sunny. ingrid had jet lag so i went biking while she slept, worked out quite nicely. i found a nice hour and a quater long loop.
after biking we went down to the old city which is all shopping and touristy. it was quite nice down there too. i bought a big down, very comfortable pillow for 5€ (the pillow i got with the room sucks). i also found a pair of birkenstocks for 29€ and i was planning on buying some of those while here so i got that out of the way.

a big chocolate rabit.

shadows by the lake.

after sitting down by the lake for a while and going to the grocery store we cooked some dinner, potatoes, pork, and brocolli. all of which were good, except the pork which was exceptional. and the after dinner chocolate was quite good too. and that was the day.



Ingrids Abroad:
Well I guess you could say my horrible plane ride here was all worth it after today. The sky was amazingly blue, not a cloud in the sky. The weather was wonderful, shorts of course althought I found out today Germans prob. dont wear shorts till it gets alittle warmer, they could tell im not from here haha. But for me, it was warm enough. My frist train ride was very nice as well, it made me wonder if people in Germany ever sleep because we were on the train till 2 a.m and there were still people just riding it. Mostly kids, i was very suprised. Well hopefully another nice day tomorrow! Untill then...

Giant Swan...(check out those feet!)

a busy morning.

this morning started with a meeting with the advisor for the olaf students. he wanted to check up and see what classes we were interested in and such. so i did that at 9 30 with the other 2 oles. they came a bit late because they were getting their visas. i realized i needed to get mine by next monday or else something would happen (it says you only have a week to get it upon arival).
first i had to go get proof of insurance, luckily that only took about 10 minutes. then i went the the Bürgerburo (citizens office) and applied and got my visa! i had to get this all done by noon too, because the office closes then. luckily i was able to so i dont need to go back.
along with the visa, i got a cupon book worth supposedly 150€. exciting.

visa

on the way home i stoped at the grocery store again. third day in a row. i just cant carry much so i have to go back and forth. but i got potatoes and eggs and pork, which was cheap! horray! i can eat meat again! (paderborn meat was really pricy).
after a lunch of grilled cheese i went for a bike, this time too the hills. i just turned whenever i felt like it (usually uphill) and just kept going. i figure the best way to find out where you are is to go get lost and find your way home. but since i live on basically a peninsula it was pretty hard to get lost. especially cause i got high enough where i could see nearly everything between me and the alps on the other side of the lake. someday when it is not hazy ill have to go back up there, the view would be spectacular.

hazy view from the high point of my ride. that is the lake down yonder...obvisouly

but eventually i came back down and had a good 2 hr 20 min ride in nothing but hills.
after getting home i made some dinner, pork and potatoes with sauce that looked good but i screwed up in that it had almost no flavor. after dinner a taiwan exchange kid taught me how to play chess. its about time i learned. so now since there is a chess game here i will play often i think...

tomorrow i go to frankfurt...to pick up ingrid!

10 pictures equals 10000 and some more words?

instead of typing pictures will do well

last night in Paderborn: start top left. Lukasz,green shirt (poland), Noora, blonde (finnland), Niina, red hair (finnland), Cheryl,blue (st. Olaf), Karl, becks (olaf), Connor, cowbow hat (st. thomas), Matthias, front left, (france), maximillion (france).

the view from my room at bühlers

bühlers flowers (bloomed day before i got there) and first bees

one of the hills i like. from the top. you can see part of the road down by the tree line

couldnt resist

my new room

a view from germany to switzerland on yesterdays bike.

weird cloud

the border, buildings, but no one in them. just roll on through

view from switzerland to germany, bodensee in the middle.

yesterday the weather was so nice, bike in shorts with longsleeve jersey pushed up. today it is snowing and has been all day. what the heck!

hopefully tomorrow.

sorry all for not entertaining for the last few days, im working on getting interent on my computer. so far no luck. tomorrow i think i will though. when i do i have many pictures.
but konstanz is nice. today i rode around the south west arm of the lake. 2 countries! look at a map...
till tomorrow. hopefully....

ahh the bühlers

well today was pretty good. and for the morning quite nice outside. so after breakfast and sitting outside for a few hours i went for a bike. to another big hill in the area. just a little further away, and bigger i think. instead of 3 complete switch backs it has 9. much more entertaining to go up. it took 17 minutes. i only had time to do it once though. it was quite nice out. i biked in only shorts and a long sleeve jersey and was dripping sweat on the hill. got back and ate lunch right away, another big meal. oh anne got home too. so it was a family meal and jake.
then at 3 relatives came over to celebrate christophs birthday, so the talked and ate cake (homeade cheese, and that kind with cream and fruit on top)for a few hours. when they are all talking amongst each other i can really hear the swäbisch accent. compared to hoch deutsch it is much harder to understand, but i think learning german with it makes it a bit easier for me to understand. some of the other germans cant understand it...
and now after a few hours of clouds the sun just came back out. how nice.